The big news from General Motors this week wasn't the announcement of the top-of-the-line Camaro ZL1—indeed, we've known about it for many months. Instead, it was just one number that was press release-wort
hy: namely, that the supercharged engine would put out a staggering 580 horsepower. Quoth the chief engineer: "The ZL1 delivers more horsepower than a Ferrari 458, more torque than an Aston Martin DB9 V12, and a better power-to-weight ratio than a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS." That's impressive stuff. It's also annoying news for Ford: It was previously rumored that their flagship pony, the Mustang GT500, w
ould get a mere 20hp bump next year from its current 550; now, it mi
ght as well enter the fray with a supercharged hand crank, or some direct-injection celery.
Horsepower showdowns are a familiar game in the automotive industry: Lest you think this is exclusively a lowbrow Yankee 
thing, the German trio of BMW, Mercedes, and Audi have also been duking it out with their suped-up super-sedans for years now. The Audi RS6 which packs 580 horses as well, looks like the king of the hill...for now. And it's not like it's a secret, either. Carmakers bank on the idea that when you pull up to the lights in your entry-level Bimmer and spot an M3 in all its 414-horsepower, ultra-Ultimate Driver's Machine glory, you will feel weak and inept, and torch your car to finance the down payment on an M5. They need that; the never-ending cycle of status symbols depends on your competitiveness. If you loved thy neighbor, you wouldn't one-up each other over and over, and would ditch your dueling muscle cars and ride tandem bicycles...or something.
We won't get into the ups and downs of testosterone-driven power games, because, aside from being a long-standing and rather intractable part of human nature, it's also what greases the wheels of automotive journalism. We love to write about new stuff, and you love reading about it. But one point that bears mentioning is how suspiciously marginal it's all become, the way that gains in the number race have gotten so microscopic as to
seem artificial. Lamborghini looks like it's making inroads on Ferrari with its Gallardo LP 560-4, with 560 horsepower; Ferrari comes out with its brand-new Italia, which has just 10 more; Lambo then conveniently ups its game with an LP 570, and so on. We're smart enough to know that Lamborghini could've easily made an LP 580, but no, they'll gladly save that one for next year.
We're dyed-in-the-blood consumers, children of capitalism. We accept
our roles as materialist gluttons, and the fact that the next big purchase is a carrot on a stick; given that, it doesn't take much to sate us. When we pay top dollar, all we wan
t is the feeling, however illusory, that what we've bought is the best possible product within the realm of science and technology, if only for a time. But when the stick is being dangled by marketers instead of engineers, and when the bids for our money are inching up with the regularity of an eBay auction? It feels like we've been had.
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