whats the difference between brake horse power and horse power

[matt66]

Are they the same thing?. My american friends say they have never heard of brake horse power.

[jake-the-peg]

Brake horse power is the power deliverred by the engine before it looses power to transmission, diff drive the alternator etc. etc.

2 different cars may have the same engine with the same bhp but may have different horse power

See here for all the horsepowers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower

[Catso]

I haven't looked at the wikipedia, but I think BHP is the power produced by the engine when working against a load (IE braked). HP is with no load.

HP is normally lower than BHP (for ICEs) because they produce more power when loaded. Which is why at a constant accelerator setting, you slow down when going up a hill but will maintain the slower speed.

HP is rarely used now (in relation to cars) and it is likely that an HP quoted will in fact be BHP.