This story first appeared in the US in the September/October 2024 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. It explores the developmental timeline of horsepower in the automotive industry. We kicked things off with the engine’s early development, from 1776–1900, here. Time marched on, and so did our coverage, through the early 20th century, the 1920s–40s, the 1950s, the 1960s through ’80s, and then the 1980s and ’90s. This is our final installment highlighting all the major evolutionary milestones in horsepower. Enjoy! –Ed.
How much horsepower does it make? The question is, in many practical respects, pointless. Pretty much every vehicle on the road has enough power to do what it needs to do, and then some. Yet for enthusiasts, it’s critical, part of a secret handshake that tells us not only what someone’s driving, but whether they know and appreciate what they’re driving.
The horsepower your car produces is the product of some 250 years of continuous improvement, serendipitous discoveries, and daring feats – most of it revolving around a type of air pump we call the internal combustion engine.
As we write this, the future of the engine, the beating heart of the automobile, is somewhat in doubt. There’s no question, though, that our horsepower quest will continue. We will keep tweaking, and the numbers will keep growing. But it’s worth pausing, if only for a moment, to reflect on just how far we’ve come.
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2003: The first dual-clutch automatic transmission arrives in VW’s Golf R32. It’s able to shift quicker than conventional automatics (not to mention human beings) and thus better able to keep an engine (in this case, a 237bhp V6) at its ideal operating speed.
2005: The Bugatti W16 Veyron. Roughly 450 of these bolides are built and sold with prices well north of $1 million. The Veyron’s quad-turbo 8.0-litre, 16-cylinder powerplant is essentially two overhead-cam V8s creatively joined together. The initial 987bhp output is eventually raised to 1825 horsepower.
2006: Ford fires the first shot in a new horsepower war with the Shelby GT500, whose 5.4-litre V8 is supercharged to the tune of 500 horsepower. General Motors and Chrysler soon develop their own supercharged V8s, resulting in everything from 638bhp Corvettes to 710bhp Dodge Durangos.
2021: Tesla shattered the 1000bhp barrier with its Model S Plaid edition, rated at 1020 horsepower. Since then, more than 20 builders have offered cars with four-figure output ratings, ranging from the Dodge Demon 170 to the aptly named 3000bhp, 310mph, $14.4 million Spyros Panopoulos Chaos. Both Chrysler and GM began offering 1000bhp V8s over the counter as crate engines.
2024: We are unquestionably living in a golden age of horsepower: 1234bhp sedans (the Lucid Air Sapphire); 315bhp compacts (the Honda Civic Type R); 720bhp pickups (the Ford F-150 Raptor R).
