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

[DBCooper]

A lot of wisdom in the answers here. I have probably 260 crank HP, maybe a little more, with 215's, Koni's and Carrera brakes. In a narrow-bodied car and at my age with those tires on public roads it's all I can really use, but I wouldn't turn down more. It's sweet, but it's not too much.

Funny thing, though, I've driven momentum cars all my life, never point and shoot, and I think that adding HP changed the way I drive the car. Now I'm firm but probably not as fast in the corners as I was. I think it's because now that I have the power my mind tells me I don't need to get as close to the edge in the curves because there's always a straight coming up, and I now I look forward to straights. I haven't changed weight or weight distribution, so the car handles exactly the same, it isn't that. It could the way the turbo engine builds boost, it could be my age, whatever, but I suspect it's mental, from just that addition of power. It's not something I anticipated, so it's strange. Might explain why those Corvettes are never as fast as you think they should be.