Dollar Per Horsepower, You Can’t Go Wrong With These 11 Cars
The appeal of a car is often much more complicated than its spec sheet, but when you’re in the hunt for a performance bargain, horsepower and dollars matter. Specifically, getting the most of the former for the least of the latter. You’ll likely find yourself asking, what is power truly worth?
About $837 per horsepower, according to our data. Let us explain.
As of this writing, Hagerty tracks the prices of 32,957 cars and trucks in our valuation database. Factoring in everything from a 12-hp Isetta to a 1001-hp Veyron, the average value of each horsepower sits right about $837. (On average, for example, a 201-hp car will cost $837 more than a 200-hp car.) That made us curious for more information, so we ventured back into the numbers to find the vehicles with the highest horsepower that fell below that average value. That is, the vehicles that offer the most output for the least money. Though we threw trucks into the mix, the raucous Dodge SRT/10, sadly, didn’t make the cut.
A brief disclaimer before we dive in: There are delightful deals to be had for much, much less than the cars featured within this list. We support your automotive performance journey in just about any four- or two-wheeled vehicle you choose, and a Ferrari 599 GTB isn’t a pocket-change purchase for most people. This list represents a very specific slice of data: These are 11 cars with the highest factory horsepower that can be had for less than our Hagerty Price Guide-determined $837-per-hp average.
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2011–2012 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Super Snake Coupe
Power: 800 hp
HPG #3 (Good) condition value: $62,000
Price per horsepower: $78
Praised by Car and Driver as “the first GT500 that truly handles well,” the 2011 Shelby GT500 brought an aluminum-block engine that improved front-end weight distribution over the previous GT500’s iron block. Handling, rather than raw power, was the news for this GT500; until Shelby trotted out the Super Snake package. An upgraded supercharger (a Ford Racing Whipple unit), Ford Racing adjustable dampers, and a 3.73:1 rear end combined for tauter handling and 200 more horsepower. The highest available tune boosted output to 800 horsepower, up from the GT500’s 550, all clad in the signature Shelby stripes.
