By JOSEPH B. WHITE

In an era when a car’s appeal seems largely defined by greener-than-thou engines and cooler-than-thou infotainment apps, luxury auto makers are looking for buyers who value a decidedly more old-fashioned attribute: hard-driving horsepower.

Big luxury brands are hoping to expand an elite market of drivers who are drawn to high-end performance vehicles engineered to racing standards, cars like BMW‘s

M series, Audi‘s

RS models, Cadillac’s V-series and Mercedes-Benz’s AMG line. These extreme performers have upward of 500 horsepower under the hood (more than double what’s in a garden-variety luxury sedan) and can zip from a stop to 60 miles per hour in 4 seconds or less—all while burning gas more wantonly than a big pickup truck.

To draw in a new generation of affluent car-enthusiast buyers, the big luxury brands are expanding their lineups of high-horsepower cars. They’re using new technology under the hood to make their beasts more fuel-efficient and smooth-riding. Some brands, including Daimler AG’s

Mercedes and General Motors Co.’s

Cadillac, are looking to offer more affordable vehicles in their elite performance lines.

More affordable—but not cheap. Most of the limited-volume, pumped-up versions of cars such as BMW AG’s 3-series coupe or the Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan have starting prices tens of thousands of dollars higher than standard models. They command those premiums because sin still sells. A $90,000 Mercedes E63 AMG sedan that roars from a dead stop to 60 miles per hour in under 4 seconds is an exclusive, guilty pleasure.

Industry executives estimate that luxury brands sell about 30,000 to 50,000 vehicles a year through their high-performance subbrands. Sales tend to rise when new models are launched.

Low-volume, high-performance cars bring in a wealthier, more avid clientele. The buyers of Mercedes AMG cars, for example, are mostly men in their early 50s with a median income of about $430,000, compared with $191,000 for buyers of the brand’s standard models. Many have multiple luxury vehicles.

Mercedes is undertaking an aggressive effort to expand its AMG brand, and make the entire lineup more efficient and more potent at the same time.

Mercedes has nurtured the mystique of its AMG brand for nearly five decades by shipping just a few thousand AMG models a year for customers willing to pay as much as $200,000 to own a car with an engine hand-built by a single craftsman in the southern German town of Affalterbach.

Mercedes wants to expand its AMG lineup to 22 models by 2014 from 18 at the start of this year. The notable addition will be an AMG version of the soon-to-launch CLA compact four-door, the first AMG model to come with a four-cylinder engine, albeit one that pumps out 355 horsepower. (Mercedes says the CLA AMG’s engine will be the most powerful four-cylinder engine in regular production.) The ordinary CLA will start at $29,900. The CLA AMG will start at $47,450, more than $12,000 below the least expensive AMG model available now.

Steve Cannon, CEO of Mercedes’ U.S.A., says the company plans next year to offer customers an even less expensive way to get a taste of the AMG brand. For less than $4,000, an AMG sport package will offer some of the appearance of an AMG car, a sportier ride and a small bump in engine performance.

“We don’t want AMG to be a tiny…brand nobody knows about,” Mr. Cannon says.

Luxury brands say they want to maintain their cars’ performance while upping the miles per gallon by using technology such as turbochargersgers, stop-start systems that shut down engines at stop lights, advanced transmissions and lighter-weight body designs.

Industry executives say high-performance buyers don’t fret much about the price of fuel at the pump, but they don’t like paying gas-guzzler penalties levied by the federal government on cars that fail to achieve a minimum threshold of efficiency. The tax can add anywhere from $1,000 to $7,700 to a car’s sticker price.

U.S. buyers of luxury-performance cars aren’t looking just to drive fast, since the law forbids taking these cars up to even half their rated top speeds. Instead, industry executives say, the appeal is a combination of exclusivity and the pride of owning a driving machine capable of scorching up a racecourse—even if it never does.

