> Of Stephen Humphreys >To be honest, I'm not sure how a brake horse power is measured, >although I'm sure a quick search on the internet could yield me both >the imperial and metric version.
There were different methods of measuring engine power but it is largely harmonised now. If you look at the kilowatt value for a particular vehicle, you will see it numerically the same in most countries including the US. The horsepower (or the local translation of the word) value, will be the same in most non-US countries. Local terms include: 'bhp' in the UK, 'ps' in Germany, 'pk' in the Netherlands, 'cv' in France. These terms no longer imply a different method of measurement. The US sometimes uses that horsepower figure and sometimes uses a different one. The horsepower figure is particularly unreliable in the US. The same car can be quoted as having two different values in hp. For example, when a non-US vehicle is launched on the world market, the pack given to the international press will quote it as x kW and y hp. So that is how it appears in the media around the world, even on the manufacturer's own US website. At the time of sale, the same 'y hp' value persists outside the US. However, US websites may then start to quote 'z hp', or they may not. In summary: the horsepower figure is unreliable and the kilowatt figure is reliable. Lovely isn't it?
