What has 160 million horsepower? (Hint, it’s not the Melbourne Cup field)

A short history of horsepower: from its origins in steam, to the original Benz Patentwagen and on to an astonishing feat of engineering.

When the horses set off in today’s Melbourne Cup on their 3200m run to glory, you’d be forgiven for thinking the power output of the entire field of 24 participating horses is 24 horsepower. But you’d be wrong.

Each horse is capable of, according to science, pumping out a maximum of 14.9 horsepower over a short period of time.

So, when Scottish engineer and inventor James Watt first coined the term ‘horsepower’ in order to compare the power of his newfangled steam engines to that of a horse, he calculated that one horsepower should be equal to the output a horse can sustain over a long period of time, such as a working day.

Incidentally, James Watt is also responsible for that other measurement of power, commonplace today in Australia, the Kilowatt (kW). By the way, one horsepower is equivalent to 0.7355kW.

James Watt plays around with steam and invents horsepower and kilowatts at the same time!

Still, there’s a romance associated with the term ‘horsepower’, a romance that takes us back to simpler times when horses ruled personal mobility and cars were but an idea.

Perhaps that’s why when those carmakers were looking for ways to market and sell their noisy and new contraptions, they hit upon the idea of comparing the engine’s output to that of something understood by pretty much everyone. Horses.

Early cars, such as the progenitor Benz Patentwagen (0.66hp), actually enjoyed less than one horsepower when first revealed to the public. But it didn’t take engineers long to start extracting more from their internal combustion engines. In quick order, automobiles hit landmark horsepower outputs but it would take 112 years of development to progress from just a single horsepower to 1000hp.

1894 Benz Velo (1.5hp)

1910 Isotta Fraschini Tipo KM (112hp)

1912 Benz 82/200hp (200hp)

1932 Duesenberg Model SJ (320hp)

1935 Duesenberg Model SSJ (400hp)

1986 Ford RS200 Group B Evo (580hp)

1992 Bugatti EB110 SuperSport (603hp)

1993 Dauer 962 Le Mans (720hp)

2004 Koenigsegg CCR (806hp)

2005 Bugatti Veyron (987hp)

2006 Bugatti Veyron EB-16.4 (1001hp)

Just 17 years after the Veyron, power has jumped to a staggering 2000hp, which brings us neatly to this, the most powerful production car in the world.

And it’s electric.

The most powerful production car in the world

Meet the Lotus Evija, the first pure electric vehicle from the British carmaker. With a monstrous power claimed output of 1500kW or 2012hp, the Evija promises a 0 to 100kmh time of less than three seconds, 0 to 200kmh in less than six seconds and 0 to 300kmh in about 9 seconds on the way to a top speed in excess of 320kmh.

At that speed, the Evija could cover the 3200m Melbourne Cup course at Flemington in about 36 seconds. The winning horse typically takes around three-and-a-half-minutes.

The Lotus Evija derives its power from four independent hub-mounted electric motors. These draw voltage from a 70kWh lithium-ion battery pack which, according to Lotus, provides the car will have a driving range of approximately 400km.

Just 130 examples will be built, with a price tag in excess of $AU3million. All are sold, reportedly, and none are coming to Australia.

Shoot for the moon

If you think the Lotus Evija’s 2000hp is nuts, then consider this.

The Saturn V rocket, used to propel humanity to the moon in the 1960s and ’70s, lifted off from Earth with the help of five F-1 rocket engines combining for a total 3.4 million kg of thrust, the equivalent of about 160 million horsepower!

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