The people from Jalopnik have come to a rather logical conclusion recently: getting a 500 HP car today is rather easy and cheap. It wasn’t always this way. No longer than say 15 years ago, 500 HP was a figure that instilled fear in the eyes of scared wives sitting in the passenger seat and made people gasp at Cars & Coffee events. That’s no longer the case as performance has gone up and prices have come down, one example being the BMW X4 M Competition.
The Jalopnik team has therefore set out to prove that a 500 HP car is no longer as dangerous as it used to be. In order to do so, they put three very different cars together and examined them closely — the BMW X4 M Competition, the Ford Mustang GT350 and the Acura NSX. While the BMW and Ford are rather affordable, the NSX is a bit on the expensive side. However, the Japanese car is the only one here you could actually compare to a supercar. Furthermore, I have a hunch it was just on the premises and they decided to somehow include it in the video.
When comparing the three, the BMW X4 is the slowest of the bunch and the least powerful, that’s true. However, Mike does have a good point about the usability of these cars. If you’re only going to get one 500 HP car, then the logical choice is the BMW X4 M Competition. It has four seats, it’s an SUV so it can go further than the other two and it has a usable boot. Furthermore, it will deliver all the adrenaline shots you could want.
In the end though, not everyone’s cut from the same cloth. Some might prefer the BMW, others might prefer the Acura while a lot of people would go for the Mustang GT350. Truth be told, I think I’d also go for the Mustang, as it brings a really interesting mix to the table for a very good price. Not to mention the fact that it comes with a flat-plane V8 and a manual gearbox. The guys from Jalopnik seem to agree as well but what would you pick?