“It’s not, ‘I use it,’ it’s ‘I could if I wanted to,’ ” says Barry Hoch, general manager of product planning at Audi’s U.S. arm.

When BMW redesigned its iconic M5 performance sedan in 2012, it replaced the prior generation’s ten-cylinder engine with a smaller, turbocharged V-8, making the engine 25% more efficient and boosting mileage to 16 mpg from 13 combined city and highway driving. Even so, M5 buyers see a $1,300 gas-guzzler penalty. Choosing a manual transmission cuts the fee by $300.

Volkswagen AG’s

Audi brand says none of its high-performance RS or S models, except the R8 sports car, is now subject to a guzzler penalty. With technologies like direct injection, cylinder on demand and seven-speed gear boxes, “you don’t have to sacrifice,” says Mr. Hoch.

Audi is expanding the number of RS high performance cars it offers in the U.S. with a 560-horsepower RS-7 sedan, which will challenge $100,000-and-up cars such as the BMW M6 Gran Coupe and Porsche Panamera.

Cadillac offers three, 556-horsepower “V-series” versions of its CTS model, which currently come with $1,300 gas-guzzler taxes on their stickers. Jim Vurpillat, global marketing director for General Motors Co.’s Cadillac brand, says the plan going forward is to help buyers avoid the penalties on new V-series models. Cadillac’s next generation CTS, due out later this year, will be 244 pounds lighter than the current model, and will offer an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Skip Braver, owner of Cigarette Racing Team, the original manufacturer of the high-performance “cigarette” boats, says he has bought and sold a number of AMG models, and currently drives a white 2011 S63 AMG, a car that for 2013 starts at about $140,000.

A regular S-Class is a large, sedate limousine. The S63 AMG’s turbocharged V-8 puts out 536 horsepower and can run to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, Mercedes says. Mr. Braver, who is 63, says an AMG car isn’t the greenest choice, but “I don’t drive that much.” And he says the high-performance models hold their value better than conventional models.

“It looks like a performance car when you get in,” says Mr. Braver. “It doesn’t look like an old man’s sedan.”

A version of this article appeared April 10, 2013, on page D3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Car Makers Pitch Power as the Ultimate Luxury.

By JONNELLE MARTE

(Corrections & Amplifications:)

There’s a youth movement brewing in the franchising world.

Usually, franchisers don’t want to gamble on young entrepreneurs—they prefer seasoned managers who have built up lots of savings to plow into the venture. Now a host of companies are rethinking that logic. They’re aggressively recruiting twentysomethings through franchise brokers, marketing themselves in youth-friendly venues like Facebook, and in some cases offering financial lures to get young people on board—such as deep discounts on franchise fees, which many beginners can’t afford.

A Foot in the Door

Why the big change? For one thing, many boomer franchisees are retiring, leaving room for newcomers. And many franchisers say that today’s crop of twentysomethings are much better prepared to run a business than earlier generations of youngsters, since more colleges are offering strong training in entrepreneurship.

Then there’s attitude. “Sometimes the younger people have more drive and are willing to put in more time and maybe are hungrier than a corporate person who has other commitments,” says Patty Meyer, a senior consultant for Toronto-based MatchPoint Franchise Consulting Network, which helps companies recruit franchisees. “Younger people are able to get things moving faster in some cases.”

Of course, in these tough times, franchisers are offering lots of people discounts to get them to buy into the business, not just twentysomethings. But many franchisers and brokers say they’re making a particular effort to bring in young people. Several franchise companies, for instance, say they have joined the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, known as VetFran, in order to attract young veterans. The program, created by The International Franchise Association and promoted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the nonprofit Veterans Corporation and the U.S. Small Business Administration, aims to help veterans of all ages by giving them a discount off initial franchise fees of member companies—usually between 10% and 15%.

