More Power To 'Ya....

I saw a commercial on TV for some new Lexus the other night, and they touted that it has 438 HORSEPOWER under the hood. Now that got me thinking.....WTF do I need with all that horsepower anyway? Am I planning to enter some 24 hour endurance race? Am I thinking of signing up for the next Cannonball Run? So why, EXACTLY would I "need" all that power at my disposal?

Granted, all that HP is going to empty your hip-national-bank REAL fast....most ANY car will these days (by the sticker price alone), but I'm noticing a nasty trend; automakers must want a LOT of us to die in car collisions. Let's face it...when that much power is at the disposal of a person that doesn't know how to handle it, let alone practice good driving skills, the recipe can only be one of disaster. And we are seeing more accidents involving people with vehicles having a horsepower rating exceeding 200 BHP. I suppose one "could" say that it's one way to control population growth.

Cars today weigh less than their counterparts of decades past, and the total power-to-weight ratio is what's causing a lot of the problems. Now that's NOT to say that a HEAVIER car is warranted, because we ALL know that fuel economy would go in the crapper real quick. We NEED vehicles that get RESPECTABLE mileage. So we make them lighter. But just as these vehicles become lighter, the automakers should not be trying to add more power to them. I don't really NEED to go from 0-60 MPH in four, or even six seconds....not when I only have to stop at the NEXT light and do it all over again. My little 2.8 liter normally-aspirated (carburated) Firebird does the 0-60 gig in TEN seconds (and I've been OK with that for the past TWENTY-FOUR years), my wife's Caprice does it in about EIGHT, with a 4.3 liter fuel-injected powerplant, and I'm even OK with that. I might not ever win any race "off the line", but I'm still getting to that next stoplight right along with the the guy who "jack-rabbited" his way from 0-60 in 4 seconds in that new Lexus...only I'm burning a lot less fuel in the process.

The worst aspect to all this horspower is the fact that all this raw power comes with the same price as a heavy car does; fuel economy. Doesn't matter how light the car is, it's the power that will drop that fuel gauge JUST as fast. I've never met anyone who had a huge engine that dumped several hundred horses onto the highway that couldn't pass everything...BUT a gas station! Now if you could produce an engine that gets 50 MPG AND is rated at 350 BHP...now THAT would be something to ooh and ahh about. But I'm just not seeing that happen. It all still comes back to my first question: What do *I* need all that horsepower for?

My father used to say that "When you're in traffic, you can only go AS FAST as the guy in front of you". And that's just so damn true. Four hundred horsepower won't make the guy in front move ANY faster now, will it? And all 400 of those horses just will NEVER outrun a police radio, will they?

Time was, when you wanted to go faster, YOU WORKED on the car to get it where you wanted it to be in the realm of performance and speed, and you KNEW it would cost at the parts store as well as at the gas pumps. Now the automakers have taken that part of the equation out (for us). They think you NEED all that power, when in fact it's another ploy. They could make smaller engines, more efficient with better mileage than some 400+ horsepower behemoth under your hood, but why bother? That wouldn't sell cars, because people today are too lazy to WORK on their machines to set them up with more power. They love to be "spoon-fed", as it were. That's why we see so many "high-performance" shops today. It's all for the lazy guy and not for the gearheads in the group. Then again, why even bother to pay someone to swap out the E-PROM in your car's computer for the sake of a few more horses when you could do THAT yourself?
And honestly, not everyone is cut out to wield that kind of power (with the obvious responsibility it entails), although some falsely believe thay can (and do with the predictable results).
We don't need as many mechanics as we need computer geeks under the hood these days, thanks to the automakers. Of course any decent EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) would turn all our new computer-controlled cars to fancy lawn furniture real fast...four-hundred horses...with no "giddy-yap". Imagine that.

As for me...if I ever WANT 400+ horsepower, I'll stop DRIVING...and start FLYING!