SEAHORSES

Power has long been the goal of many, from gladiators in the arena to money-hungry rich-listers and dictators the world over. For the rest of us, the glory rests with another type of power — the cubic-inch kind — which has long been advertised by car manufacturers as a big carrot to potential buyers. From the early Holden engines of the ’90s, initially bragging of 248hp power plants to the new Dodge Demon’s 808hp engine, the rhetoric is always the same, with bank balances the only thing dropping as dyno numbers and rev-counter needles take a climb every year.

There’s something about that V8 rumble: the sound of the sometimes ear-splitting exhaust notes, the vibration as someone stamps on the loud pedal, the all-important smell created when the rubber and paved areas disagree a little … Funnily enough, for some, the latter effect doesn’t come into the