Other companies are using different incentives to get twentysomethings on board. Consider Valpak Direct Marketing Systems Inc., a direct-mailing company in Largo, Fla., owned by a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc. Last year, Valpak created the Entrepreneurship Award Program in an effort to recruit young people who could open new franchises or take over existing ones as owners prepare to retire. The potential franchisees sign on with the company as salespeople, and if they hit certain goals they get a discount on their franchise fee. Along the way, they get to know the business and the company gets a sense of how they perform.

One hopeful is Nicholas Hernandez. At 23, he has already opened—and closed down—his first start-up, a music-promotion company. He wants to run a franchise, but for now, short on cash and experience, he’s a salesman.

If he brings in $1.1 million in three years—the average sales raked in by the top third of the company’s performers over the past three years—Mr. Hernandez becomes eligible for one of three things: $50,000 toward the fees for one of Valpak’s dormant territories, which start around $43,000 but range higher as the market size increases; $10,000 toward the franchise fee of an International Franchise Association member company; or $10,000 toward an M.B.A. or other advanced degree.

“Quite frankly, sharp people coming out of school have choices, and so we’re trying to give them a reason to at least consider us,” says Joe Bourdow, president of Valpak, which has about 170 franchises in the U.S. and Canada. He started the program after visiting colleges and finding himself impressed by the students he met.

Hunting for Talent

Another company aggressively looking for young people is WSI, an Internet-marketing franchiser with 1,500 franchisees in 87 countries. In 2007, the company launched the Young Entrepreneur Scholarship Program, which awards franchises—minus the initial fee—to people between 21 and 31 years old. Candidates must propose a business plan for how they would run the franchise and are also judged on their community involvement, education and personality.

Company executives say they need tech-savvy franchisees who can help the company stay on top of the latest technology. “If we can help capture some of the young talent and bring them to WSI franchising, then we’re really meeting the needs…of bringing in the innovation needed to develop the business,” says Maribel Guiste, vice president of franchise operations for WSI.

So far, only one WSI scholarship has been awarded—in Latin America—but the company plans to select two recipients in North America by the end of September. Overall, 13% of the Toronto-based company’s franchisees are younger than 30, up from 2% in 2006.

Other companies aren’t offering inducements but are still pushing heavily to land young entrepreneurs. For instance, many companies are telling their franchise brokers to pursue the demographic. David Omholt, a franchise broker in Plano, Texas, says about a third of the 200 companies he works with have stopped giving age ranges for their target franchisee and are changing their marketing materials to minimize jargon and depict franchisees of all ages. “It’s quite a departure from the traditional mentality of who to recruit and how to recruit for new franchisees,” says Mr. Omholt.

Rich Wilson, chief operating officer of CertaPro Painters, an Oaks, Pa., painting franchiser with over 300 locations in the U.S. and Canada, had a similar chat with his franchise brokers earlier this year. Mr. Wilson also joined VetFran, in an effort to recruit young veterans who may have saved some money while they were deployed. “We have people [ages] 25, 26 and 30 coming in and earning better numbers than our more mature franchisees,” says Mr. Wilson, adding that about 15% of the franchisees CertaPro recruited recently are younger than 35, up from 10% six years ago.

A Risky Bet?

Still, this new focus on youth carries some risks, particularly when incentive programs are involved. Some franchise consultants warn that these programs might attract franchisees who don’t fight as hard because they’re not investing as much of their own money or who might not have the finances to cover regular business expenses.

“The real risk is that you end up bringing on a marginal franchisee that is going to cost you more and return less,” says Mark Siebert, chief executive officer of iFranchise Group Inc., a franchise-consulting company based in Homewood, Ill.

Some experts worry that a younger person buying a franchise might have a hard time hiring, managing and firing employees—difficult tasks for even seasoned businesspeople. But some of these programs, like Valpak’s, address that issue by allowing for a test run of sorts, where the candidate and company get to know each other.

