By Jeff Glucker
Horsepower is a neat thing, isn’t it? Torque is definitely cool but horsepower is pretty fun. What’s the best display of horsepower that you’ve seen?
I’m open to any sort of display here too. And I’m open to different ways to look at horsepower, like thrust for instance. So you could say the Saturn V rocket launch is tops here. Or maybe a 36,000-horsepower jet truck is your jam (see below, and ignore the title. It’s wrong.)
Top fuel dragsters are pretty amazing. In the production car world, the Dodge Demon is pretty kickass and so are Bugattis and Koenigseggs.
But what is the most impressive display of horsepower to you? Sound off below.
I’m most impressed by specialty uses of horsepower, way off the dragster/powerboat/muscle car spectrum:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5dbaa7da79eb724d7462db296f52fcf74e1c15f676ef3d6fb73472aaab47cf6d.jpg
https://media.tenor.com/images/ee146a6e0da87fbf447ef01fb8cb1876/tenor.gif
Getting these things to a drivetrain at all is impressive. It has to be borderline industrial levels of power output.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06527b0a09843d9cfaaf5fa094beafd52c1f5972d7533ce2d7e7496443f726cd.png
Holy $#!+, that’s an amazing feat of engineering.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0ec37b7c3161bb4d310f0022bd820afc2e6586ba25f18f5820bc9fee5b60dbb.jpg
I was thinking the exact same thing. Probably still have hearing loss from when I went to see these things in the old Omni in Atlanta in about 1979 when I was 6 or 7.
Astrodome here, probably ~1984.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qo2VQs04VfE/UchLNhckhDI/AAAAAAAAa9Q/lEuDo0UbA3M/s1600/33+horsepower+combine+copy.jpg
Perhaps it’s more accurately a display of torque, but I never get tired of watching Old Smokey. Too bad about Pikes Peak…
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VoGFqtaF_tg/maxresdefault.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/217ef34a45c5ab01a6d889cf57b33c8a4eefef37762375630563c0ad85ac0461.jpg
The double bulldozer was a slightly of the wall but genuine expedient. Cat also made a tandem version for pulling scrapers. They were obviated by the Cat D11N which had the same horsepower in a single unit as the paired D9s
https://cdn.oemoffhighway.com/files/base/acbm/ooh/image/2017/07/960w/116_5_2_scan0002.5966608422d65.jpg
After engine out maintainence of modern fighter jets, we get to see the squadron test pilots perform a full acceleration into the sky. The acceleration is impressive for all involved. I worked F-16s back in the 80’s so, I’m unabashedly partial. Still a wonderful relatively low cost solution to a couple problems in airspace.
“The 50” Mesta 50,000 ton forging press. There are only a couple with more force, but they ugly. There’s three stories of mechanism under the shop floor.
://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Mesta_press_east_side.jpg/551px-Mesta_press_east_side.jpg
Shades of Atomic Toasters !
97,000 kW or about 130,000 hp. And more is possible, according to MAN B&W (the manufacturer), if you go to 18 or 19 cylinders instead of 14 (still in-line, of course): http://www.gallois.be/ggmagazine_2006/gg_03_05_2006_142.pdf But that might require increasing the bore of each cylinder to 1200mm (about 4 feet).
Or go with its competitor from Wartsila: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4-Sulzer_RTA96-C