Auto News 5

If you were to chart new-car horsepower over the past ten years, the graph would look like the one for Lindsay Lohan arrests: flat, flat, climbing a bit, and then suddenly skyrocketing toward vertical. It was a little more than ten years ago that I first drove a car with more than 400 hp, the 2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. That level of output was such a big deal that the car had a badge on the side that read "405 HP." Now my hedge trimmer has 400 hp, my lawn mower has 500, and the Corvette ZR1 has 638. For the next ZR1, bidding will start at 800 hp or I'm not even interested.