Car of the Day

There was a time that 400hp was reserved for the Ferraris and Lamborghini’s of the world.  However, today there a number of 400hp cars on the market today. It wasn’t that long ago that the almighty Dodge Viper and Corvette Z06 were just tripping the 400hp barrier.

Now you can by a Pontiac GTO, C6 base Corvette, Nissan GT-R, Chrsysler 300 SRT8, Dodge Charger SRT8, Dodge Magnum SRT8, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, Frog Mustang GT500, Cadillac CTS-V, BMW M cars, Mercedes AMG cars, the Audi RS’s and there’s even a Chevy Trailblazer SS that you can get with a Corvette sourced LS2 pumping out 400hp. 

If you want some horsepower there is plenty out there to be had.  The V6 Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys are more powerful than the BMW M3 from a decade ago. 

If you know your muscle car history, then you know that our last golden age of muscle cars was killed off by high gas prices.  I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent pain at the pumps.  Could the second golden age be coming to an end?  I sure hope not. 

The hope that is out there is in cars like the VW GTI, Honda Civic Si, Mazdaspeed3, Cobalt SS, the STI and the Evolutions that are out there.  There are people getting more and more power out of smaller engines.  They say there is no replacement for displacement and that is true for the drag strip.  However, there may be a pretty good compromise in a time of peaking gas prices.

There is one other promise out there and believe it or not it lies in the Toyota Prius and cars of a similar design.  How do you make an engine more powerful? Turbo? Supercharger?  NOS? Some kind of power adder, right?  What if a hybrid vehicle used its electric motor for a performance boost instead of just for economy.  Imagine what a rush you would feel with a 100hp electric motor ready to kick in when you wanted it.   There is hope for speed freaks out there.