Ferrari F40, McLaren F1 and why horsepower isn’t everything

Some of you might think otherwise, judging by the topics I pick. But I’m not usually writing for people my age or older. We don’t need anyone reminding us of what we already know inside out. Baldly, even. “Cars used to be this, cars used to be that”… you get the idea.

When I tackle subjects like this, I’m really writing for the younger ones. For our kids. Your automotive world is nothing like ours ever was. So I’m asking the older readers to put the phone down, go and do something else, and share this with them instead. You won’t learn anything.

This is for the younger generation

Now that the older lot have left the room - back in our day there was something called mIRC and, for the even older crowd, something else called CTT - let me tell you something: you might be the hardest generation in history to impress. You lot are spoiled.

You were born in the age of superlatives. The internet is fast, computers are fast, cars are fast, and even food is fast. The only things you’re not fast at are getting a home of your own or moving up the career ladder.

Don’t take it personally. The fault isn’t yours. My generation - only now starting to reach positions of influence - and, above all, the generations before mine owe you an apology. They’re the ones who left the country like this.

But let’s get back to cars before you get gloomy (I know it’s more common in your generation…). To make my point, I’ll start with an exaggeration: the Ferrari F40 and the McLaren F1. Two cars that defined an era, yet whose figures, on their own, today might not even be enough to get a story published.

The Ferrari F40 had 478 bhp - less power than the Zeekr 7GT I drove a few weeks ago. The McLaren F1 had 627 bhp - less than the 680 bhp in the new Mercedes-AMG CLA 45.

The older readers who are still here will already be muttering: “Yeah, but it’s not the same thing.” Of course it isn’t. A number doesn’t measure weight, involvement, character, or emotion. I’m not saying these cars are equivalent. I’m saying that seeing these numbers over and over has made us numb to how outrageous they really are.

I remember watching the McLaren F1 launch on the evening news. It was an event - not least because you couldn’t “rewind” and watch it again. Today, looking at Razão Automóvel’s audience data, even cars with more than 1000 bhp struggle to earn your attention.

And we don’t even have to go that far back. In 2012, the year we founded Razão Automóvel, we were all wide-eyed at the Bugatti Veyron’s 1001 bhp. Or, on a more down-to-earth level, at the Nissan GT-R arriving in Europe with 485 bhp. Thankfully, Porsche’s GT range still seems immune to this normalisation of absurd power figures (I shared a video about that a few lines earlier).

Horsepower, headlines and how numbers lost their punch

As Agostinho da Silva said, we’re all contemporaries - I only stumbled across him now, at 40, purely by chance. I’m living through the same world you are, but my reference points are different. That’s why I want you to know there was a time when 120 bhp was a lot. Even less, sometimes.

When I was your age, my dream had a name: Citroën Saxo Cup - a little sports hatch with a naturally aspirated engine, low weight, and “just” 120 bhp.

It’s true that plenty of them didn’t stay at those 120 bhp for very long, but that’s a story for another day…

The lesson in all of this is straightforward: power isn’t everything. A Saxo Cup didn’t need four digits on the spec sheet to earn a place in the Olympus of our collective memory.

Maybe Razão Automóvel carries some responsibility here, on the scale of what it is. In other words, modest - but no less important for that: not allowing (or helping…) your generation to be bludgeoned by numbers, or by the “big bold” headlines in the press - where, naturally, we include ourselves.

Italy in an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio and the Mille Miglia

That’s why, very soon, you’ll be coming with us on a trip across Italy at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, with its modest - by today’s standards - 520 bhp. A journey that ended in Rome, as part of what many call the most beautiful race in the world: the Mille Miglia. It’ll be worth it.

If this piece has reached you and you’re reading this paragraph, then the whole sermon was already worth it. You’ve proved that younger people’s attention spans aren’t limited to TikTok’s 10 seconds. And if you’re older, then it’s proof that we really do get stubborn with age. I told you this article wasn’t for you and you stayed anyway… you didn’t learn anything, did you? I warned you.