Muscle car talk: What If We Had Buffalo Power?

By Mark Weisseg

Everything we do today regarding our cars is brag about horsepower. The Hellcat has 707 horsepower, the other Challengers have 385 or 425 horsepower. That’s what everyone talks about. Bring a hot car to a show and someone will ask you about your horsepower, but what if we lived in an alternative universe and Buffalo or bison was the measure?

Well, if we turn in the way back machine and look at the picture you see two buffalo power. Or is it 2 Bison power? Either way it beat walking. These huge animals went fast if need be but stopping the beasts was hard and slow (..they only had drum brakes). The other disadvantage to the two animal power is what came out the rear pipes at any given time. No matter what form of device you used the stench was awful. Imagine a big date and you are in hot and heavy mode. Then, splash and whoosh. Moment lost, rocket ship down for good.
Luckily, the majority used horses and that became our base power reading, so we don’t have to talk about these days having a car over 500BBP (brake bison power). If we did, we wouldn’t know any different anyway, but it’s good to fantasize sometimes….

Moving forward to today we are hung up on the horses but we also worry about how to stop. Thank you brake people for employing the correct braking devices on my big horsepower engine. Also, thank goodness who ever writes the slang we use to make it horsepower. I would dread to say to my fast muscle car friends that I have 725 bison power under the hood of my Mustang. It looses its punch and, for all you engineers who invented exhaust systems I am forever in your debt. Just look at where we were at one time. Remember when the catalytic converter first came on cars? Remember when you complained about the rotten egg smell?
You see the car industry could have taken many different turns over its long life, but lucky for us, it’s been optimised to the great cars we have today.

Just look at the picture and say thank you. You never know, the Mustang could’ve ended up being called the Ford Buffalo…. No comments please Chevy guys…ahem!

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