Horsepower Milestones: A Seldom-Told Story of Oft-Cited Figures

At the end of the 18th century, James Watt and other steam-engine makers needed a means of rating their machinery's capacity for work. Based on its faithful service as a power provider, the horse was deemed the logical yardstick. Experiments revealed that a typical draft horse could turn a 24-foot-diameter millstone 2.4 rotations in one minute with a sustained 180-pound tug. Using rudimentary physics (power = force x distance/time), one horsepower was defined as 33,000 pound-feet per minute. Flash forward two-plus centuries to the current era, and the horses have, with the notable exception of the massive die-off in the '70s, experienced a population explosion of staggering proportions. Here are some horsepower milestones along the way, by model year. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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