I’ve been watching car videos lately that are from other countries and when they begin to talk about horsepower they use “cc” instead. What is the differance between them and how much cc equal 1 horsepower
Thanks
Power is measured only in horsepower (HP) and kilowatts (kW).
Any reference you see to cc refers to displacement - the size of the engine, which is measured in cubic inches displacement (cid), liters (l) or cubic centimeters (cc). There are 1000 cc in a liter.
For example, the size of the engine in my old BMW 328 is 2800 cc, or 2.8 liters, which is equal to 171 cubic inches.
cc is the metric version of “cubic inches” and is a measure of displacement, or the size of the engine. Motorcycles and other small engines are 500cc or 750cc for instance. These are probably very small and efficent cars you are reading about if the engine size is given in cc. Larger cars would be talking about displacement in terms of liters. For instance a 2.2L is a 2.2 liter engine, which would be a 2,200 cc engine.
The number of horsepower per cc varies from engine to engine. There are 1,000 cc motorcycle engines that generate up to 100 hp. Motorcycle motors don’t have to deal with enviornmental contraints and can be tuned for max hp. Car motors have to meet government requirements here and abroad so they would get less hp per cc.
Cc’s are cubic centimeters of displacement. Just like cubic inches of displacement. What you do with that displacement is up to the engine designer.
Tester
The displacement is computed by multiplying:
(the area of the top of the piston)
times the
(length the piston travels from bottom to top)
times the
(number of cylinders in the engine).
FYI: The Beauty Of The Metric System.
cc = ml (one cubic centimeter = one millilter)
A cubic centimeter (cc) (cm is centimeter)) is a cube that measures 1cm X 1cm X 1cm
centi means hundredth (hundreth of a meter)
A milliliter (ml) is one-thousandth of a liter (volume)
milli means thousandth
This handy feature of the metric system allows easy conversion from length measurements to volume. A space that is 25cm long X 10cm wide X 10cm high, for example would be 25 X 10 X 10 = 2500cc. Since cc = ml and there are 1000cc (or 1000ml) in a liter, then 2500/1000 = 2.5L or 2.5 liters!
CSA
P.S. Now where did I leave my 19/32" wrench?
Motorcycles and other small engines are 500cc or 750cc
Hold on there, my motorcycle is 200 cc. Back 30 years ago 200 cc was a respectable size engine for a motorcycle. 
It’s not all government regulations, motorcycles have emmission standards also, although the standards are not quite as stringent as those that apply to cars.
Today’s motorcycle engines totally outclass those that were manufactured back in the days when motorcycles had no emmission standards at all. Powerful engines can be clean.
I believe the real reason you don’t see 100 horsepower 600cc engines that rev 12,000 to 14,000 rpm in cars is because car drivers want engines that last 250,000+ miles more than they want the world’s most powerful one-liter engine bragging rights.
My theory on the legendary longevity of BMW motorcycles: These bikes last forever mostly because this brand is almost exclusively owned by grownups.
Yeah, what he said! My first “bike” was 90cc Honda S90 back in the 60s. 500cc was ginormous based on my recollection. Most people with means were running around on 200-250cc bikes, at least the metric crowd. My brother had a small (~250cc) Harley around that time.
Did you hear “CV”?
CV, or cavallino vapore (“steam horses”) is an old power unit of measure, still used by Ferrari, that is roughly equivalent to horsepower.
In more detail:
"…horsepower in watts (since a watt “W” is simply a meter-newton per second), namely 1 hp = 745.69987158227022 W exactly. There’s (almost) no need to say that everybody usually rounds this up in the most obvious way: 1 hp ? 745.7 W.
