How much horsepower is too much?, for a road car.... |
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How much horsepower is too much?, for a road car.... |
tadink |
Apr 19 2013, 05:28 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 379 Joined: 28-December 09 From: Napa Member No.: 11,181 Region Association: Northern California |
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 |
J P Stein |
Apr 24 2013, 08:44 AM
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#2
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Irrelevant old fart Group: Members Posts: 8,797 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Vancouver, WA Member No.: 45 Region Association: None |
The 2.7L in the shitbox was good AX motor......10.5:1 compression and Solex cams....pretty mild. It was also a fine street motor with good low end grunt/midrange & peak power at around 6400 rpms....but would pull just fine to 7200. No need of light switch clutches & all.....a stock 911 unit.
With a lot of tire, there is usable power.....AND it always ran. It's tough to develop a car that is broke down 50% of the time. Hp is only a part of the overall need of any car and is over emphasized. Inertia in the from of cornering forces/directional changes was what I wrote about. The flat motor keeps the CG down low.....ever seen a fast V-8 AX 914?....me neither.Want one? Buy a Z06. You can spend multi-thousands trying to match their capabilities.....and still come up short. 10 :1 weight/hp is a good number......provided you have enough tire. Drop below that and you'll find yourself "into" tire research.....more money spent on black holes. Ignore the above if you're into "bragging rights". |
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