How to Work Out a Car's Horsepower Per Ton
by C. Taylor
Everybody advertises a vehicle's horsepower, but horsepower by itself doesn't mean much. A heavy vehicle can bog down a high horsepower, resulting in poor performance. Likewise, a lighter vehicle doesn't need as much horsepower to go very fast. To take into account the weight of the car, performance enthusiasts frequently cite horsepower per ton. This gives a more accurate picture of a vehicle's performance by taking into account the horsepower as it relates to the weight it must move.
Step 1
Look up the vehicle's horsepower and weight in kilograms. These are usually available in the manufacturer's brochure or specification sheet.
Step 2
Convert kilograms into metric tons, which are most frequently used when calculating horsepower/ton. One metric ton equals 1,000 kilograms, so just divide the number of kilograms by 1,000 to get the number of metric tons, or tonnes.
Step 3
Divide the horsepower by the weight in metric tons. As an example, if you had a 400 hp car that weighed 1.5 metric tons, then it would have 267 hp/ton. If you had a 200 horsepower motorcycle that weighed just 200 kg (0.200 metric tons), it would have 1,000 hp/ton. Notice that the motorcycle has nearly four times as much horsepower per metric ton, even though it technically has half the actual horsepower.
References
Writer Bio
C. Taylor embarked on a professional writing career in 2009 and frequently writes about technology, science, business, finance, martial arts and the great outdoors. He writes for both online and offline publications, including the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Samsung, Radio Shack, Motley Fool, Chron, Synonym and more. He received a Master of Science degree in wildlife biology from Clemson University and a Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences at College of Charleston. He also holds minors in statistics, physics and visual arts.