In countries where the metric system has been around for a while, the horsepower (ch) is a 1.37% smaller unit, called Pferdest?rke (PS) in German, paardekracht (pk) in Dutch, h?stkraft (hk) in Swedish, caballo de vapor (CV) in Spanish, cavalo-vapor in Portuguese, cavalli vapore in Italian…
The French call it cheval-vapeur (ch) or simply cheval (plural is chevaux). This “metric” horsepower (ch) is defined as 75 kgf-m/s, which engineers used to abbreviate as 75 kgm/s, using the obsolete symbol kgm for a “technical” unit of energy called kilogrammetre or kilogram-meter and worth 9.80665 J (that same unit of energy was also called kilopond-meter and abbreviated kpm ). A metric horsepower (ch) is thus (75)(9.80665), or exactly 735.49875 W."
If you buy French, Portuguese, German or Italian wine you will see 750 cc or ml (milliliters) on the bottle in addition to fluid ounces (for Americans). The 750 cc size is the internationally accepted size of a regular wine bottle; just enough for 2 to enjoy a great dinner and get slightly tipsy.
When you hear someone in a bar order a “CC” with ice, it means “Canadian Club”, a rye whisky made by Hiram Walker Distilling.
Yeah, great info!
I thought it was funny that Ferrari still uses CV to measure power of their engines. Whatever Enzo wanted, he got.
I Thought 750cc Was The Approximate Fine And Court Costs For 2 Who Were Caught Driving, Slightly Tipsy, After Enjoying The Bottle Of Wine - $750 Cold Cash (750cc).
CSA
It gets even more confusing in France (doesn’t everything?) because they have a CV rating for all cars that is used for tax and registration purposes. Larger CV numbers mean higher taxes and registration fees. This statutory CV rating isn’t really related to the actual horsepower of the car, but it is calculated from displacement and physical size of the car, and who knows what else. The unlamented 2CV (once sold as the Escargot in the US) was called that because it was rated 2CV for tax purposes. It wasn’t really only 2 horsepower, though it was a pretty anemic little car. My 750 CC BMW motorcycle was rated (I think) 8CV when I lived in France.
Drinking 1/2 a bottle of wine with 12% alcohol content over a 2 hour period will not likely get an average adult’s blood alcohol count up to the illegal .08% level. That may be another reason the winemakers do not sell larger bottles in restaurants.
Europeans use D.I.N.(Deutsche Industriele Norme) horsepower, vs the new SAE used in North America. The old SAE was wildly optimisitic and was run without any accessories, no exhaust pipe, fan, etc. It always made me wonder why the 140 HP in my 1965 Dodge Dart compared so poorly with the meagre 90 HP in my friend’s European car.
I think it had 24 HP, just like the original Beetle. I thought the “2” stood for the 2 cylinder engine. I borrowed one of these babies from an American tourist when in Rome years ago. The handling was dreadful, the steering heavy, but it really sipped gas.
Some European countries still have the term “taxable horsepower” which is a meaningles figure as far as power is concerned and mainly deals with displacement, and in the UK with the BORE of the engine. As a result they built a lot of fast wearing narrow bore engines in the UK to keep the tax down.
Docnick said:
If you buy French, Portuguese, German or Italian wine you will see 750 cc or ml (milliliters) on the bottle in addition to fluid ounces (for Americans). The 750 cc size is the internationally accepted size of a regular wine bottle; just enough for 2 to enjoy a great dinner and get slightly tipsy.
I have NEVER seen a bottle of wine ever state the contents using “cc”. They ALWAYS use millilitre (mL). cc is an incorrect abbreviation.
SI (Système international d’unités) does not use abbreviations as a short hand for unit representation. It uses internationally recognized symbols. The correct symbol for cubic centimetre is cm³.
No standards organization recognizes cc.
Wine bottle are not required to state contents in ounces and thus only a few American ones do and their usage is not consistent. If ounces do appear it is only on the label. Some wine bottles have the size etched in the bottom of the bottle, but only in millilitres.
“Hold on there, my motorcycle is 200 cc. Back 30 years ago 200 cc was a respectable size engine for a motorcycle. :-)”
Yeah, these days you need a 6200cc engine to show everyone that you mean business:)
http://www.bosshoss.com/view_bike.asp?x=BHC3LS3SS