What does CC and horsepower actually mean in cars?
In: Engineering
Others have broken down the technicalities of cc and hp, but if you’re around car guys, it’s shorthand for “how powerful is your car?”
CC (cubic centimeters, or its American cousin, ci, cubic inches) is almost always directly related to power. The bigger the number, the more powerful your engine. Back in the muscle car days of the late 60s and 70s, you could roughly equate one cubic inch with one horsepower, so a “Chevy big-block 350” would make roughly 350 HP.
These days you’re more likely to hear displacement referred to in liters instead of cc or ci (smaller engines in ATVs or motorcycles will still use cc). There’s not much of a direct one-to-one for liters-to-horsepower as current engine technology is much more advanced than the 70s, but it’s not uncommon for a 6-liter V-8 engine to make well over 400 HP if it’s naturally aspirated (over 700 if it’s boosted with turbo or superchargers like a Dodge Hellcat). A Dodge Viper can make about 650 hp with a naturally aspirated 8.4 liter V-10.
Latest Answers