ahahah, yeah, we know this is not the car for torque, I guess he was just wondering how to get a little more though. i dunno, i love the car the way it is...

 

If you do the math, you'll realize that the torque multiplication of the gearing helps out a lot. A Camaro SS has a first gear ratio of 2.66:1 and a final drive ratio of 3.42:1 for an overall ratio of 9.1:1. The S has a 3.133:1 1st gear and an overall final drive ration of 4.756 (don't forget about that 1.16:1 primary reduction in the transmission) for an overall ratio of 14.9:1. Multiply the max. torque figures and you get 3184 lbs.-ft. for the SS and 2280 lbs.-ft. for the S or about 71% that of the SS. Not bad for a little 4 cylinder, eh?

Yes, the torque curve certainly takes a jump at 6k RPM but the curve is rather flat so it's not like there's no twist at the low end (I'd have to get numbers for lower RPM to compare but it's not likely the SS has a huge bump at low RPM). I could always use more torque but I can easily use what's already there to best advantage since the gearing is so advantageous. We get to shift at 9k while the SS has to use much higher gearing to use its 6-ish k RPMs to best advantage...