ICE

Brake Horsepower

BHP

HP

Horsepower

Before jumping to conclusions, I'm well aware that this is not the first time that someone from autoevolution has some beef with the horsepower versus brake horsepower brawl , but I want to take it a little further. Alas, we won't be involving PETA since it's not actual horses stuffed under the hood of a car that we're talking about.As I'm sure that most of you are aware, there are two main systems of measurement out there, one of which has two variations. Partly quoting George Orwell's Animal Farm, it seems that some systems of measurements are more equal than others.In layman terms, and I'm not yet sure if I am part of a minority for saying this or not, I think that the two interpretations of the Imperial Measuring Systems are flawed and should be replaced by the Metric System starting yesterday.Sure, I'm not actually preaching for a paradigm shift – albeit it would be nice – but for a gradual change that would culminate with everyone on the planet knowing what the heck everyone else is talking about without using a unit converter.The two versions of the aforementioned Imperial Measuring system are so messed up that they can even confuse the locals who are supposed to work with them.To give you an example, in the UK, where the system originated, () car owners measure fuel economy in miles per gallon, just like Americans do. But the British (Imperial) MPG is entirely different, though, which is why 20 MPG in the U.S. equal 24 MPG in the UK.That is not such a biggie, but the somewhat psychotic introduction of the Imperial System isn't so widespread in the UK. Even though British gearheads use miles per gallon to calculate fuel economy, they buy their fuel at the pump using liters, not gallons, which is pretty messed up. I don't even want to go to how some Brits measure their weight or distance, or the fact that they spell "liters" differently.Never mind the liters and the different types of gallons they use there, but what about that dreadedterm we keep hearing on British car shows? Well, as my colleague has so eloquently pointed in another opinion piece a while back,is the exact same thing as, as long as the one talking about the unit is an American.If you're a German or any other European - or just about any nationality apart from the Brits and the Yanks – a horsepower is actually smaller than a brake horsepower or a regular one. That's because in the country that pretty much originated the idea of making cars, they use the Metric System, just like nearly every single country on the planet, except the United States, the UK, Liberia, and Myanmar.That said, two nations with a rather spectacular - and most of all important, in the grand scheme of things- automotive industry, still use weird mixes of measuring systems that only confuse. McLaren , for some reason, uses the Metric System in the actual nomenclature of its models, but not necessarily when describing their power output. The new 720S has 720 Metricand 710 BHP. In the U.S., the exact same supercar has 710 HP, even though it's still called the 720S. Audi , a carmaker that was born and bred in Ingolstadt, is so German that its models' power outputs are given in the Metric System no matter where the cars are sold. For example, the Audi R8 V10 Plus officially has 610 HP in the United States, except it doesn't. The supercar actually develops 610 PS, which in the American way of calculating horsepower would mean that the R8 has 602 HP, not 610 HP. The same can be said about every single Audi model in the U.S. lineup, which magically has the same number of HP as the European brethren.Other German carmakers, like BMW and Mercedes-Benz , aren't pulling an Audi in the U.S. and calculate their models' power output by taking into account that the “American horsepower” is equal to the British BHP, not the Metric HP that is used on the rest of the planet. This is why BMW M4 is said to develop 425 HP in the U.S. and 431 PS, or Metric Horsepower, in Europe.It's not all about horsepower, though, because the way in which the Imperial Measuring System was implemented across the world makes things confusing when it comes to acceleration numbers as well.For decades, the measuring stick for acceleration numbers in America and the UK has been the “0-60 MPH" time, right? In the rest of the world, it's the 0-100 km/h time. So far, so good, except 100 km/h actually translate to 62 MPH, not 60. With that in mind, a car that goes from a standstill to 60 MPH will take a tiny bit longer to reach 100 km/h, meaning that acceleration times between the U.S., the UK and the rest of the world shouldn't be equal, right?Well, the confusion regarding two (actually three, as mentioned above) systems of measurement has made certain entities think that 0-60 is the same as saying 0-100 in Europe. This brings us back to carmakers like Audi and their fabulous R8 V10 Plus, which officially goes from 0-100 km/h in 3.2 seconds on its home ground, in Germany. Oddly enough, Audi USA quotes the same car's 0-60 MPH time as being 3.2 seconds as well. Physics tells us that this is impossible as long as we're talking about an identical car.In other words, Audi USA makes its cars look better by quoting Metric Horsepower numbers, but also makes them look worse by saying that their performance specs are actually inferior in the United States compared to Europe. See what I mean about how confusion can lead to bad things?These are just a couple of examples why the Metric System, now mostly known as the International System of Units (SI), should simply take over every remaining fort built using the Imperial or United States customary system (USCS). Heck, soft drinks are sold in liters in the U.S., but milk and gasoline are sold by the gallon. Why there hasn't been a (peaceful) revolution about this until now sure beats me.