Depends on just how much torque you've got really, doesn't it?
Like I said, if you've *that* much torque, you'll be making up for any losses from changing up earlier, by way of having that much more stomp in the upper gears as you shift up the box.
Going back to something I said before (but which a certain person didn't appear to pick up on), is a hot hatch vs a cooking version of a car with the same engine (they do exist).
The hot hatch will normally have a closer ratio box, meaning you have to change up more often than in the cooking version when nailing it off the mark... and yet the hot hatch will invariably be slightly quicker off the mark.
Why?
Because you might be changing up more, but you're using the available power to pull through the gears quicker.
My Passat was a perfect example of how a diesel can turn things around in its favour when it comes to sprinting off the mark and gear changes.
It had 173bhp and 273 lb/ft of torque.
On a couple of occasions I had other stuff launch slightly quicker off the lights, and they would get the initial jump on it... but once I was out of first and into second and then third, it more than made up for the initial lull and reeled them in / went past them.
This is what is seen in the Clio vs Cupra TDI video further up the thread.
The
Ibiza is better than the Passat in this respect bar, as I've mentioned elsewhere, it tends to defeat the traction control a lot easier in first, and so you get more spinnage unless you're a bit more delicate with the clutch / throttle.
Higher speed 'roll on' sprints, both the Passat and the
Ibiza have held their own, but yet again the Passat proved the importance of gearing (and aerodynamics tbh), because it pulled through in top at silly speeds better than the
Ibiza does, despite being a bigger, heavier car, mostly thanks to the much longer top gear the
Ibiza has.