The exclusive 200 PS Club
09/14/2014
While nowadays every second turbo diesel achieves 200 hp and more, in the late 1950s the average consumer usually had to make do with 20 to 50 hp, if he could afford a car at all. 200 horsepower was an almost unimaginably high engine output and only very few people had ever seen an automobile that developed that much power.
In 1958, for example, there were just four European automobiles that were able to coax more than 200 hp from their engines.
Jaguar offered the XK 150 with 213 hp for 24,500 francs.
Ferrari could boast 240 hp with the 250 Europa (pictured above), but charged 44,500 francs for it.
Maserati offered the GT 3500 with 240 hp for 4.6 million lire.
And at Mercedes Benz, you could order a 300 SL Roadster with 250 hp for 39,800 francs.
By comparison, the VW Beetle Standard cost 5555 francs in Switzerland.
So the 200 hp sports car club comprised four cars. There were also a handful (or more) Americans, which were less sporty but no less powerful. On the other side of the Atlantic, 200 hp was the norm and neither Studebaker, nor Oldsmobile, Ford, Buick or Chevrolet wanted to be left behind.
If you wanted to found a similarly exclusive club of high-performance vehicles today, you would probably have to set the limit at 600 or 700 hp.
