| Engine Size and HP, Where Are They Going?
I was just looking through the various threads here and thinking about where are engine types and hp ratings going to go or end?
Take BMW for instance: the M3 that a drooled over as a kid had a 4-cylinder, now we await a V8 powered M3 later this year, with like twice the hp of the original.
Look at Mercedes-Benz: Once upon a time you had to buy the S/CL/SL to get the top of the line V8, but now the "big" V8 (5L or more) can be had in all their model lines. During the production run of my CLK430, the 5L V8 was reserved for the S/CL/SL, but no more.
Audi just went from turbo V6s to V8s to V10 for the S/RS cars in less than a decade also.
What is really startling is how hp doubles and how previous performance benchmarks are passed so easily. Just a few years ago a E55 (W210) had 354hp and that was considered a powerful as hell, but now the regular production E550 has more hp at 382hp. This new 5.5L V8 makes nearly as much hp and torque as the V12 in the W140 600SEL! The BMW M5 went from a I6 with around 310hp to a V10 with 500hp. The CLK63 has more hp than last year's supercharged E55!
Where do you think this will end? I mean is the entry level hi-po class going to have V10s in 7-8 years and the middle classes have V12s?
Chevy is talking about getting 700hp, naturally aspirated out of the next Corvette?
We already have one 1000hp car for sale, are there going to be others?
Mercedes makes so many 500hp cars its almost hard to keep track of them all!
We routinely call Jaguars, Maseratis and Aston-Martins "weak" because none of them meet the German-set 500hp standard! Is that jaded or what!!! Will Audi raise the bar with their upcoming RS6? Will it be that 600hp is now required for the M5/E63/RS6 class?
Your thoughts on this please, where is all of this going?
M |