I forgot to add that it has to do with the transmission ratios. On a car with less cylinders, there's less overall torque distribution to the transmission, so you need a smaller gear ratio in the first few gears for acceleration. THere might be more torque and horsepower in numbers but the actual distribution is less than of a V12. That's why with a V8 or something, you feel the jerk then a slow-down at high RPMs because the smaller the gear ratio, the easier it is to gain speed but with a lower top speed. But V8s may have a top speed as high as a V12. That's because as the gears go higher, the ratio increases because there's enough speed to the car and the gears to gradually bring the car up to its top speed. the first few gears are basically a primer to get the car accelerated. Think with a bicycle. you have it in the lowest gear possible, and you pedal as hard as you can. You accelerate so fast that you can literally pop a wheelie. Now, think about it when you have your bike in a higher gear, it's harder to pedal but you have a higher overall top speed. The V12 is like adding your power output to the higher gears but multipying it by a few. So instead of starting on gear 1-7 on a bicycle to get you up to gears 14-higher, you can be in gears 14 and higher but without sacrificing acceleration in a V12 (based on a 27-speed bike) .Also, the difference with a V8 is, think of the low gears again, and then as you increase gears on the bike, the higher gears are easier to bring your bicycle to top speed. With V12, there's enough cylinder power and torque that you can have a higher gear ratio with out sacrificing acceleration because you ahve extra cylinders.