I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I recently purchased a 1963 Dodge D100 for trips to the dump and lumberyard. The truck has a 198 cubic inch
Slant-6 rated at 127 Gross hp. It weighs just a tad under 4000 lbs with me in it. Since modern cars are rated in net vs. gross hp, which is generally about 80% of the gross number. That would put my truck at right around 100 hp. Last time I took it to the dump I dropped off 1/2 ton of garbage. While I wouldn't be winning any drag races, I had no problem keeping up with traffic or mantaining the speed limit. That's at 50 lbs/hp (albiet only around 35lbs/ft-lb). Compare that to a Honda Fit economy car, which weighs probably around 2650 with a driver and tank of gas, and has 109 hp and 105 ft-lbs. That's 24 lbs/hp and 25 lbs/ft-lb. To match the numbers for my loaded truck it would only need 53 hp and/or 75 ft-lbs. To match my unloaded truck it would only need 66 hp and/or 94 ft-lbs
Still, you could easily make that with a properly tuned 1.2L engine, maybe even a 1.0L.
I think Americans have been fooled into thinking they "need" hp, when in reality, a slow-turning, torquey engine would be far more efficient while still producing acceptable acceleration. A 1.5L Atkinson cycle engine in that Honda would likely net a massive increase in mpg albeit at the expense of unneeded acceleration potential. Sounds like a fair trade to me as gas approaches $4/gallon.
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