How much power is to much

Mad Paddy RS

Mad Paddy RS

Octane Boostaholics
Bit of a debate going on in a few forums regarding this,Im not talking about track cars but road cars.

How much power is to much for the roads we have

Alway believed 400 was plenty for the roads with supporting mods
 
even 400 might be a bit much in my eyes, my bugeye is completely standard and i think that has the perfect amount of power for the road. was dynoed at 280bhp
 
I would be inclined to agree there,anything above 400-450 and similar torque is going to be skittish on our roads
 
Asking as ive been in cars ranging from 400 up to and over 600.
Each car had brakes suspension etc specced up to cope

With great power comes great responsability
 
very very hard question to answer.

and as this clearly states road use only answers based on this


track you can add +50bhp and be happy.


i would say a well sorted 400bhp in a subaru for backroads is lovely.

providing as said handling and brakes match power.

but it has to, has to be the right combo and sharp response.
 
It depends on the overall setup and how the mods are put together.

You can have 600bhp in a car which doesn't necessarily need rough idling caused of assymetric camshafts which makes it a nightmare in terms of every day road use. The same applies to racing clutch causing stalling the car on every junction.

I mean, you can have 600 bhp in Mercedes SLR and you can have 600bhp in a modified subaru track-car. the difference between them in terms of everyday use is tremendous.

It's very easy to get used to the power as well.. making it an individual thing really. Andy Forrest decided he didn't need more power after he hit 1000 bhp :)
 
Very hard question to answer,I personaly be happy with 400 with everything speced to cope

But them everbody is different and driving styles

Heard Andy F got a cdb ready to go,and rumour is over 1300bhp
 
I think in a classic 350-400hp is enough for a road car, although as Dave said brakes and suspension needs to be well sorted.
Maybe a bit more in the new age cars, with the extra weight and better chassis.

At the moment in my car has estimated 320hp and the brakes are decent on the road with spirited driving but struggling on track, so If I was doing a classic again from scratch, brakes would be the near the top of my list .No point having the power if you cant stop it.
 
Will eventually aim to break 400 myself, aim for about 430 and be happy once over 400. North of 400 will be mental, and serious fun, but only as a weekend car, not as a daily driver.
 
I'd be well happy with 350/350 in the Type R eventually... but with a really, really well set-up chassis and brakes. That short ratio gearbox would make 350 feel very quick... and more than enough for a backroad warrior! :icon_headbang: Anything more than that and your too close to the Type R's limits with it's transmission strength etc.

Maybe 380 to 400bhp with a 6 speed conversion... but I still think 350 is more than enough in a road car and anything else is just being greedy!
 
my skyline had 400hp and i found it way too much. I dont know about 4WD drivetrain though.

problems i had:

1. you try to pull out of juction fast, because gap is small, but still safe enough - used way too much power and you go out sideways scaring the living sh*t out of pasangers, pedestrians and poor drivers.
2. You try to overtake a lorry or anything else in very wet conditions - you cant accelerate too much as it will go sideways and you will be between lorries wheels and huge stone fence. If you wont go fast enough, then you wont be able to overtake damn thing.
3. when you are going to 400hp zone you dont even worry about mpg anymore. you learn to bend over every week at petrol pump.

i found standart 220hp in my WRX to be a perfect amount for daily driver. Its enough power when you need it and it is still civil to be driving around every day.
 
Chassis dependent...it's a completely relative question even amongst different model's of Impreza
 
It is an impossible question to answer . Personally I think 350 would be useable in my car . As it sits At 300 it's still a quick car and above all its reliable . A 500 to 600 car is all well and good but is it compromised when wanting to be able to go for a blasts over the mountains on the weekend ? Is it enjoyable or sh*t yourself scary
 
KENC said:
I quite like sh*t your self scary myself :)
Click to expand...

Its great when you're driving, not so much as a passenger. Had a spin in alan's tame yoke and near shat myself for fear he was going to grab 4th :eek7: :roll:
 
my personal opinion is if you have a car putting 300 to the ground thats a very fast car anymore is useless on the road
 
IMO these peak power figures are meaningless for everyday driving. I you are reaching 400BHP that means you are using larger more laggy turbo which only spools up to these peak power figures at stupid RPMs - in the 6000-8000RPM range. Nobody drives normally at over 6000RPM. When you are driving at normal 2-3k RPMs in your 400BHP car you have WAY less than 400BHP available.

My own car has larger turbo which makes up nearly 400Bhp and i have dyno graphs showing power curve - a standard STI turbo reaches its peak power at around 5500RPM and then starts going down again as RPMs get higher. Mine just keeps going up from 5500 all the way to its peak at redline. i.e the extra 140bhp from standard of about 260bhp are in the higher rpm range above 5500 which i 99% never use while driving. And the ironic thing is the other lower end of power graph (because of larger turbo) ends up being LESS bhp than standard so for normal driving i end up with less bhp than a standard STI in the 1000-3000rpm range. I'd be more interested in the torque curve than the bhp curve to gauge overall "fast car" ness...

The only place I actually used the extra power was when I was on track in Mondello because I drove completely "un-normally" and had the RPMs in the 6000-8000RPM range while doing it - of course doing this it used nearly half a tank of E5 for a few laps of track... all the extra mods on car were the only reason it could actually sustain this level of rpm and not blow up engine doing it...
 
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