Engine power vs time/miles ?

[J4CKO]

Mentioned on another thread, do cars lose power over time and do some even gain some ?

I notice this when driving examples of the same car with the same engines, can never predict how well it will pull regardless of miles, ok, suspension can be more telling as can interior but sometimes you get an 150,000 miler than is better to drive than a 50,000 miler.

Some cars never make factory power or are consistently a little down like some M3's and some others like VAG 130 Tdi's seem to always make more.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Engines can be "tight" when new and should build to max power over a few thousand miles. But these days with good machining it's not all that likely.

Old engines can start to lose compression and drop power accordingly. Any engine which produces blue exhaust smoke under accelereation will almost certainly be down on power.

Nothing restricts power more effectively than a filthy blocked old air filter....

[Dave Hedgehog]

my R32 kept feeling quicker until about 40k miles

i think clarkson bought an old V12 S class merc with 100k that had only lost a handful of bhp

i guess its down to the quality of the engine, how its used and how its maintained

[BlitzE34]

Unstressed engines fair much better.