Giddiyup Horsey!!

Morning Drivers,


Can you imagine what a carriage would look like with 150 horses tied to the front? Would 150 horses tied to the front make it 150 times faster than one horse? What is horsepower anyway?

The development of the steam engine brought about the need to measure power. Wikipedia lists multiple ways of measuring horsepower but several sources credit James Watt with coining and popularizing the term. Mr. Watt had a new and improved steam engine to market. As part of his marketing strategy he agreed to take the royalties from 1/3 of savings in coal from the older engines. The problem was how to market his new steam engine to people still using horses. Mr. Watt found that on average a mine pony could do 22,000 pounds/foot of work in a minute. Judging that horses could work 50% harder than ponies he pegged the measurement of horsepower at 33,000 pounds/foot. There is debate as to whether this is an accurate measurement but regardless of whether a horse could maintain that power for an extended period of time the measurement has more or less stuck and now appears on your car.

Horsepower is the relation between power and the weight of your vehicle. So a heavy vehicle will require a lot more power to have equivalent horsepower of a lighter weight vehicle.

Along with torque, horsepower provides acceleration, the power to tow vehicles, extra power for inclined surfaces and sufficient acceleration for passing vehicles.

Some of the “costs” of horsepower you ask? Higher horsepower means higher fuel consumption and more fuel consumption means higher greenhouse gas emissions.

If you want a peppy car but fuel efficient car, you want to look for something with high torque and a good power to weight ratio. A real life example of this would be my VW Rabbit. It is a lot of fun to drive and its 170 horsepower is a lot of guts contained in a little hatchback. It’s a solid car – there’s nothing tinny about this entry level car. However, while not a gas guzzler, it’s also not the most fuel efficient car for commuting. Now try a Toyota Yaris, an excellent little car. It too can be peppy with its 106 horsepower, personally I would recommend the manual transmission to get the most pep from your Yaris. The Yaris is no match for my Rabbit in power, but it manages to provide some pep by being ultra-light weight in comparison. Both are great cars, but when it comes to horsepower they offer different benefits. The Rabbit offers performance and the Yaris offers amazing fuel efficiency.

If you’re trying to outrun this weekend’s zombies you might want to give more weight to performance!

Happy driving!

PS - for some super detail on the various horsepower measurements check out Wikipedia