{"id":2891,"date":"2016-07-27T18:34:47","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T18:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leithcars.com\/blogs\/1421\/?p=2891"},"modified":"2016-07-27T18:34:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T18:34:47","slug":"does-horsepower-matter-lets-take-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/?p=2891","title":{"rendered":"How Much Does Horsepower Matter? Let’s Take a look"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Does<\/p>\n

This may be sacrilege, but we\u2019re just going to come out and say it. Horsepower is not that important. It\u2019s essential, but it isn\u2019t the end-all-be-all of car performance. It\u2019s part of the whole \u2013 like a sprinter\u2019s right leg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We’re writing this\u00a0because of an article in The Verge<\/a> that pointed out the \u201chorsepower wars\u201d among car manufacturers. We hadn\u2019t really considered this, but it\u2019s true that some people tend to base their perception of a car\u2019s performance on that one number \u2013 which makes about as much sense as saying someone is a good runner because they can squat lots of weight.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put it into perspective<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take, for instance, the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata. This lightweight beast goes from 0-60 in 5.8 seconds using a 2.0L four-cylinder that produces 155-horsepower. The 2016 Golf GTI goes from 0-60 in 5.8 seconds as well, but its 2.0L turbo four-cylinder is packing 220-horsepower. That\u2019s a difference of 65-horsepower between the two, but the GTI isn\u2019t any faster. It even tops out at 5 mph slower than the Miata.<\/p>\n

\"Does<\/p>\n

The difference here is the weight. The Mazda Miata weighs just 2,309lb, while the Golf GTI weighs 3236lb. Those 900 extra pounds really do a number on the GTI.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s really just the tip of the iceberg. The 2016 Ford Mustang\u2019s 2.3-liter EcoBoost turbo four-cylinder makes 310-horsepower, but 0-60 in the Mustang \u2013 a car that has exactly twice the amount of horsepower as the Mazda Miata \u2013 is only 5.6 seconds.<\/a> That\u2019s just two-tenths of a second faster than both the GTI and the Mazda.<\/p>\n

And just to be clear, both the GTI and the Mazda would leave the 2.3-liter Mustang in the dust on a racetrack. They\u2019re much better in the corners.<\/p>\n

How about supercars?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently, the world\u2019s fastest (in terms of top speed) supercar is the Hennessy Venom GT. It\u2019s 1,244-horsepower 7.0L Corvette engine and two turbochargers push it to the world-record speed of 270.49 mph.<\/p>\n

\"Does<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the 1500-horsepower Bugatti Chiron\u2019s top speed is 261 mph. It\u2019s much more powerful, yet 10 mph slower. So what does horsepower mean? Not all that much, apparently.<\/p>\n

The bigger picture<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why should you care? Because if you\u2019re ever going to buy a car for performance, we want you to make the right decision. Sure, performance combination of all the elements: weight, horsepower, torque, technology, aerodynamics, and so on, but what really matters is how a car feels <\/em>to drive \u2013 not what the spec sheet says. Get in it, drive it, see how fast it\u2019ll accelerate from 0 to 60 mph. Make sure it\u2019s a car that you can have fun in. That\u2019s what really matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This may be sacrilege, but we\u2019re just going to come out and say it. Horsepower is not that important. It\u2019s essential, but it isn\u2019t the end-all-be-all of car performance. It\u2019s part of the whole \u2013 like a sprinter\u2019s right leg.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[202],"class_list":["post-2891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leithcars.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}