How much horsepower is too much?, for a road car.... Options

[tadink]

Hey all -

I've been looking at options for increased HP and have run across some crazy stuff, and that got me thinking about "how much is too much"?

This would be an occasional track car, AX often, mostly street, preferably reliable.

I've seen recently, in no particular order: 3.2L pretty stock, 3.3L race prepped turbo, 2.7 or 2.8 race prepped, v-8 twin turbo (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) , and other various mixes of suby-turbo, McMark's turbo 1.7L project, etc etc.

so, for you high HP guys out there - when does the car get just too silly to be practical on the street? 300bhp? 400bhp? 600bhp? 900bhp?

and what makes it not so enjoyable to drive around 'normally'? One guy described his 2.7 race engine as just too high strung for the street - - - so that means that you have to get into higher revs to get the power from the cam? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

edumacate me pls......

td

[messix]

imho
it's how the power is made. a high strung small ci 150hp engine that makes it's power in a narrow power band would be a bitch to drive around in traffic.

then if you had a large ci engine that makes monster torque low in the rpm range would be a handful trying to drive on the streets.

if you had a balance of a well mannered engine that made reasonable torque and power in the low end and then progressively more power in high rpm to 400, 500, 600, hp as long as it would be progressive and predictable.

with modern engine management systems including turbo's it is possible to have a very high hp engine that will behave and well mannered to drive around like a Honda accord when needed.

like Jake says "it's all in the combo"

[Madswede]

imho
it's how the power is made. a high strung small ci 150hp engine that makes it's power in a narrow power band would be a bitch to drive around in traffic.
...
if you had a balance of a well mannered engine that made reasonable torque and power in the low end and then progressively more power in high rpm to 400, 500, 600, hp as long as it would be progressive and predictable.

with modern engine management systems including turbo's it is possible to have a very high hp engine that will behave and well mannered to drive around like a Honda accord when needed.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) I'm breaking in my 3.2L twin-plug, big cam, 10.5:1, PMO ITB, Megasquirt setup right now and I can say (though I'm at a mile high altitude) that it's an utter joy to drive and can be driven around town with ease.

In fact, my setup idles so low and can be so polite, it's a bit of a problem. I forget easily what really lurks behind me in that engine bay. I'm surprising people (including myself) with how quick she can be. How quick she always WANTS to be! If it were more aggressive, I think it would be like a crack-crazed kitten rather than the fun but still kinda wild puppy that it's like now.

This is really a question that can only be answered by you, the driver and owner, and the amount of $ you want to can spend. There is always going to be someone with more power and money and huevos/insanity than myself out there, so I went a certain way down that path and am not regretting it at all. So there's my $0.02 worth.

Oh, and my car has not be dyno'd yet, but it's probably around 285hp at sea level, says O'Brien.