157.  That was the horsepower number the 1982 GT Mustang touted.  And
many people, me included, were excited.  Okay, we knew 157 wasn't
exactly pure thunder, some of the late 70's/early 80's V8s made 170-200
-- and we were still mesmerized by the 60's gross horsepower numbers of
300 and 400 -- but still, for that era the number was decent.  From
that 157 the Mustang's numbers continued to grow nearly every
subsequent model year until it hit the "respectable" power figure in
1987 of 225. Wow, two hundred and twenty five horsepower!  Now we're
talking (what a difference a decade later or so makes, huh?).  Only
Buick's Grand Nation/GNX and Chevy's Vette made more -- they made
245/276 and 240.  The next 5 years, the numbers just inched along with
the Buick V6 going to 250 in the Turbo T/A and the Vette's 5.7 liter to
245.  GM's LT-1 in 1992 got the numbers rolling again with 275, 285 and
eventually it jumped over 300.  Ford's quad-cam 4.6 saw the ante in
1996 and jumped up to 305.  For the next few years the low 300s was
enough to give you some street creed.  But, now, the low 300s is just
about humdrum -- the base Mustang GT has 300, the EVO, WRZ/STi have
300, the base Hemi has 340, and even the upcoming SRT-4 Caliber
cross-over thing will have 300.  The GTO only stayed at 350 for a year
and needed some separation from the pack and quickly went to 400.  The
base Hemi got a big brother version packing 425.  The Terminator 4.6
only sat at 390 for 2 years before jumping to 5.4 liters and 500
horsepower.  The Z06 jumped from 385 to 405 in one year, and then
jumped all the way to 505.  The Viper not to be out done went from 450
to over 500, and now, GET THIS in its [Viper's] 2008 redesign the
number will go over 600 -- a number the next Z06 is also promising to
leap frog.  Geeze, automotive horsepower power is increasing faster
than the power of PC computer chips.  With big dogs soon to go over
600, will the most muscular pony cars go to 500+ and will their base
models pack 400 or more?  At the rate things are going, you got wonder.
What do you think... where does it end?  When will the horsepower
numbers level off?  

Patrick