1.5: More Horsepower is Better, Right?
Horsepower is a magical word for many car owners and collectors, especially younger folks in my experience. Automobile manufacturers, journalists, and a huge percentage of aftermarket parts vendors all want you to believe there is only one thing to know about horsepower: more is better. This is why with every iteration of any sports car the marketing materials and published articles almost always lead with some variation on “the new model comes with a dramatic increase in horsepower,” “the most powerful model ever built,” or “this car has so much horsepower it will literally tear your face off where the actual increase in horsepower is usually numerically quite small, especially relative to the commensurate increase in price.
Still, on some level the people trying to sell us cars and parts aren’t wrong; higher horsepower cars have a tendency to be more responsive, faster, and ultimately more fun to drive. But as with everything in life, at the end of the day it’s not that simple, especially if you plan on only having a small car collection. Horsepower is but one measure of the quality of any automobile, and while horsepower is an easy number to throw around, the drivability and desirability of a car is a function of horsepower, torque, gear ratios, weight, suspension, and a whole host of harder to quantify concepts including driver comfort, fit, finish, and cost. Some of the highest horsepower cars available today — top fuel dragsters and track-only Funny and Pro Stock cars — are not be considered “drivable” except by the most literal definition of the word.
More practically speaking, and using the second generation Porsche 911 (the “991.2 series”) as an example, here is the typical relationship between horsepower, speed, and price using representative models:
As you can see, there is a very wide gap between the least expensive 991.2 Porsche 911 — $84,300 USD for the Carrera up to $293,200 USD for the GT2 RS, making the GT2 RS roughly 3.5 times as expensive as the base Carrera — but the increase in horsepower doesn’t follow the increase in cost. In fact, for just under four times the money for the GT2 RS you get less than twice the increase in horsepower.
Seems silly, right?
What’s more silly is that if you asked nearly any Porsche lover if they’d prefer the base RWD Carrera 911, a fine car for sure, or the similarly RWD twin turbo GT2 RS, the answer would almost invariably be “the GT2. No question.” Now of course this comparison isn’t really fair — the GT2 RS is a near 700 HP track-focused monster featuring a giant rear wing and all the aggressive parts the fine folks in Stuttgart could find to throw at the thing that was limited to roughly 1,000 examples sold worldwide — whereas the base 911 Carrera is just a normal looking Porsche, albeit one that is available with a manual transmission versus the automatic-only GT2 RS.
The problem is, and this is sort of the point of this chapter, is that in reality, the base 911 Carrera is probably a better, more affordable, and infinitely more drivable car for the vast majority of Porsche owners. Especially considering the vast majority of Porsche owners (and Ford owners, and Lamborghini owners, and BMW owners, and … you get the point I suspect) are not racecar drivers who will actually use anything close to the capabilities of a car like the 2018 Porsche GT2 RS. Most car collectors collect on aspiration, I get that, but practically speaking aspiration can lead to the limitation of enjoyment and even disappointment, as odd as that may sound.
Buy The Right Car for Who You Are and Where You Live
While I do not expect to actually dissuade you from wanting to buy the highest horsepower example of whatever car you’re trying to add to your collection, you should consider the idea that you are far better off buying the right car for who you are and where you live.
I know, I know, that sounds so boring, but it’s not really bad advice if you are planning on owning a smaller collection.
If you have a large collection of cars then buy whatever you want since you honestly won’t really drive anything all that often (I will cover this later under “Cars Need to Be Driven”.) But if you are buying one or two “fun” cars, you will be dramatically better off buying more practical cars that can be reasonably driven, affordably insured and maintained, and that won’t always leave you feeling like you barely scratched the surface of what the vehicle can do regardless of how hard you drive it. What’s more, this advice is doubly good if you are older or live in a relatively small town.
Most folks who are considering car collecting aged 40 and beyond have created something for themselves in life. Maybe it’s some savings, maybe a home they own, or maybe it’s just a reputation for themselves in their community. Often times they have kids, possibly grandkids, and so unlike when they were younger and had “nothing to lose”, mature folks actually have something to lose if something goes wrong. And here’s the thing:
Stuff goes wrong.
Cars are dangerous. Driving is dangerous. Driving anywhere near the limit of a car’s capability is dangerous, especially if it’s not done under proper conditions in a safe environment (e.g., at the race track with proper safety equipment, see “Taking Your Car to the Track”.) But here’s the thing: if you own a high horsepower car, you are absolutely going to be tempted to see what it can do from time to time. If you have a car that has insanely high limits, like the 2018 Porsche GT2 RS I mentioned a few pages back, other than at the track, you’re going to be sorely tempted to see what it can do? But if you have something to lose in life if you’re pulled over (or worse), or if you live in a small town where you and your flashy Porsche are likely to be instantly recognized, your options are actually pretty limited.
Ask yourself, are you really going to just go full-speed down the back roads in your neighborhood, braking as late as you possibly can at every turn and then getting hard back on the throttle to see just exactly what the 699 HP engine can do? Modern sports cars can push 200 MPH with little real effort. Are you going to hop in, fasten your seat belt over your shoulder and lap, and take your chances going as much as four times the posted speed limit?
No, of course you’re not, at least not if you’re fully sane.
