Car language splits into two halves, and telling them apart saves a lot of arguing. Some of it is measurement: horsepower, torque and displacement are defined quantities with units behind them, and a spec sheet quoting them means something specific. The rest is category: hot hatch, supercar, JDM, GT. Those are words the motoring press settled on, not classifications anybody certifies, which is why no two people draw the lines in quite the same place.
Power, in numbers
- What is horsepower? The unit itself, and the number behind it.
- What does BHP mean? Where the figure is measured, and why that matters.
- What is torque in a car? The turning force behind the shove.
- Torque vs horsepower. Two measurements, one engine.
- What does 0-60 mph mean? A stopwatch figure with no standard behind it.
- What is engine displacement? An engine's size, worked out properly.
How the engine breathes
- How does a turbocharger work? Exhaust in, extra air out.
- What does naturally aspirated mean? Breathing without help.
The kinds of car
- What is a hot hatch? Sensible shape, unreasonable engine.
- What is a supercar? A word with no threshold.
- What is a JDM car? What the letters literally mean.
- What does GT mean on a car? A description, not a badge.
None of this is here to sell you anything. When the reading is done and a wall is the next question, the art is where the pictures start and the wall deals with size and framing.
Written by Craig Fearn, Petrol & Ink. Last updated .