doncornaldie wrote:400+ hp is good for a performance luxury car. 500+ is m5 territory, and over 600 is unrealistic.

Well, that's like, you know, your opinion

In more seriousness, this is actually a big question. One which, in the bigger picture, does seem ridiculous. I think luxury is superfluous, but on the same token, you'd have very good reason to argue that oodles of horsepower is irrelevant. I refer to the Porsche Cayenne as one of the worst inflictions of motoring upon the planet since 2000 not just because it epitomises everything wrong about mass produced vehicles, but because it was (and continues to be) so damn popular.
Point is, this is a market driven industry and it's given to one upmanship. The steadily increasing outputs within most classes of vehicle is, to me, more than just engineering. And when it comes to competing manufacturers, psyching each other out is common (and something we just saw hehe). In reality I agree who the hell needs over 450hp in a sedan? But I've been intoxicated by petrol fumes and massive numbers, so you can expect it to be typical of me to make an overpowered car. It'll definitely be different in approach, the question is, will it intoxicate others too, or miss the mark by failing to sway the judges with its vision?