Horsepower is horsepower?

Hybridhunter wrote:

Horsepower is horsepower, peak numbers only tell a fraction of the story.

Agreed. I wish peak numbers could be eliminated altogether because they serve more to confuse than to clarify. A lot of folks seem to believe because their truck peaks at 400HP @ 5000 RPM, that somehow they're getting 400HP while cruising down the highway in top gear. That 5000 RPM is listed there for a reason, yet most just ignore it.

wilber1 wrote:
The fact remains, it is the engine that can get the most power to the ground over the widest speed range that will always win, not the engine that can make the most peak power. In this repect a boosted engine has an advantage over an unboosted engine and an engine with more gears to work with has an advantage over one with fewer.

Absolutely correct. Unfortunately, peak numbers are the ones that get published front-and-center. It's usually easy enough to find the HP curves, too, but most people don't seem to know how to interpret them. A single number, on the other hand, is easily comprehensible to everyone. Too bad it doesn't mean what most think it means.

-- Rob