Horsepower is a measure of power and (you’ll like this) the EU has banned it. This will upset a lot of teenage boys with their Top Trump cards and lads in pubs.

Actually they’ve just banned horsepower as a term from Jan 1, 2010. This won’t, of course, make much difference to most of us as, much like the pint and the gallon, we’ll still keep on using the term anyway.

Horsepower was originally conceived as a way of comparing the measurement of the power of a horse to the power of a steam engine, and approximately equals 735-750 watts depending on where you’re coming from.

By the way, a healthy human can produce about 1.2 horsepower (which has always seemed a bit optimistic to us, as we’re clearly much smaller than a horse, although that is a peak figure; we can produce about 0.1 hp over a long period, which seems about right, especially on a Sunday morning).

You might also see the term “PS” used instead of horsepower. This is a German term and can be seen as roughly comparable  to horsepower.

A small family hatch might produce 60 horsepower and a Ferrari might pump out 400 or more. A Formula One engine produces about 750-800 horsepower but a very small amount of torque, which would make it almost unusable on the road. See our page on torque for more.