Power Games

The updated Mercedes-AMG C43 benefits from a bump in horsepower — but is it that much more exciting?

- Kushan Mitra

WHAT IS 23 HORSEPOWER?

This is not a metaphysical question, because as some people know, no two horses have the same amount of power. The best thoroughbreds are estimated to have four to five horsepower, so one horse is equal to five.

There is no exact measure of horsepower, either, so much so that the Germans prefer to use the term pferdestärke, literally horse-strength in German (and PS to you or me) — and horsepower is hp. Carmakers love PS, since one PS is 98.6 per cent of a hp, so a car can have 99hp but 100PS, and carmakers can easily claim that their cars have 100 metric horsepower.

That is not exactly accurate since, in proper metric terms, a car’s power is actually measured in kilowatts. But you know the thing with integers — unless they signify a price, usually we like them as high as possible, and marketers love promoting larger numbers. A 100PS makes for better copy than 73.5kW. So, back to the question at the start of the article: 23hp is 17.15kW. And that really is not all that much power, though it does give a nice kick on a KTM Duke 200 motorcycle. But even a Tata Nano has around 37 horsepower, so in car terms, it isn’t all that much. Or is it?