I recently met another woodworker with a powermatic 66. He was pretty excited about having the 5 horsepower motor. In the past I've met a few other people who also were fairly preoccupied with the amount of horsepower their saws have. I happen to have the three horsepower powermatic and it's always served me really well.. It's never bogged down or given me any reason to think that it wasn't powerful enough even when ripping 3" thick maple and walnut. This is a saw I use almost daily and not for light duty work. Woodworking pays my bills, so it sees quite a bit of use. Anyway, I'm curious what other people think. Does the extra horsepower really matter all that much? Seems to me it's similar to the people I see driving Hummers around Manhattan. A bit overkill.. Perhaps that is a poor analogy though. I mean no offense to those with bigger motors.
-markus