Horsepower
22/10/15 05:20
I missed the horsepower race of 1960’s muscle cars. I was aware of all of the new models and the ever-increasing engine options, but I was also growing up in a family with a bunch of children and limited financial means. After I earned my driver’s license, I was allowed to drive the family’s 1966 Chevy II. It wasn’t the Super Sport version, but rather the base model with a 230 cubic inch inline six. I don’t remember the exact horsepower, but 194 is what sticks in my mind. It was a long ways from the Turbo-Fire 327 that put out 350 horsepower. We had a standard three speed manual transmission on the column, and not the available close-ration four-speed that was combined with the 327 to make a sort of entry-level muscle car.
The first vehicle that I called my own was a 1958 Ford f-100 1/2 ton pickup with a 223 cubic inch inline six. It had a 5,000 GVWR. And that really was a limit. I obtained a used slide-in pickup camper that set off a series of rear end failures in the truck. After the second replacement, the truck was deemed to be in need of a new owner. By then I was in college, engaged, and in need of a practical car.
I purchased a 1966 Opel Kadett from my uncle. The car was practical. It got very good gas mileage. And, with its light weight of only 1475 pounds and its 987 cc four cylinder inline engine it put out 46 hp, six more than the Volkswagen 1200. The horsepower boost combined with the fact it weighted 200 pounds less than the VW meant that it was at least considered zippy.
Horsepower, in my world, came in the form of tractors. The summer before I got my driver’s license, I was doing field work with a John Deere R. The model R was John Deere’s first diesel tractor. That 2-cylinder popper had 415 cubic inches and put out a whopping 43 hp on the drawbar and 48 on the belt pulley.
In those days, however, my mind and attention was focused on airplanes. The pinnacle in my airplane world was the Beech 18 our company owned with its Pratt and Whitney R-985 engines putting out 450 hp each. That was 900 hp that could be controlled by two throttles in the right hand of the pilot.
I soloed in a Piper PA-22 tripacer. The tripacer originally came out with a 135 hp engine and was available in a 150 hp model. We had the “top of the line” model with a 160 hp Lycoming high octane engine. 130 octane fuel was available in those days.
I’ve been thinking about engines and horsepower these days because we just traded our 10-year-old pickup truck for one that is only 4 years old. It has a 6.7 liter turbo-diesel V-8 engine that is rated at 400 hp and 800 lb-ft of torque. I may have missed the muscle car horsepower race of the 1960’s, but I appear to be right in the middle of the pickup truck horsepower race of the 2010’s.
I have no idea why we need that much horsepower. It is, after all, a pickup truck.
In our defense, we do haul somewhat heavier loads than most contemporary pickup truck drivers. We’ve been known to put nearly 2000 pounds of firewood in the box of the pickup and then hitch up a trailer that weighs another 5000 or more pounds. That was with our old pickup. Something tells me that this new one, that gets its first firewood workout this weekend, won’t be straining much with that load.
Because we did quite a bit of shopping before finding the truck that we decided to buy I did a reasonable amount of research including looking at quite a few YouTube videos of truck comparisons. I already know we aren’t going to win any mileage contests, though the new pickup should produce significantly better mileage than our old gas model.
It all seems a bit overwhelming to me. I haven’t even begun to write about the price of a new pickup truck. I didn’t buy my Opel new, but in 1966, the headline in the Opel advertisement was, “How to remodel your garage for only $1618.” Of course I didn’t have a thousand dollars, let alone 1,600 in those days. I paid a little less than half of the new price when I obtained the car for $800. Along with the horsepower race, contemporary pickup trucks are in a kind of race to the top in terms of power. There are pickups on dealers’ lots in our area with sticker prices above $70,000. The price we paid for a 4-year-old pickup with nearly 50,000 miles on it was around $5,000 more than we paid for a new pickup ten years ago.
Just as I have no idea about why we need all of that horsepower, I must admit that I have no way of practically evaluating the price we paid. It certainly seems at the moment to be excessive. What business does a minister whose calling is to serve those who are poor and oppressed have spending that much money on a pickup truck? It is a good question and I’m not sure that I can justify the money that we spent. I’m not sure that I can justify that salary that the church pays me so that I can afford to make such a purchase. How is that fair when a preschool teacher doesn’t earn enough money to make rent and groceries? What is fair in an world where there are such radical differences between rich and poor.