At Valpak, Mr. Hernandez sits down once a week with his boss and mentor, Bobby Coco, to decide what neighborhoods to target and what companies to follow up with. Mr. Coco also shares what he’s learned in 35 years of running Valpak franchises. How to meet press deadlines and set realistic goals. How to approach potential clients. How to convert that burning desire into success.

Mr. Hernandez, who graduated last year from William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., says the structure and financial help the program offers make his entrepreneurship goals much more achievable.

“Having to deal with my own business and having to set up my own reputation, my own brand name—it’s very difficult,” he says.

Mr. Coco says programs like this were unheard of when he opened his first franchise at age 21—a move he could afford only because he convinced the owner at the time to give him a payment plan. “We really weren’t handed the opportunity; we had to stick it out ourselves,” he says. “We’re at least giving them the opportunity, but they still have to earn it.”

Corrections & Amplifications:

The International Franchise Association created, and runs, the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, which aims to help veterans start franchises. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that VetFran was created by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the nonprofit Veterans Corporation and the Small Business Administration, which promote the program.

–Ms. Marte is a staff reporter of The Wall Street Journal in South Brunswick, N.J. She can be reached at jonnelle.marte@wsj.com.

(Please see Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

In 2006, when a U.S. Ryder Cup team rich in born-again Christians descended on the K Club in Ireland for the biennial matches, the British press published several reports about the team’s conservative leanings, both religious and political. One headline referred to “Saint Tom” in reference to Tom Lehman, the team captain, who wore a bracelet inscribed with the letters W.W.J.D. (“What would Jesus do?”). Another, written by a liberal American journalist, Bruce Selcraig, quoted commentator David Feherty saying: “I think a lot of Europeans find that conservative Christian thing as frightening as conservative Muslims.”

European attitudes toward America have improved slightly since 2006, but this year’s Ryder Cup team, which travels to Celtic Manor in Wales for the Oct. 1-3 event, is no less religious than its predecessor. The captain, Corey Pavin, and several of the players (not to mention Mr. Lehman, who returns as an assistant captain) are born-again Christians. Three of Mr. Pavin’s four discretionary “captain’s picks”—Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler—are regulars at the PGA Tour’s weekly Bible-study sessions. Messrs. Pavin and Lehman are also frequent attendees, along with team members Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar. (The fourth pick, Tiger Woods, claims Buddhism as his religion.)

No one but stray bloggers has alleged that Mr. Pavin made his decisions based on religion—as golf picks they’re fairly unassailable. But the subject is close to the surface.

“It’s going to be an issue, for sure. The British tabloids will hop on it and hit it hard,” predicted Paul Azinger, the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup captain and himself a born-again Christian.

Mr. Pavin declined to comment about how or whether his religious beliefs will be a factor in how he captains the team. Through a spokesman, he said it was a private matter.

The Ryder Cup never fails to waken fierce emotions among athletes unaccustomed to being part of a team. The Europeans, who hail from many different nations, have dominated lately. Wounds still fester over an incident which some European players saw as rude and jingoistic: At the 1999 matches at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., the U.S. team stormed the 17th green after Justin Leonard dramatically holed a 45-foot putt in his singles match against José Maria Olazabal, even though Mr. Olazabal still had a putt to tie the match. Mr. Leonard and others apologized, saying they got carried away.

Religion and sports are hardly strangers. Christian devotional gatherings are popular in every professional sports league, including the NFL and Nascar. The PGA Tour version, which has no official connection to the Tour itself, usually meets on Wednesday evenings in a hotel banquet room or private home (sometimes the home of a player) and typically attracts 30 to 50 participants, occasionally up to 100 and occasionally fewer than a dozen, such as at limited-field events. For the past 30 years the sessions have been led by Larry Moody, an Ellicott City, Md.-based minister, or his partner at Search Ministries, Dave Krueger. Rev. Moody, citing a longstanding policy to protect the privacy of those who attend, declined to comment.

