So lets cut this down to the convention for Wikipedia  We already discussed the issue at WikipediaWikiProject AutomobilesConventions and decided to use hp presumably SAE net or gross depending on time period or kW depending on market for this unit  I am opposed to  using PS or metric horsepower  its just plain confusing  One exception is if the metric hp number is significant  as in the Bugatti Veyron with its  hp metric engine  I will propose an ammendment over there to always specify hp SAE rather than just hp and see what people think  Or we could just link the first occurrence of hp to horsepowerhp SAE and let people use their intiution that all remaining references to hp are for SAE numbers  I like this better  We DO have to be precise and I dont want to go around using random units everywhere  So lets decide here and now  I propose never using metric horsepower as a primary unit unless its a special case like the Bugatti  And then we should be very specific in including the SAE number  Weve already decided to always include both hp and kW and thats all well and good  As for notation if we are to specify SAE I would do it without parentheses since we are using the parens for kW already  So we say  hp SAE  kW  Id rather not include the SAE at all but this is a reasonable alternative