‘This Hellephant is a beast:’ FCA unveils 1,000-horsepower 426 Hemi engine at SEMA 2018. World so not shocked. World thinks it’s awesome anyway. World right.

Photo by Bill Hayward.

You’ve got to give FCA credit: they sure know how to put on one Hellephant of a show at a tradeshow.

A ginormous crowd was gathered at the FCA booth on the lower level South Hall at the Las Vegas convention center, well ahead of the traditional 4:26 p.m. start time, commemorating the 426-cubic-inch displacement of the original Mopar hemi engine.

The 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata is getting more horsepower. And we approve.

Photo: Mazda USA Newsroom.

Ah, Miata. The car that, in spite of sometimes being maligned as a “chick-mobile” or “secretary’s car,” has earned a reputation as the world’s best selling roadster, the world’s most raced car, and the universal solution to how an enthusiast on a budget can gain entry into ownership of a true sports car.

Horsepower, Storage Space Losing Ground as Automotive Purchasing Decision Drivers, Survey Says

Muscle-car V8s boasted impressive power for their day. But

thanks to engineering advances, some 4-cylinder engines of

today can rival their power.  Photo: Christopher Ziemnowicz 

(released to the Public Domain).

For the past several years, the automotive media has been packed with commentary about a "horsepower renaissance," with four-cylinder motors of today boasting horsepower figures that could embarrass ginormous V8 engines from the peak of the muscle-car era.

Driven by advances in automotive engineering, horsepower has been touted as a selling point, at least to consumers with "enthusiast tendencies."

But is interest in horsepower now on the wane?