Horsepower is something people who can afford to buy luxury cars look for but how many of us really know what it means?  A common belief is that a horsepower of one equals the amount of power you could get from one horse pulling your vehicle but how accurate is that? The term horsepower was coined by James Watt, who is the father of the Watt unit of power. The true meaning of horsepower can get pretty complicated but we know that bigger is better when it comes to fast and powerful cars. With that in mind just imagine what the brand new 2016 Koenigsegg Regera can do with its 1,500 horsepower!

That much power places the Regera in the list of Top 5 Most Powerful Street Cars. For those of you who want to know, the Devel Sixteen concept car is #1 with 5000 horsepower! Regera is Swedish and means "to reign." The Regera now reigns as the fastest-accelerating car in the world and can go from 0 to 249 miles per hour in less than 20 seconds! It won't take much more than that to reach the top speed of 255 mph. For those drivers who don't want to push it too far, the Regera can go from 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds which is still very fast.

The Regera is a plug-in hybrid sports car that made its debut at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. Something else that makes this car unique is that is has no transmission. Koenigsegg made this car differently and it uses their Direct Drive transmission, which is a single-speed gear with no traditional gearbox. According to the company founder, Christian von Koenigsegg, the Regera is "very different to what people are used to in sports cars," but "the experience is otherworldly." It features a twin-turbocharged 5.0 liter V8 engine as well as three electric motors. In fully electric mode, the Regera can go for 22 miles, which might come in handy if you run out of gas.

For all this power and speed, the Regera certainly isn't cheap. The good news is that it will be offered in the United States in early 2016, but the bad news is the expected price of $1.89 million! The Regera will be a limited production model with only 80 units being made available. Koenigsegg designed the car in-house without the use of any professional designers, so it might not look as good as it performs. The interior features a central display screen with Apple CarPlay if the horsepower is not enough to keep you occupied.

It remains to be seen if the Regera will reign as the king of hyper cars and will be out of this world as Koenigsegg claims. One thing for certain is that it will be out of most of our price ranges!