In reality its probably a combination of the two - something like the Duckworth-lewis formula in one-day cricket. The loss through the drive-train obviously varies between different car makes - where you compare a commodor to a skyline & indeed a gtr compared to a GTS - with different drivetrains. Also, any modifications will assist as well in raising the ratio - a nice well layout machine with big exhaust will loose less through the drive train than another. And on that topic, a newer car will probably be more efficient than an older car (as bits gradually decline & increased resistance - especially if not well oiled & maintained etc.
So you can probably have some sort of guess but for any given car it will be a fixed loss through the drive-train + an adjustment factor ie say 30kw for the drivetrain but also say multiply it by 1.12 after that. Obviously if you've got a part in your drive-train that is a little inefficient then the more it turns, pulls, etc then more it will more power away.
Anyhow it sounds reasonable to me - but feel free to tell me im wrong
Cheers,
Penfold