heres a little article i found while looking through stuff...
THE BIG THREE are gloating about new Society of Automotive Engineers horsepower-rating standards that have "adjusted" numbers, especially for Japanese automakers. It seems Honda, Toyota, and Nissan took advantage of old SAE standards that allowed minimal oil in the crankcase and "simulated" exhaust systems to make their numbers. It must be emphasized that no automaker did wrong in interpreting the old SAE rules and estimating horsepower, but the new rules have seen a number of Japanese models, particularly Honda and Toyota, lose horses, while American cars generally have gained.
One of the biggest gainers is the Cadillac XLR-v, rated 469 horsepower, up from an earlier 440-horsepower estimate. The Corvette Z06 is the most famous case, having gained five horsepower to 505. Big losers include the Acura MDX, down from 265 to 253 horses, the Acura RL, off 10 to 290 horses, the Lexus LS 430, 278 horses, and the Toyota Avalon, 268 horses, both off 12 horses. It sounds like a bad day on Wall Street.
The Pontiac G6's 3.5-liter V-6 is up one horse to 201, though this pushrod engine is still less powerful than Toyota's 3.3-liter four-valve V-6, which lost 15 horses, dropping back to 210. The popular 3.0-liter V-6 Camry is now rated 190 horsepower, down from 225, and the four-cylinder Camry is rated 154 horsepower, down from 160. One curiosity of the new SAE system is that horsepower figures won't be rounded to the fives and 10s anymore. Indeed, the new Civic Si comes in at 197 horsepower, instead of the nice, fat, round 200 horses Honda had once promised.
But does it matter? This year looks like 1972, when SAE net ratings replaced the gross ratings, which measured the horsepower and torque of U.S. engines running on the dyno with no ancillary items attached. Let's hear it for better accuracy and a more realistic idea of what kind of horsepower internal-combustion engines make.
