When I was a child, the cars that we used had 20 or 30hp. I remember my dad visited a car show room and the salesman took us on a test drive. He was amazed that the 6 cyl Vauxhall car had 57hp, my dad said that he didn't need so many horses. The Quick thinking salesman rebutted that you should have the same number of hp as you age. I'm now 150 years old!
Enough horses?
Feb 26, 2011
67 Replies
Sounds about right if you remember a 6 cylinder Vauxhall with 57 bhp.
But luckily I'm still driving on the road ;)
What did you buy? Another SAAB LPT?
Charles
Nope, the ol' one still drives beautifully
The car was a Vauxhall Velox LIP, 2275cc 54hp actually? But it was already secondhand and a bit dodgy with rust, so my dad didn't buy it.
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"johannes" wrote
Sounds like a long time ago ...my first car left the factory 42 years ago. It had the same power to weight ratio as the one I currently own.
johannes gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Umm, is that total?
If it's per-vehicle, then I vary between 9 months & 175yrs.
If it's total, then I've shed 28yrs since this am, so I'm a little further away from the half-a-millenium mark that I'd almost hit.
If it's total, but including spare engines, then I'm north of 600.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember johannes saying something like:
The Velox PA was the only car on which I've grabbed a tailfin and detached it entirely, due to the rust in it.
Had a Fiat 124 Sports Coupe once. It just sort of fell apart ...
>
Heh, I had a Fiat132 Twin Cam. Really fun RWD car equipped with TRX wheels and tyres. Rust appeared after 6 months, repaired under warranty, but to little avail. After 3 years it had fresh air ventilation through drivers front door.
He had never driven on a M-way or modern DC. He came from a time when you worked in the town you lived in.
How many horses you have determines the top speed you get. The horses get eaten by drag, aerodynamic, transmission and rolling resistance being the main culprits. As modern cars have got bigger in width, mainly driven by need to take side impact tests, the CdA has stayed pretty much constant. It's proving very hard to produce new cars with better CdA than the first and 2nd generation of wind tunnel designed cars from the 80's. Transmission loses haven't changed much in the last 50-60 years. The biggest single change in rolling resistance was the introduction of radial tyres. Higher weights are increasing the rolling resistance loses, hence the need for low resistance tyres just to stay in the same place.
Power / weight ratio determines how quickly you get to that speed. As cars have got heavier to meet ever harder safety tests they need more power to have the same acceleration performance.
Many modern cars on the road would lose to a 46bhp V twin 1930 Aero Morgan three wheeler. 110bhp/Ton.
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BMW 320D only has 101bhp/Ton.http://www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=229097Except due to high drag and low power the Morgan tops out at 75mphwhile the BMW is good for 139mph. All the efficiency developments of the last 3 decades have been sacrificed on the altars of safety and emissions. It's these 2 that we have to thank for our having engines that are comparable to 1950's F1 engines but with 250,000 miles lives instead of 250mile.
That's because there were no motorways or 'modern' DCs when that Vauxhall was current. Most cars of that era had very low gearing to give good hill climbing without having to change gear. And couldn't sustain even their low maximum speed or close to it without damage.
& had about as much cabin space as a modern Fiesta:-)
I'd hope not. The modern Fiesta is a cramped place to be - especially when you consider that it's bigger than the Escort used to be.
you could get 6 easily in my zephyr, and many more if they were friendly, you would struggle to get six in a modern large saloon, even 5 is uncomfortable in most.
Go back in history of the car far enough and the HP rating was as near as dammit nothing to do with the real world HP.
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RAC h.p. = {D^2 * n}/2.5
where
D is the diameter (or bore) of the cylinder in inches n is the number of cylinders
which held back engine design for a good long time
Like the Morris Oxford - still made in India? Plenty room for 6 adults?
Well yes, but you wouldn't have complained about power from a 57HP car in those days.
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