“The messages aren’t really Bible study so much as inspirational, on topics like courage and patience,” said Mr. Azinger. “It’s non-denominational, very comfortable, very easy, and anyone is welcome—wives, caddies, media people, guests, anyone who wants to come. One thing it’s definitely not is an outreach thing.” It’s more like a traveling church for Tour participants who hope to be otherwise occupied on Sunday mornings, the traditional time for church, playing in the final round of that week’s event.

For most secular outsiders, these private Wednesday devotionals aren’t much of an issue. What some find irksome. though, are postvictory comments thanking God or Jesus. After Zach Johnson won the 2007 Masters, he said, “Being Easter, my goal was to glorify God, and hopefully I did that today.”

Some European media outlets made cracks. “Another American winner, another sermon,” said the Times of London. The Daily Telegraph wrote: “…[S]tatements suggesting Jesus was there at his shoulder and therefore not ‘looking after’ the other 60 competitors seem a tad presumptuous.” The complaint is that Christians consider themselves somehow special.

“I know that’s the message that comes across sometimes,” said Mr. Lehman by telephone this week. “To be told you’re somehow missing something, or inferior, or that somebody else is more favored than you, that can be really aggravating and infuriating. It’s perceived as arrogance or pride. But I don’t know anybody who intends to make that impression.”

From my experience as someone who grew up in an evangelical Christian home but has lived most of his adult life in a secular milieu, one of the most unfathomable parts of born-again Christianity for the uninitiated is often the deeply personal nature of believers’ relationship with their God. God is not a vague concept but an everyday, particular presence in their lives. So when a devout Christian athlete thanks God after winning something, it’s not so much of a stretch as it might appear to some.

“Players, no matter what the sport, will thank their coach, their sports psychologist, their wife, their nutritionist, but the minute they get to thanking God, it’s suddenly becomes, ‘Uh-oh, that’s taboo.’ But it shouldn’t be, because God is there for them that way,” said Mr. Lehman. Nevertheless, it weirds a lot of people out.

As Ryder Cup captain in 2006, Mr. Lehman said he organized no formal Christian activities for the team and avoided expressly religious references in his motivational remarks to the team. “To me, the Ryder Cup is not the time or the place for that kind of thing,” he said. Rev. Moody was around and available to individuals, but he did not address the team. Separately, the late golf legend Byron Nelson, an accomplished woodworker, made a small wooden keepsake for each player with a verse from Psalms on one side. And a few players independently had Christian fish symbols on their bags. The U.S. team lost in 2006, 18½ to 9½.

In 2008, at the Ryder Cup matches at Valhalla in Kentucky, Mr. Azinger similarly did not invoke religion. “There were no prayers or moments of silence. There was no need for that. That’s not the captain’s responsibility. He’s there to organize things and take the pressure off the players and then to get out of the way,” Mr. Azinger said. The pod structure that Mr. Azinger instituted, dividing the team into three four-man groups based on Navy Seal practices, helped produce a 16½-to-11½ American upset win.

Mr. Pavin’s captain’s picks were logical. Mr. Woods, whose game appears to be coming around despite another over-par round Friday at the BMW Championship, was a no-brainer. Messrs. Cink and Johnson, both experienced Ryder Cup hands, have been playing superb golf recently and will add stability to a U.S. team with five Ryder Cup rookies (Messrs. Watson, Fowler and Kuchar, Dustin Johnson and Jeff Overton).

The 21-year-old Mr. Fowler, despite ranking only 20th on the Ryder Cup points list, brings enthusiasm, personality and five top-10 finishes this year, as well as a 7-1 match play record in amateur Walker Cup competitions. He also marks his golf balls with “4:13,” for a verse in Philippians: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Corrections & Amplifications

Larry Moody of Search Ministries is a minister based in Ellicott City, Md. An earlier version of this column incorrectly said he was based in Richmond, Va.

—Email John Paul at golfjournal@wsj.com