Norm C32

Car and Driver just did a review of the 400hp Jaguar S-Type R. Though they did not identify specific hp rating in their article like Ward's Auto World did in the article below.

Basically the "real players" in the high performance market are honestly stateing SAE power like BMW and MB.

I wonder what Audi(VAG) is using? :P

Norm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jaguar Plays Fast and Loose With Horsepower

by Eric Mayne and Bill Visnic

WardsAuto.com, Apr 5 2002




DETROIT – Horsepower sells sports cars and Jaguar North America appears to be playing fast and loose with how it markets its numbers.

For its all-new S-Type R, Jaguar is reporting the 400-hp figure derived from a European rating system not commonly quoted by other auto makers for U.S.-market vehicles.

If the company used the same Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) net horsepower rating used by almost all auto makers selling vehicles in the U.S., the number would be a far-less sexy 388 hp.


2003 Jaguar S-Type R
The lower figure doesn’t pack the same wallop against main competitor BMW AG, and likely wouldn’t have the same marketing power – at least one automotive enthusiast magazine’s cover proclaims that S-Type R is packing 400 hp.

Why not reveal the 400-hp rating comes from a Deutsche Institut fur Normung (DIN) yardstick, instead of the more widely used SAE test?

"We’re not obliged to," a Jaguar spokesman tells Ward's, adding the practice will continue.

"In Europe there are EEC (European Economic Commission) directives which cover the test method for engine power and these tests are witnessed by a government agency. In the U.K., this is the Vehicle Certification Authority," the spokesman says.

"The SAE number used in the U.S.A. is to a different test procedure and correction standards and is only run by the manufacturers and not witnessed by any agency."

But the matter of who witnesses the test hardly is the issue. The DIN test derives a peak horsepower rating from a set of specific power correction standards that takes into account ambient temperature and pressure – both of which directly affect how much power an engine can produce. The DIN power correction standards allow an engine to generate a peak horsepower figure that is higher than the same engine would produce under SAE test procedures. Because the SAE procedure is the one commonly accepted in the U.S., almost all manufacturers selling vehicles in the U.S. report their horsepower rating based on the SAE test.

In preparation for $63,000 S-Type R’s debut next month, Jaguar has distributed vehicle specifications to the North American media. This has contributed to widespread reporting of the 400-hp rating without any proviso. All material seen by Ward's cites a 400-hp output – with no mention of DIN, though some press kits that make the distinction apparently exist. Ward's also has learned that all of Jaguar models’ quoted horsepower figures in the U.S. are based on the DIN test.

Similarly, some S-Type R consumer brochures in North America fail to make mention of the less-familiar German scale when bragging about the 400-hp rating, Ward's is told.

This gives S-Type R, with its supercharged 4.2L DOHC V-8, a significant advantage.

But Jaguar’s prime competitors – BMW of North America and Mercedes-Benz USA – will not compromise.

"You’ll never see us, in this market, claim that the M5 is 400," a BMW spokesman says. "Obviously, it would work well for us to be able to say that (M5 is) 400 hp in this market rather than the somewhat more complicated and perhaps less attractive-looking number of 394.

"The same is true for our X5 4.6is," BMW adds. "I believe that was 347 DIN, which would have put it just a shade higher than Cadillac Escalade, which I think is 345."

Using this logic, BMW could have claimed Escalade’s title of most powerful SUV on the market.

Similarly, Mercedes-Benz champions high-performance models such as the E-Class E55 AMG in line with its SAE net rating of 349. And that won’t change, a spokesman says, because the SAE standard is coin of the realm.

Will Jaguar’s sin of omission affect the way S-Type R competes in the market? Probably not, says Mike Wall, auto analyst with IRN Inc. Ultimately, sales will be made from behind the wheel. "Zero-to-60 is either 5 seconds or 6 seconds or it’s not," he says. It’s actually 5.3, Jaguar claims.

Wall expresses surprise at Jaguar’s approach, given the black eye its corporate parent – Ford Motor Co. – received some years ago when its Mustang Cobra failed to live up to horsepower claims.

"I would think you wouldn’t want to do that kind of, I don’t know if you want to call it shenanigans, but it’s not exactly straightforward."

A Ford spokesman says it has a broad-strokes policy governing engine testing, but because the auto maker is a global operation, variations occur from brand to brand.

emayne@primediabusiness.com

Lynn

1 DIN hp = .98269 SAE hp

400 DIN hp = 394.414 SAE hp

http://www.flash.net/~lorint/lorin/convert.htm

Mike T.

... "fur" is not a German word, in this context.

It should be written with an umlaut - "für" - or like this - "fuer".

I know it's a minor point, but it makes all the difference in pronunciation and meaning!

sosh

I would tend to believe that in the US at least all advertised HP is US brake Horsepower and that would be at the engine tailshaft not at the rear wheels. There is also thermal HP which is not talked about except in literature about commercial diesel engines