Mike Brewer's column

	So, I’m not going to be too bothered by bhp figures in the future. I’m just going to take a motor on its driving merits alone.

When I first started writing for Auto Express many years ago, I used an old PC with a ‘wind-up’ processor, which these days would probably be considered no more than a glorified calculator!

Since then, however, my PC power has doubled annually, and now I’m writing this on a laptop with more boost than they used to send a man to the moon. This greed for power has also been reflected in my motoring. An old Vauxhall Astra with 75bhp was fine back then, and it was not so long ago when any model with more than 100bhp was almost considered a supercar.

But ever since, vehicles’ capacity, like my humble PC, has doubled, and now we live in a world with cars like the Bugatti Veyron, which has around 1,000bhp – that’s 13.3 Astras! Harnessing all this power, though, has become a nightmare for engineers. The Audi technicians who dreamed up the Veyron spent years working out how to deliver all that grunt to the wheels without breaking anything along the powertrain, and they used sophisticated computers to keep the thing safe.

When horsepower is delivered in its raw state, it’s terrifying and exciting all in one go. I have just been privileged to test a real punch in the guts, a new Shelby Cobra, now being manufactured again under licence in South Africa. This motor is a brutal machine – under the bonnet bulge is a 6.6-litre Roush-prepared Ford V8 which produces 510bhp. I won’t talk about performance figures – all you need to know is that it’s illegal almost all of the time! The car has no electronic aids, and its computer is as powerful as my wrist watch, which means you have to treat it with great respect, otherwise you’re driving the equivalent of a loaded shotgun.

Like the Audi boffins, BMW has also thrown the equivalent of a super computer into its M Series models. And at 507bhp, the M5 nearly has the same power as the Cobra, although you can smooch along using only 400 of them. But there is a little button that you can press which lets the rest of the horses out of the paddock, and then the car jumps into hyper-drive.

However, electronics soon rein the power back in and make this a civilised beast which you can drive as comfortably at 30mph as you can at 200. The thing is, after the experience of the Cobra, the Beemer’s power seems feeble – although in truth it’s the same.

They simply deliver their muscle in a different way. So, I’m not going to be too bothered by bhp figures in the future. I’m just going to take a motor on its driving merits alone, because all this knocking about in powerful cars has got me thinking... is horsepower a measure of wealth or a measure of fun?

I had a great time back in the days of the old Astra, and only recently I was lucky enough to get behind the wheel of an old Caterham Classic, held together with hope and gum. The little lightweight roadster packed a whole 95 wheezing horses, but I never stopped whooping with delight, having the best time I’ve had in a motor for ages. So forget the wealth. At the end of the day, I reckon it comes down to fun. And what’s more, you don’t need a lot of horses to get it...

Mike Brewer presents ITV’s Wrecks to Riches and Revved Up, the British Rally on Channel 4 and Wheeler Dealers on Discovery Real Time