In the late ’80’s I worked for a computer manufacturer, which one afternoon happened to put me in a State Farm regional office. There was an older guy there and I asked him what he thought about the new high-horsepower cars like the Buick Regal Grand National. He had nothing good to say whatsoever. Simply couldn’t understand why anyone wanted 245hp!
I’m sure that all of these years later this guy has gone to the big State Farm office in the sky, God bless him. Heck, I’m now older than he was then! Maybe it’s a good thing he’s not around to see the proliferation of 400 – 800hp cars that can be had by ticking the right boxes on the order sheet. Were he still around, at 95 or so, the mere availability of these monster engines might be enough to put that second foot in the grave, so to speak.
Consider these values:
- Ford Mustang GT—450 HP
- Chevy Camaro LT1—455 HP
- Mustang Mach 1—470 HP
- Dodge Scat Pack Challenger—485 HP
- Chevy Corvette Stingray—495 HP
- Chevy Camaro ZL1—650 HP
- Chevy Corvette Z06—670 HP
- Dodge SRT Hellcat Challenger—717 HP
- Ford Shelby GT500—760 HP
- Dodge SRT Hellcat Redeye—797 HP
(Source: Motor Trend)
A mere thirty years ago we were reveling in the availability of engines like the 300hp Chevy LT1, with it’s muscle-car-like 10.4:1 compression ratio.
Today, if you bragged about your 245hp mill to other car guys they’d probably give you the “what’s wrong with you?” look, or worse. I distinctly remember looking at a 1992 white LT1 Corvette in a magazine ad and thinking “300 horsepower! Holy crap!”
In fact, this is the very ad I gazed at back in 1992, marveling about the 300 horses.
For some reason I still get a bit tingly looking at this thing. Strange.
Should you care to take an in-depth look at horsepower and torque, check out Understanding Horsepower and Torque.
