The subject of torque kept coming up again and again at Sun N Fun.
There is a lot of misunderstanding out there on this subject.

AIRPLANES FLY ON HP AND NOT TORQUE!

Torque by it self means nothing.

HP is torque times RPM.

Torque at low engine RPM is useless in an aircraft engine
with a fixed pitch prop.

What counts is the torque at the maximum engine RPM when
the prop tips are near supersonic. When that happens there
is no way the engine is going to rev any faster.
That is the point where you want maximum torque.

What happens is the engine will continue to gain HP
due to RPM alone even after the torque starts to fall off.
If you are able to move the torque peak up the engine will
generate more HP. The maximum torque of any given engine is a constant.
All you can do by intake tuning is move the torque peak up and down
the rev range. If the intake is not tuned the torque
will be less and may be a flatter curve than if the
intake system is tuned.

You can always generate more HP in a rotary by
increasing the gear ratio, raising the max engine RPM  and reducing
the aerodynamic losses in the intake and exhaust system.

Putting it another way aero drag times speed equals HP.
Newton stated that for every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction. At the top speed of an airplane drag
equals thrust so thrust times speed is also HP.

Here is another given. The BSFC of any engine is always
a minimum at the RPM of maximum torque.

What you want in a Mazda powered AC with a fixed pitch prop
is max HP at 7500 RPM and max torque at 5500 or there abouts.
That gives the best BSFC for cruise.

BSFC for the new people is the pounds of fuel the engine
burns each hour for each HP the engine is generated.