(Dark)Horse Horsepower is lower than we thought?

[Upacurb]

FYI in the performance section - they removed carbon traps and looks like resulted in a gain .....

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[Zig]

All that really matters to me is what my butt tells me. Driving a BMW is fun but driving a manual Mustang with active exhaust is an experience. For me horse power is not best expressed as a number it’s a feeling / emotion and the Mustang captures that best.

Playboy (old school version back when wrapped in plastic and behind the counter - when kids could by a pack of smokes because the parent sent them to the store) by braille

 

[Revan9]

In the US it's common to advertise the power produced by the engine. I never knew that European cars are rated at the wheels, make sense because I often hear BMW under rates HP numbers.

 

[S650 GT]

In the US it's common to advertise the power produced by the engine. I never knew that European cars are rated at the wheels, make sense because I often hear BMW under rates HP numbers.

All cars are rated BHP on paper. But when putting European cars on the dyno, they make the paper HP to the wheels.

 

[Dena]

All that really matters to me is what my butt tells me. Driving a BMW is fun but driving a manual Mustang with active exhaust is an experience. For me horse power is not best expressed as a number it’s a feeling / emotion and the Mustang captures that best.

This post reminds me of the story about the buried Dino. If you want to skip over how the car was found, move to about 18 minutes in. Remember the Dino was only about 200 horse power but it could still deliver a driving experience.
Buried Dino

 

[Zig]

All cars are rated BHP on paper. But when putting European cars on the dyno, they make the paper HP to the wheels.

Although 0hp at 3.5k in neutral

 

[MidwayJ]

That's still 60HP less than the paper-HP.
Take an RS3, M2, A45 AMG, Golf R on the dyno and they make what the paper-HP says.

This is news to me. I've been aware that BMW underrates the horsepower of its engines, but I was not aware that all of these manufacturers underrate their engine hp numbers precisely to measured whp. I know you posted links of some instances where this was supposedly the case, but it's a little difficult to believe.

In any case, the American cars (and presumably the Japanese and Korean) have historically advertised crank hp, so there are no tricks going on here. Enthusiasts know this, and they put their cars on dynos to measure whp.

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