Absolute Power

Insanely powerful cars like the Dodge Viper can be downright scary to drive. + enlarge image  |  view gallery >

The current sports car paradigm seems to be 500 horsepower — a level achieved or exceeded by various exotics, as well as a Ford (the 550-hp GT), a Chevrolet (the 505-hp Corvette Z06) and a Dodge (the 500-hp Viper SRT-10). Yet, the Toyota-engined, 190-hp Lotus Elise will literally run rings around many of them, proving that light weight, a good power-to-weight ratio and superb handling can trump brute force.

Huge horsepower will push a sports car to huge speeds — over 200 mph, in several cases — while the Elise, 170-hp MX-5 and 240-hp Honda S2000 run out of steam far sooner. Because most drivers will never take a high-horsepower car to its top speed, consider whether having nothing more than bragging rights is worth the substantial cost.

If you do choose a high-horsepower car, it will be equipped with traction control or an electronic stability system. Unless you're a pro — which is unlikely if you're reading this article — do not be tempted to turn it off. You won't believe how quickly a car smoking its rear tires can turn around and bite you, especially on a damp road. (A friend who didn't believe this totaled his brand-new Corvette the very first time he tried driving it without the benefit of its traction control — and that was on a dry road.)

The Pontiac Solstice isn't potent, but it's light and nimble and an absolute blast on back roads. + enlarge image  |  view gallery >

Also, be aware that driving a nimble, small car can actually be more challenging  fun than simply being along for the ride in a torque-monster. Certainly a Porsche Turbo or Dodge Viper will provide the exhilaration of acceleration (zero to 60 mph in 3.8 and 3.9 seconds, respectively), but driving one to anything approaching its cornering limits requires serious racing skills. A smaller and lighter Porsche Boxster, Pontiac Solstice or Lotus Elise offers more unfiltered sports car feel and feedback at 60 mph on a twisty back road than a street racer with steamroller-sized tires will at twice that speed.

Don't assume that an engine's cylinder count or number of camshafts is a measure of anything more than its complexity — and, inevitably, of the expense of maintaining and servicing it. Some of the finest race car engines of all time have had just four cylinders, and the Honda S2000's high-revving, four cylinder power plant (with an astounding 8,900-rpm redline) is in some ways as remarkable an engine as a Ferrari V12. And the Mazda RX-8 has no cylinders at all, because it's powered by a two-rotor Wankel engine. (Read more about this unique engine in the sidebar to our RX-8 review.

Turbochargers were once all the rage, but few sports cars have them today (the exceptions being the Porsche 911 Turbo, the Audi TT, the rare Spyker C8 and the enormously powerful AMG version of the Mercedes-Benz SL). Turbocharging is better suited to boosting the output of small engines (like the Audi's) than it is to pumping up the power of big-bore power plants, partly because a turbo's boost can be sudden and unpredictable for the average driver.

More common these days is supercharging (see the Chrysler Crossfire, Ford GT, Jaguar XKR, Mercedes McLaren SLR, Mosler MT900 and Panoz Esperante). The power delivery of a supercharged engine can be nearly as substantial as a turbo's while also being more linear. The disadvantage is that a supercharger — or blower, as they're sometimes called — saps a small amount of engine power at all times, while an exhaust-driven turbocharger simply coasts during routine cruising and easy acceleration. Even under hard acceleration, a turbo provides "free" extra power, other than the minor effect of increased exhaust back pressure.