Global warming isn't the big ticket issue anymore, people; not with monsters like this running around. This beefed up 540 cubic inch Rat motor-powered Camaro with a pair of 88mm turbochargers threatens our very way of life: It's slowing the spin of the planet with every drag launch. We've got to act! This calls for emergency legislation, a government-sponsored task force and a book deal, stat.

The exact details on this weapon of mass tire destruction remain fuzzy, but our agents in the field are saying it's estimated to produce 2,800 Horsepower on only 25 pounds of boost pressure. 2,800 Horsepower! It's our firm belief that any more than Toyota gives us in the Prius is just a waste.

Now, we know there's no actual data that this car or any car is slowing the Earth's spin. But it could happen! I'm super cereal, guys.

[V8TV]

The Best Value: The Shop-Vac - $21.60 per HP
At a price of just $108.000 (with free shipping), the 5-gallon Shop-Vac is a surprisingly great deal. You get a whopping five horsepower, which gives you a value of $21.60-per-horsepower. Of course, you can't actually drive it anywhere, but HammSammich was correct in pointing out the great value for a new product.

The Worst Value: AH-64 Apache Helicopter - $2,404.44 per HP
Powered by twin GE turboshaft engines good for 1,622 shaft-horsepower each, the AH-64A helicopter would seem like a great deal. Unfortunately, the delivery cost of $7.8 million cuts into the power advantage, and that's excluding development costs. The overall value is $2,404-per-horsepower, way too high for anyone but the defense department. On the other hand, it's the only thing on the list that comes fully loaded with an insane arsenal.

Best Land Vehicle: Suzuki Hayabusa Motorcycle - $61.85 per HP
There's no denying Picarso was right when he said that bikes are hard to beat in the bang-for-buck category. The 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa achieves an impressive 194 horsepower, all while costing a relatively inexpensive $11,999, for a total horsepower cost of $61.85 per HP.

Most Expensive Land Vehicle: Big Rig - $248.24 per HP
Though a used truck, like the one Unevolved found, offers a lot of horsepower for a low price, a newer truck is going to set you back. We spec'd a new Volvo 630 midroof truck and found that, with just 425 horses, the $105,500 price tag wasn't going to cut it. However, for that $248.24 per HP you get a vehicle that can tow anything else here.

An Actual Horse: $335.57 per HP
When Stoatmaster suggested an actual horse, we had to check and see how much power a horse truly puts out. A study in the July 1993 issue of Nature found that the max horsepower for a horse is actually around 15 horsepower. We looked at a lot of horses and found a pulling horse for $5,000, which seemed like a good deal. Unfortunately, at $335.57 per HP there's little value in a horse by this measure.

Best Car Value: Tata Nano & Ford F25 SuperDuty V8 - $75.76/$76.17 per HP
Though we thought it would be hard to top the Tata Nano, which only costs $2,500 after all, we have to give the Ford F250 SuperDuty and Eligh some credit. Though the Tata comes in at a low $75.76 per HP, the Ford and its low entry-level MSRP of $22,850 combined with 300 horseys is quite close at just $76.16 per HP. It won't look like quite a value when you factor in the price of gas, though.

Conclusion
While dollar-per-horsepower can be seen as a reasonable measure when comparing similar vehicles in the same class, there are too many factors that go into vehicles (and vacuum cleaners) to make it a true benchmark of value. That being said, this exercise clearly indicates the actual market value of horsepower compared to the other features.

And what about modified vehicles? If you could boost the output of the Nano to just 40 horsepower you'd be looking at just $63 per horsepower. These are all our quick calculations based on what comes to mind. What's the best deal in production cars? What's the best deal in modified vehicles? Go forth and multiply (well, divide). The more proof for your proof, the better, as we may feature the ten best finds in a later post.

But brother, if you bought yourself an already hot as a slider burger straight off the grill Dodge Viper, consider yourself lucky. Because, my friend, you just got a free upgrade of scorching hot fries in the 10 hp upgrade you'll be receiving.

Toyota, Honda must fess up to less vroom [Detroit News]

Related:
Universal Horsepower Testing Busts Japanese Carmakers [internal]

Whoops. If you bought a 2006 Acura RSX, expect to get five fewer horsepower than the 2005 model. Buy an '06 Corvette LS7, however, and you'll gain an equal number over 2005. What happened? It seems Japanese automakers' overselling of their cars' horsepower was outed by their moving to the new, third-party horsepower standards set by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in their marketing. The SAE recently changed its testing procedures to make the numbers more relevant to real-world use, not in ideal conditions. According to the Detroit News, Toyota and Honda are retesting their entire vehicle lineups, while other automakers are retesting only cars and trucks with updated powertrains. Will the nearly assured backlash among enthusiasts provide an image boost to struggling US carmakers? Or will no one really care? Seriously, we're asking — tips@jalopnik.com.

Asians oversell horsepower [The Detroit News]

Related:
Next Stop, Burnoutville: Cadillac STS-V Gets Official Horsepower Rating [internal]

It's not often when the closing of loopholes reveals good news for a company. In Cadillac's case, it resulted in a horsepower bump for its 4.4-liter supercharged Northstar V8. GM announced back in April it was the first automaker to follow the SAE's new voluntary, third-party power and torque testing and certification procedure, which was designed to eliminate automakers' use of "best-case" scenarios when rating horsepower, making the results more likely to be repeatable in the smoggy, humid environs of the real world. For the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, the first GM car to be tested using the new procedure, the result were a rating of 505hp from its 7.0-liter powerplant. In the case of the Cadillac STS-V, the SAE results topped GM's estimated figure of 440hp, with ratings of 469hp at 6,400 rpm and 439ft/lbs of torque at 3,900 rpm.

2006 STS-V Reaches New Performance Level [Dubspeed Racing]

Related:
Cadillac STS-V: Closer Still to the Autobahn [internal]

At the risk of sounding like Brock Yates (Hi Brock!), this New York Times article steamed us somewhat. When the Honda Accord Hybrid hit the streets, we were elated finally somebody had come up with a real-world application for hybrids that married performance and economy. Think of the hybrid Accord this way it has the fuel economy of a large-ish four and makes more grunt than some recent 8s, using the hybrid system as a power-adder. Now the Times, flagship paper of a city of people whose knowledge of cars often doesn't go beyond the back seat of Crown Victorias or Town Cars, starts hemming and hawing over the fact that some people out there would actually want hybrid performance cars. In essence, they're comparing kumquats to watermelons. Where they should be comparing the Accord Hybrid to vehicles like the Dodge Charger and Pontiac Grand Prix, they're instead trying to force it into an Insight metric, which, to quote the mighty H sker D , makes no sense at all.

Hybrid Cars Burning Gas in the Drive for Power [New York Times]

Related:
Jalopnik Reviews: Toyota Highlander Hybrid Part 1, 2 and 3 [Internal]