Power is not everything: Citroën Saxo Cup and Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio - a reminder

By the subjects I cover, I accept that it may sometimes look otherwise. Yet I do not usually write for people my age or older. We do not need anyone reminding us of what we already know inside out. Even if, eventually, we are bald. Cars used to be this, cars used to be that... you know the drill.

When I write about subjects such as this one, I am mainly writing for younger people. For our kids. Their motoring world is completely different from ours. So I am asking older readers to put down their phones, find something else to do and share this article with them. You will not learn anything.

Now that the older lot have left the room - in our day, there was something called mIRC and, for those even older, something called the postal service - let me tell you this: you may be the hardest generation in history to impress. You spoilt lot.

A generation raised on superlatives

You were born into an age of superlatives. The internet is fast, computers are fast, cars are fast and even food is fast. The only things you are not quick at are getting a home or moving forward in your career.

Do not take offence. The problem is not yours, after all. My generation - only now beginning to reach positions of power - and, above all, the generations before mine owe you an apology. They are the ones who left the country in this state.

But let us return to cars before you get depressed - I know that happens more often in your generation... To make my point, allow me to begin with two extremes: the Ferrari F40 and the McLaren F1. Both cars defined a generation, yet their numbers alone might not even earn a news headline today.

Ferrari F40, McLaren F1 and the normalisation of power

The Ferrari F40 produced 478 hp, less power than the Zeekr 7GT I drove a few weeks ago. The McLaren F1 had 627 hp, below the 680 hp of the new Mercedes-AMG CLA 45.

The older readers still here will already be grumbling: “Oh, come on, it is not the same thing.” Well, of course it is not. A number cannot measure weight, involvement, character or emotion. I am not claiming these cars are comparable. What I am saying is that seeing these figures over and over has made us numb to their sheer brutality.

I remember seeing the McLaren F1 launch on the television news. It was an event - not least because you could not “rewind” and watch it again. Today, looking at Automotive Reason’s audience figures, even cars with more than 1000 hp struggle to catch your attention.

And we do not even have to go that far back. In 2012, the year we founded Automotive Reason, we were all amazed by the Bugatti Veyron’s 1001 hp. On a more down-to-earth level, there was the Nissan GT-R, which arrived in Europe with 485 hp. Fortunately, Porsche’s GT range still seems immune to this normalisation of absurd power outputs - I shared a video about that a few lines above.

As Agostinho da Silva used to say, we are all contemporaries - something I only discovered by chance now, at 40. I am living through the same time as you, but my reference points are different. That is why I want you to know there was a time when 120 hp was a huge amount. Even less, in fact.

Citroën Saxo Cup and the value of 120 hp

When I was your age, my dream had a name: the Citroën Saxo Cup, a hot hatch with a naturally aspirated engine, low weight and “just” 120 hp. It is true that many of them did not keep those 120 hp for very long, but that is a story for another day...

The lesson in all this is straightforward: power is not everything. The Saxo Cup did not need four figures on its specification sheet to earn a place in the Olympus of our collective memory.

Perhaps Automotive Reason has a responsibility here, proportionate to its size. In other words, a modest one, but no less important: not to allow - or help - your generation to be numbed by numbers or by the “big bold claims” in press headlines, where we naturally include ourselves.

That is why, before long, you will join us on a journey through Italy at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, with its modest - by today’s standards - 520 hp. The trip ended in Rome and formed part of what many call the most beautiful race in the world: the Mille Miglia. It will be worth it.

If this article reached you and you are reading this paragraph, then this whole homily has already been worthwhile. You have proved that younger people’s attention spans are not, after all, limited to 10 seconds of TikTok. And if you are older, it proves that we really do become stubborn with age. I told you this article was not for you, yet you stayed... You did not learn anything, did you? I warned you.