Power to Weight Kings
Just the other day, we brought our readers a list of vehicles in which one might unexpectedly find an enormous V8 engine. This time around, statistics play a bit bigger role in the selections.
Power-to-weight has been a favored metric ever since Karl Benz decided he didn’t want to look at the back end of a horse for the rest of his life. The measures on this list focus on horsepower, though a similar screed about outsize torque is also in the cards. You can bet that assortment will be filled with jumbo pickup trucks from Detroit. We freely admit today’s grouping may not be in any particular order and might have an omission. Go ahead and complain about us on social media since these posts strangely don’t allow comments.
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The mighty Koenigsegg brand, arguably made most famous by Top Gear and its proclivity to test the things and intentionally butcher its name, is no stranger to outsized power figures. The current age of infusing hybrid guts with mighty engines has served it well, culminating in the Gemera which is technically a four-seater car.
Bring yer friends and scare them with a ‘hot-vee’ turbocharged V8 engine and tremendously named ‘Dark Matter’ e-motor, all of which makes a claimed 2,300 horsepower and a combined power-to-weight ratio of over 1,000 horsepower per ton. The fantastic names continue with a nine-speed ‘Tourbillion’ transmission.
Controversial in the extreme, thanks in no small part as to how it did (or didn’t) initially own up to the circumstances surrounding an attempted 300 mph speed run, is the SSC Tuatara. The car allegedly made 1,750 horsepower from a twin-turbo V8 whilst sucking back E85 fuel and bearing a super slick body of just 0.279 Cd.
This led to a suggested 1,200+ horsepower per ton power-to-weight ratio. Top Gear also helped place this car in the spotlight with an intentionally butchered pronunciation, though SSC itself garnered plenty of press with the 300 mph attempt and everything surrounding it.
Lotus is often credited with the ‘simplify and add lightness’ trope, though the origins of that particular phrase are a bit more shrouded than some gearheads would have you believe. Still, it has always staked its claim in that area, so any list in which power-to-weight is discussed deserves to include at least one Lotus.
It seems the Evija may currently stand atop the Lotus food chain for that metric, with its 1,972 horsepower and 4,160 lbs curb weight working out to nearly a thousand ponies per ton. If you're wondering, cars like a Caterham R500 Superlight and original Bugatti Veyron are about half that.
