Since we are seeking the truth, it is time to put some blatant fibs to bed. Jaguar’s E-type engine did not produce 265bhp. Perhaps in a test cell with everything stripped away, power might have increased. But there would still be some wishful thinking to get to the heady heights of 265bhp. Until perhaps the start of the seventies, manufacturers presented their power outputs as Gross BHP. The standard was US based and displayed as Gross Power SAE (Society of American Engineers) and would lead to outputs way in excess of reality. Basic power was measured with an engine stripped of absolutely everything that might absorb even half a brake horsepower. Take that to mean no dynamo, alternator, water pump and even the oil pump if the oil could be pumped into the engine under a different medium. Fuelling and exhaust had to be at the optimum level too. Conditions would be perfect during the test; correct temperatureEven, then some kind of mathematical equation was sought to perfect the readings. In other words, no production engine ever fitted to a car would see these so called quoted SAE outputs.
