As Mr Frankel has so wisely observed, there is no currency so devalued as horsepower. But against this wanton debasement stands one currency still precious, rarer than it has ever been: weight. Or to be more accurate, the lack of it. A commodity so valuable the smart folk of Stuttgart created a philosophy out of its pursuit: leichtbau. Because power can only be of merit if it exceeds the added mass so frequently associated with it.
If you believe everyone on the internet, then it’s a simple relationship: the higher power to weight ratio, the better. But are things really so simple? Is more bang per kilogram always more desirable? If not, where is the sweet spot – for road cars? For track cars? For those dastardly cheats at this game – motorcycles? And is all power to weight created equal, or could 150bhp in a one-tonne car be better than 300bhp in a two-tonne car? Let’s go on a journey worthy of Odysseus together, and find out.
The fundamental truth that to increase vehicle performance you need either to increase power or reduce weight (or both) has been understood for as long as internal combustion engines have been turning crankshafts. ‘The basically simple things are best, whether it’s automobiles or diets or philosophy,’ said Henry Ford well over a century ago. But since then the landscape in which power units have been turning steam, petrol or electrons into go has changed dramatically. Technology, legislation and consumer tastes have all been relentlessly stuffing more meat into the automotive pie. Our motoring diet is now as ultra processed as the contents of the Lidl freezer aisle. Henry Ford would not approve. Of the cars, or Lidl.
