This weeks blog comes to us from Motor trend's Angus Macenzie..The point that jumped out at me was that his inspiration was brought about by a drive in a Jaguar. read on:
Like most of you, I never met a horsepower I didn't like. And when a quick look at our road-test database reveals more than a fifth of all the 2010 and 2011 cars, trucks, and SUV's we have track tested over the past year or so-52 of 236 vehicles-boasted engines with 400 horses or more, it's hard not to come to the conclusion we enthusiasts are living-and driving-through a golden age.
Just 10 years ago, the total number of 400-plus-horsepower cars we tested could be counted on the finger of one hand: Lamborghini Diablo, Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, Dodge Viper and Ferrari 360 Modena. Today, Ford money will damn near buy you what was Ferrari power-and performance-a decade ago. The hugely impressive 412-horsepower Mustang GT featured in our provocative cover story is just four tenths of second slower to 60 mph and three tenths slower over the quarter mile than the 400-horse 360 Modena we tested for our January 2000 issue.
Skeptics say the golden age can't last. They say tough new fuel-economy regulations emerging around the world mean the end of the road for pwerful, large-capacity engines in mainstream automobiles. They say that within 10 years the thumping V-8's and howling V-12s currently on the front line of the horsepower arms race will be restricted to exotic sports or pricey performance sedans and coupes that sell in truly tiny numbers. The rest of us will be drving small sixes and fours.
The skeptics are right about the downsizing thing, because it's already happening. Ford's confirmation that the 2011 Explorere will be available with a turbocharged, 2.0-liter four cylinder engine is a shocking twist for and SUV nameplate that once swarmed suburbia with a gruff, old 4.0-liter V-6 under the hood. But the heresy doesn't stop there: Ford also says the four-cylinder engine will effectively replace the 4.6-liter v-8 offered in the current model as the new Explorer's premium powertrain because it will cost more the the base 3.5-liter Duratec V-6.
But the skeptics are wrong to suggest samller engines will automatically mean less fun.
You see, I've just driven a car than's made me wonder whether I'd ever want a V-8 again.
A 3.0-liter V-6 producing just 271 horsepower at 4000 rpm doesn't sound that exciting. Through 90 horses per liter is still a fairly respectable specific output number, you can get close to that sort of grunt (albeit from bigger engines) in Honda or Hyundai these days. Yet the 271-horsepower V-6 under the hood of the handsome black-on-black Jaguar XJ Portfolio I drove for 10 days through England and Wales is all the engine this elegant luxury sedan needs, more than capable of making the most of the new XJ's alert, limber chassis, near-telepathic steering, and superb brakes. - How you ask? - 442 pound-feet of torque at just 2000 rpm that's how. Thanks to well-chosen, carefully spaced gear ratios, the XJ's six-speed automatic transmission artfully turns that torque mountain into rapid forward motion.
Jaguar's twin-turbo VJ-V6D Gen III engine is a diesel, which explains why it's such a torque monster. But turbocharging also delivers useful increases in the quality and quantity of torque produced by gasoline engines. Over the past couple years, I've come to appreciate cars with engines whose torques numbers match-or exceed-their power outputs and are hooked up to an intelligently calibrated transmission: On crowded real-world roads, in everyday driving conditions, they have generally proven quick and entertaining to drive. Some examples? The Mk VI Golf and the bmw 335is, which pack 200 horsepower and 207 pound-feet, and 320 horses, and 332 pound-feet, respectively, plus the forthcoming Buick Regal Turbo (220 and 258) and the Mitsubishi Lance Ralliart (237 and 253)
I still love the basso rumble and relentless thrust of a big-horsepower V-8, and taking and Italian V-12 past 7000 rpm remains a near religious experience. But governments forcing automakers to renew their focus on gas mileage isn't necessarily the end of the world for enthusiast drivers, because this emerging generation of sooth, punch, and fuel-efficient 21st-century turbos proves torque is the new horsepower.
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