^^^ You just brought gearing into the equation. :W
With everything else being equal, 800# of torque will out pull 500# of torque every single time.
Cummins used to offer the ISB rated at 300HP/600Torque. They also offered the ISC rated at 300HP/950Torque. Which do you think pulled harder?
You example is also somewhat skewed as your gas example is 304HP, your diesel example is 243HP.
I've owned small blocks, big blocks, boosted gas, N/A diesels and boosted diesels, gas farm tractors and diesel farm tractors, 2 stroke and 4 stroke snowmobiles. For my money, torque is the first number I consider.
True story;
My last snowmobile was a 1200cc 4 stroke rated at 130HP. My buddy had a 800cc 2 stroke rated at 155HP. Every time we lined them up the 130HP 4 stroke would win the 0-90 run, the 155HP 2 stroke would win the all out top speed run. Why? The 1200 made more torque up to 6,800 RPM than the 800. Sure enough, all out HP won the final race, but more torque was quicker - until it ran out of HP.
