Because the nancie-boys and frou-frou bints that buy them are so concerned about NVH (zOMG, can't even have a bit of road noise!), safety (as if the world isn't overpopulated enough), and are too f***ing obese to move their own seats, so they need 13-way power electric chairs.

Plus the horsepower wars are a vicious cycle. Need more HP to push all that pigfat around. So you need heavier halfshafts, beefier transmission, bigger brakes, stronger suspension to handle that torque. More pigfat. More HP.

Colin Chapman should rise up out of his grave and club the designers of modern cars in the nose. As well as the average car buyer.

As for government regulations, hopefully this will become a moot point when Washington spends themselves into bankruptcy and won't have money to regulate anything other than their own urine flow.

Limit to 150 hp. Raise gas prices to $10/gal. Let everything follow from there

PS - next new car will be either an FT-86 or FIAT 500.