Cost-Power Analysis of Popular Coupes

As the driver of a Mustang GT, I frequently find myself in discussions on the relative performance of different vehicles. Owners of high-end sports cars, like the Corvette, are quick to point out that they have half again as much horsepower as I do, and can beat me on the track at any time. I am just as quick to respond that my Mustang is still faster than nearly every other car on the road, and only cost me half as much.

To put an end to the argument once and for all, I came up with a simple way to quantify the relative value of a vehicle. I realized that raw horsepower becomes more necessary, the more car you have to drag around — that is, it is important to know how many pounds of car each horsepower is moving. The fewer pounds per horsepower, the quicker you'll go. The other measure is price. Clearly, the goal is to have the fewest pounds per horsepower at the lowest price.

To that end, I have collected the stats from a number of popular 2006 coupes, and assembled them in the table below. The table is initially sorted by a value I refer to as "Cost", which is a number that represents the number of thousands of dollars in price times the pounds per horsepower. A lower cost represents the best value, and the new GTO tops the list. A higher cost indicates a sorely overpriced car, and as one might expect, the Mercedes Benz has the highest cost for performance using these metrics.

Name	HP	Weight	lbs/HP	Price	Cost

Mercedes-Benz CLK500	302	3,585	11.87	$54,350.00	64.5
Porsche Cayman S	295	2,954	10.01	$58,900.00	59.0
Dodge Viper	510	3,380	6.63	$83,145.00	55.1
Lotus Exige	190	2,015	10.61	$50,990.00	54.1
BMW 330Ci	225	3,285	14.60	$36,374.00	53.1
Chrysler Crossfire	215	3,061	14.24	$31,634.00	45.0
Cheverolet Corvette Z06	505	3,132	6.20	$64,890.00	40.2
Infiniti G35	298	3,524	11.83	$33,800.00	40.0
Nissan 350Z	300	3,404	11.35	$33,971.00	38.5
Saturn Sky	177	2,933	16.57	$23,115.00	38.3
Volkswagen GTI	200	3,308	16.54	$21,990.00	36.4
Hyundai Tiburon	172	2,986	17.36	$19,780.00	34.3
Saturn Sky Red Line	260	2,940	11.31	$29,795.00	33.7
Mini Cooper S	168	2,679	15.95	$20,900.00	33.3
Acura RSX	201	2,840	14.13	$22,967.00	32.5
Mazda RX-8	238	3,029	12.73	$25,260.00	32.1
Saturn ION	140	2,813	20.09	$15,625.00	31.4
Mitsubishi Eclipse GT	263	3,472	13.20	$23,260.00	30.7
Mustang GT	300	3,488	11.63	$26,320.00	30.6
Scion tC	160	2,905	18.16	$16,300.00	29.6
Honda Civic Si	197	2,877	14.60	$20,190.00	29.5
Ford Focus ZX4 ST	151	2,658	17.60	$16,255.00	28.6
Pontiac GTO	400	3,725	9.31	$30,567.00	28.5

Table: Cost-Power Analysis of Popular Coupes
Source: www.edmunds.com, Feb 18, 2006