[Aerkuld]

Odd, we were having a discussion at work the other day which becomes relevant here.

We were discussing fast cars in the late 80's. Back then we considered a car with upwards of 200bhp to be a very fast car. The particular car we were talking about was the Ford Sierra Cosworth. I don't know if this will mean anything to anyone on this side of the pond, but it was thought of as a road going missile back in it's day. I was shocked to find it was only rated at just over 200bhp. But then I thought about the 911 back then, 220bhp at best and it was practically considered untouchable by most things on the road. Now put that into perspective with todays cars. You could go out and buy a minivan off just about any car lot with that much power. If you want to look at a super sedan then think about the AMG Mercedes with 800bhp or whatever it has. That's equivalent to a late 80's non-turbo F1 car for goodness sake!

So the relevant part. What is going to happen in another 20 years? Will we be seeing the power output of the average family car two times or four times higher than it is today? We thought that the days of the horsepower race are numbered and we are probably near the peak of outright horsepower. The way ahead for the high performance sports car is backwards. Back to light weight, small capacity engines, possibly turbo charged to give the power when it's needed and fuel economy when it isn't. The coming generation of sports cars will probably be all about efficiency. It isn't a stretch of the imagination to see this as a possibility, and not just for sportscars either. If fuel prices stay high then is the general consumer going to care about Sat Nav, thick padded leather seats, DVD entertainment systems, 1500 watt stereos, and 27 cup holders if it puts a drain on fuel consumption, or will they want transport that gives the 40mpg?

Hopefully this might see Porsche return to their roots; lightweight, high performance sports cars with relatively small engines, not that they are far from the mark with some of their current models.