Editorial: What's With The Horsepower Wars?

With each and every passing generation of the automobile, one thing (pretty much) remains constant: "More is more." It seems to be what we all want, and so that's what we get.  More size, more weight, more features, more safety equipment, and more power.  More more more, each and every time.  Today's Civic looks gigantic compared to the original Accord - and the Accord these days is about as big as an Impala, which is disgusting.

Cars these days are huge, and for the most part have way too much power.  They're losing the plot and losing the point, losing focus and losing touch.  Sure, there's more, and sometimes more's better.  Like when there's not enough to begin with.  But the American mentality of "more is better" is coming back to bite us directly in the ass, with seemingly half of America upside down on the loan on their Tahoe as it became worth nothing overnight.

People have been mistaking numbers for performance for too long.  They've been mistaking lateral acceleration G's for driving pleasure, they've been buying the biggest engine a car comes with, not the best.  Of course you need a V6 in your Camry to go to work (268 horsepower now; more than a '99-'04 Mustang GT!).  Of course you should get the optional 7.3L turbodiesel in the Excursion you're going to drive to and from the grocery store.  You get the point.

It's really getting absurd, though.  Mercedes-Benz will sell you an SL with 661 horsepower, traction control, a warranty, and probably a card that says "Good luck, sucker."  Hell, somewhere in the mid-forties (USD) will get you a factory-warrantied Mustang with 540 horsepower.  That seems excessive.

But here's the catch - frequently these new, more powerful engines aren't progress at all when you look at it from an overall perspective.  For instance, compare the Shelby GT500 Mustang to the old '03-'04 SVT Cobras.  The old Cobras had independent rear suspension, an all-aluminum supercharged 4.6L 32v V8, a 6 speed manual, and 390 horsepower.  The current GT500 has an iron-block 5.4L truck engine with fancy aluminum heads, a supercharger, 32 valves, and 540 horsepower.  More is more, right?  Well, not really: the GT500 isn't appreciably faster than the lighter, simpler Cobras.  They do handle like crap, thanks to the extreme front-heavy weight bias from the iron block V8, though.  Oh, and they have a tractor-style beam axle in the back.  More power, sure.  Better?  Well, not really.

The old Cobras could handle, they rode relatively well, they were somewhat sophisticated.  The new ones are a step back.  But more significantly, they're a step TOWARDS the whole slack-jawed knuckle-dragger musclehead image, which is just sad.

What people don't realize (or seem to realize) is that they want more and less.  Cars are rolling mechanical equations.  You have a certain amount of power, transmitted through certain gearing, propelling a certain amount of mass.  Thus there are three ways to make a car faster.  More power means each pound has more pulling it.  Shorter gearing multiplies this power by a higher factor.  And less weight means each horsepower has less to pull.

Now, shorter gearing is a pain.  No one wants an engine turning 5,000rpms in top gear at 80mph, do they?  So gearing is pretty fixed.  Then you're left with power and weight.  Or to be more specific, the power to weight ratio.  You can see where this is going.  Less weight basically means more power.

This is why a Lotus Exige S, with a puny supercharged 1.8L four cylinder, can keep up with an LS3 Corvette (all 6.2L of it) without any trouble.

Plus, it's easily argued that reducing weight is superior to increasing power based on what else it affects.  Less weight puts less load on the tires during forward and lateral acceleration, which means you can get more grip with less rubber - the Exige S's tires are 195 and 225 width front and rear, respectively, but the car can still pull more than 1.0G of lateral acceleration.  Less weight also puts less strain on the brakes, meaning on the track you get stronger braking and reduced fade and wear with reduced mass.  A lighter car wears out almost all stressed components slower - bushings, friction surfaces, etc.

It's not all numbers and math, though.  A lighter car is more responsive and communicative, which really is what the joy of driving is all about.  This is why a Mk1 Golf GTi is a hoot even though it's got 90 horsepower, whereas a Supercharged Riviera (all 240bhp of it) is utterly awful to drive.

So let's get off our horsepower high horses and quit missing the forest for the trees.  Driving pleasure is about more than "what's under the hood."  Don't forget that!

-James