Top 10s: Dollar-per-Horsepower Bargains

[svgallery name="Top_10_Perf_Bang_Buck"] By John LeBlanc Forget what your Granddad told you about the 1960s, right now is the Golden Age of cheap horsepower. A bad economy and a generation of drivers addicted to gobs of horsepower have created a near perfect storm for performance car junkies on a budget. But which new cars today offer the best power bargains? To find out, I’ve pulled together my Top 10 Dollar-per-Horsepower Bargains. Now, before you whip out your Texas Instrument TI-81, know that pricing and specs were gleaned from automaker Web sites. As they say, your dealer may sell for less: 10. 2010 Mazda Mazdaspeed3 - $125.46/H.P. While most of my performance bang-for-your-buck specials sport lots of cylinders, the front-wheel-drive Mazdaspeed3 (along with the Number 5 Chevrolet Cobalt SS) makes do with a four-banger. But it’s a powerful four-banger. Trotting in like a knight in shining armour to sneak Mazda’s sports compact five-door hatch onto my list is good old-fashioned forced induction. In this case, a turbocharger helps pump out a healthy 263 hp from only 2.3 litres. And with an MSRP of only $32,995, that works out to $125.46 per horse. 9. 2010 Cadillac CTS-V Sedan - $124.46/H.P. Contrary to the Mazda, the Cadillac brings a howitzer to a knife fight. The rear-wheel-drive CTS-V sedan stuffs a supercharged 6.2-litre pushrod V8 (based on the LS9 mill from the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1) under its bulging front hood. The result is 556 hp — 6 more than the next most powerful car on our list, the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500. And instead of charging the $128,515 Chevrolet wants for its ZR1, Cadillac wants only $68,995 (or $124.46 per horse) for its five-passenger luxury four-door sports sedan. 8. 2010 Nissan 370 Z Coupe - $121.98/H.P. I really like what Nissan’s done with its redesigned Zed car for 2010. It’s lighter, tighter and leaner in all the right places. And if you can live with the mainstream badge and some rough edges, it can make Porsche Cayman/Boxster owners sweat some beads on a twisty road or track. And best of all, the rear-drive two-seat sports car is a performance bargain. The first on my list to sport a V6, the 370 Z’s 3.7-litre unit puts out 332 ponies. Which, with a starting price of $40,498, adds up you only $121.98 per. 7. 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT8 - $110.58/H.P. Essentially a two-door coupe version of my Number 3 pick, the similarly-engineered Charger SRT8 sedan, the SRT8 version of the Challenger continues on its Mopar muscle car forebearers’ tradition of offering gallons of getup for little dough. With the in-house designed 6.1-litre V8 doling put 425 hp, and a starting price of only $46,995, each horsepower in the rear-drive Challenger costs only $110.58. That’s more mullah than the less stylish Charger, but still one of the best performance buys on the market. 6. 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 - $107.83/H.P. There are only pennies separating the dollar-per-horsepower costs between this Genesis Coupe 3.8, the Cobalt SS, and the Shelby GT500. Yet all three offer very different solutions in their respective engine bays. The two-door coupe version of Hyundai’s Genesis luxury sedan is Korea’s first pony car. And following the template set out by the original 1964 Ford Mustang that means plenty of performance for not very much money . Although Hyundai says the 375 hp 4.6-litre V8 from its sedan counterpart will fit in the Genesis Coupes’ engine bay, the top line two-door sports the sedan’s 3.8-litre V6. Which is just fine. Rated at 306 hp (43 hp more than the Mazdaspeed3), but priced at an identical $32,995, the Hyundai is one of the best horsepower values you can buy. 5. 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt SS - $107.67/H.P. The short-lived sedan version of the Cobalt SS was canned for 2010. But the two-door coupe carries on Chevy’s cheap performance flag. And with direct-injection, turbo charging and variable-valve-timing, the SS’s 2.0-litre four is one of the General’s most sophisticated engines. Rated at 260 hp, for only $27,995, it’s also a steal. But you better get your Cobalt SS while you can. Although the Cobalt’s blown four will live on in other GM products (like the forthcoming 2011 Buck Regal GS), its days in the Chevrolet compact’s engine bay are numbered. Focusing on fuel economy, the Cobalt-replacing Cruze that will show up this fall will have 138 hp four-banger as its top engine. 4. 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 Coupe - $107.27/H.P. I’m going to play along with Ford here and not put its refreshed rear-drive Shelby GT500 in with the lesser Mustangs. With distinct bodywork, features and an available SVT Track Package, the Shelby’s legitimately a different type of ‘Stang. Oh. And the GT500’s totally different, supercharged 5.4-litre V8 — which sports 138 hp more than the Mustang GT’s new 5.0 unit — helps a bit too. Along with the CTS-V, the Shelby is the only car on this list to sport over 500 hp — 550, to be exact. But unlike other 500 hp-plus cars that normally cost into the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars, the GT500 Coupe is only $58,999; $63,699 for the convertible version. 3. 2010 Dodge Charger SRT8 - $101.65/H.P. According to its new masters at Fiat, the five-door Charger sedan is due for a substantial refresh later this year. But until then, the top line SRT8 model still offers a lot of bang-for-your-loonies. If you need four-doors and five seats, the Charger SRT8 is the top dollar-per-horsepower new car you can buy. With 420 hp — only 5 hp less than the Challenger SRT8 it shares a platform and V8 with — yet priced considerably less at $42,695, the mid-sized Dodge sedan storms up my list to grab third spot, selling for only $101.65 per Hemi-powered pony. 2. 2010 Chevrolet Camaro - $87.91/H.P. The modern pony car battle between longtime rivals Ford and GM has resulted in some heavy doses of cheap power. In fact, if I separated the six- and eight-cylinder Camaro and Mustang models, they would have taken up the top four spots on this list. Instead, I combined and averaged out the costs for both V6 and V8 models in each range. A base $26,995 Camaro gets a 306 hp 3.7-liter V6. The 6.2-litre V8 Camaro SS, with 426 hp, costs only $37,065. That works out to $88.80/H.P. and $87.01 respectively, and a combined $87.91.Slightly more than the new Mustang, but a whooping 80 per cent less expensive than the rival Challenger SRT8. 1. 2011 Ford Mustang - $85.85/H.P. The car that arguably started the cheap horsepower era can be found leading my Top 10 Dollar-per-Horsepower Bargains list again, 46 years later. With its rental-car-special V6 last year, the Mustang would have hard a hard time finishing in first. But its new 306 hp 3.7-litre six—that can be had in a 2011 Mustang Coupe for as little as $23,949—makes it the best-bang-for-your-horsepower-buck almost overnight. The 2011 Mustang GT’s new 5.0-litre eight is a relative bargain as well. Rated at 412 hp, but for only $38,499, it ranks just below the Camaro SS. However, when combining both V6 and V8 models, Ford’s efforts to upgrade the Mustang’s engine makes it my top 2010 Dollar-per-Horsepower Bargain.

Comments