The reality of owning any high horsepower or super-high performance car is that you’re just not going to be able to appreciate the full capabilities of what the car can do. I’m not saying that horsepower is the only reason people buy cars, it’s definitely not, but in the context of this chapter most folks are going to be better off owning a lower horsepower (and likely lower priced) model than they are the biggest and most powerful example available. Again using the 991 generation Porsche 911 as an example, if you opted for the $98,900 USD base Carrera “S” with it’s nice 49 HP boost over the non-“S” model you’d have a wonderful fast Porsche 911 that is a pleasure to drive, reasonably priced to purchase and own, and that delivers a tremendous amount of camaraderie and fun at a model-line low of $220 USD per unit of horsepower.
The same is true more or less across collectable cars. I own a 1965 Cobra S/C replica on a rolling chassis built by the South African company Superformance. If you’ve never seen a Superformance MKIII Cobra replica you really need to — they are absolutely beautiful cars and, to my knowledge, designed to look and deliver an experience much like the legendary originals. Because of the weird nature of the world, Superformance cars are imported as rolling chassis, not complete cars, and so buyers are able to decide what engine and transmission combination they want to put in the cars.
Personally when I went looking for a Cobra replica I wanted a car that would drive and behave more or less like Carol Shelby’s original design. I found a car with a Ford 351 Windsor that had been bored out to 418 cubic inches paired with a Tremec TKO 600 five-speed manual transmission that would deliver a very similar driving experience as the 1965 Cobra S/C it was based on, providing roughly 485 horsepower and a top speed of 185 MPH. Not exactly the same, mind you, but close enough for me given the entirely organic nature of the car — no anti-lock brakes, no traction control, no computer, no nothing to save you if you get sideways other than your wits and the comical 1965 replica five point harness that is included in the car as “period correct.” And it’s not that the harness isn’t technically safe, but it’s technology from 1965 … and safety technology has come an awfully long way since then.
Despite all that the Cobra is great, and despite being a “replica” — which really means that I was able to buy the car for tens of thousands versus the million(s) the original cars go for today — the car is a hoot to drive, always attracts incredible attention, and continues to stay on my “keeper” list for the cars in my collection. What’s more, because it’s not worth millions, the S/C replica falls well under my “comfort price” and I can drive it without any concern.
But not all 1965 Cobra replicas are built the same. Because the cars are technically “kit cars” built out to customer specifications, often times owners will put much larger engines in the cars than the original car would have had. Now, usually they do this with commensurately upgraded transmissions and suspensions, but without any additional substantial improvements in the safety technology, perhaps chasing Carol Shelby’s vision for the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake which was really never designed to be a street car. The Super Snake is a really interesting story but the important things you need to know for now are that 1) Shelby built two cars, one for himself and the second for comedian Bill Cosby who more or less immediately returned the car telling Shelby that it was “far too powerful and aggressive” and 2) when Cosby returned the car, Ford sold it to a customer who promptly destroyed the car and died in the process.
Suffice to say; an 800 HP Cobra isn’t the best idea.
Unsurprisingly it’s not uncommon to find Cobra replicas advertised as having much higher amounts of horsepower than the original cars had. Roush supercharged engines, Ford Coyote 5.0L crate engines, etc. all driving the purchase price of the car to often times double what a more traditional replica would cost. People build and buy these cars for the exact same reason someone would pay nearly three times as much to buy a 699 HP Porsche GT2 RS versus a nice, normal 414 HP 911 “S” — because more horsepower is better, right?
At the end of the day you are far better off buying an amazing car, one that speaks to your needs as a collector and that you have a personal and emotional connection with, regardless of how many cars you plan to own. Going after the most powerful and potentially least practical and manageable car you can find may not work out the way you plan, but for a lot of car collectors it’s also a big part of the allure of cars so we will leave it at that. I wrote this book to provide guidance, not to tell you what to do, because if you’re like me you won’t listen anyway.
It’s 55 MPH From Here Out …
When I started collecting cars I didn’t realize that is what I was doing. I started out buying a car that I had always wanted — and it snowballed from there. Because I had the means, and more importantly, because I loved “the chase” — trying to find the best available example of whatever car I was interested in at the time — I ended up with the twenty odd cars I had in my collection. It was that love of cars and the love of the process that drove me, almost like an addiction, and it may be the same for you.
Keep in mind that your goals for car collecting are likely to change — highly likely if my personal experience is like yours — and I would encourage you to treat everything you read in the balance of this book in mind even if you don’t feel like it applies to you directly sat this particular juncture in your car collecting experience. Throughout the rest of the book I will share what I have learned both personally and through interviews with dozens of like-minded car collectors covering:
- Buying cars, perhaps the most exciting part of the entire experience;
- Storage and insurance, two things that I personally didn’t spend nearly enough time thinking about before I dove into collecting;
- Maintaining a collection, which trust me, depending on the type of collector you are can end up being a full time job;
- Selling a car, which is something you’ve probably told yourself you will never do, and trust me, you definitely will.
And a handful of important ancillary topics including cars and kids, the realities of sports cars and the aging human body, restoring cars, driving your car on local race tracks, running a car related business, and much more. I end the book with tips and tricks I have learned from the collectors I interviewed for this book, sharing their experience and the things they would have done differently — if only they had a copy of The Car Collectors Handbook before they made their first purchase.