The good news is that I’m reaching an age where there won’t be many more pickup truck purchases. I’m relieved. I have no desire to participate in a horsepower race that keeps going up and up along with a price race that clearly places such vehicles beyond the reach of most people.
Still, that engine does sound good. And it does feel good to drive that truck. I can’t wait to load it up and see what it will do.
The first vehicle that I called my own was a 1958 Ford f-100 1/2 ton pickup with a 223 cubic inch inline six. It had a 5,000 GVWR. And that really was a limit. I obtained a used slide-in pickup camper that set off a series of rear end failures in the truck. After the second replacement, the truck was deemed to be in need of a new owner. By then I was in college, engaged, and in need of a practical car.
I purchased a 1966 Opel Kadett from my uncle. The car was practical. It got very good gas mileage. And, with its light weight of only 1475 pounds and its 987 cc four cylinder inline engine it put out 46 hp, six more than the Volkswagen 1200. The horsepower boost combined with the fact it weighted 200 pounds less than the VW meant that it was at least considered zippy.
Horsepower, in my world, came in the form of tractors. The summer before I got my driver’s license, I was doing field work with a John Deere R. The model R was John Deere’s first diesel tractor. That 2-cylinder popper had 415 cubic inches and put out a whopping 43 hp on the drawbar and 48 on the belt pulley.
In those days, however, my mind and attention was focused on airplanes. The pinnacle in my airplane world was the Beech 18 our company owned with its Pratt and Whitney R-985 engines putting out 450 hp each. That was 900 hp that could be controlled by two throttles in the right hand of the pilot.
I soloed in a Piper PA-22 tripacer. The tripacer originally came out with a 135 hp engine and was available in a 150 hp model. We had the “top of the line” model with a 160 hp Lycoming high octane engine. 130 octane fuel was available in those days.
I’ve been thinking about engines and horsepower these days because we just traded our 10-year-old pickup truck for one that is only 4 years old. It has a 6.7 liter turbo-diesel V-8 engine that is rated at 400 hp and 800 lb-ft of torque. I may have missed the muscle car horsepower race of the 1960’s, but I appear to be right in the middle of the pickup truck horsepower race of the 2010’s.
I have no idea why we need that much horsepower. It is, after all, a pickup truck.
In our defense, we do haul somewhat heavier loads than most contemporary pickup truck drivers. We’ve been known to put nearly 2000 pounds of firewood in the box of the pickup and then hitch up a trailer that weighs another 5000 or more pounds. That was with our old pickup. Something tells me that this new one, that gets its first firewood workout this weekend, won’t be straining much with that load.
Because we did quite a bit of shopping before finding the truck that we decided to buy I did a reasonable amount of research including looking at quite a few YouTube videos of truck comparisons. I already know we aren’t going to win any mileage contests, though the new pickup should produce significantly better mileage than our old gas model.
It all seems a bit overwhelming to me. I haven’t even begun to write about the price of a new pickup truck. I didn’t buy my Opel new, but in 1966, the headline in the Opel advertisement was, “How to remodel your garage for only $1618.” Of course I didn’t have a thousand dollars, let alone 1,600 in those days. I paid a little less than half of the new price when I obtained the car for $800. Along with the horsepower race, contemporary pickup trucks are in a kind of race to the top in terms of power. There are pickups on dealers’ lots in our area with sticker prices above $70,000. The price we paid for a 4-year-old pickup with nearly 50,000 miles on it was around $5,000 more than we paid for a new pickup ten years ago.
Just as I have no idea about why we need all of that horsepower, I must admit that I have no way of practically evaluating the price we paid. It certainly seems at the moment to be excessive. What business does a minister whose calling is to serve those who are poor and oppressed have spending that much money on a pickup truck? It is a good question and I’m not sure that I can justify the money that we spent. I’m not sure that I can justify that salary that the church pays me so that I can afford to make such a purchase. How is that fair when a preschool teacher doesn’t earn enough money to make rent and groceries? What is fair in an world where there are such radical differences between rich and poor.
The good news is that I’m reaching an age where there won’t be many more pickup truck purchases. I’m relieved. I have no desire to participate in a horsepower race that keeps going up and up along with a price race that clearly places such vehicles beyond the reach of most people.
Still, that engine does sound good. And it does feel good to drive that truck. I can’t wait to load it up and see what it will do.