How much is too much power for a street car?

[noobiemcnooberson.]

Lettuce discuss. How much power is simply too much power for a true daily driven, manual transmission street car? I drove my car for the first time in a while yesterday and was quite annoyed trying to keep it on a leash, not spin the tires at every stop light etc. I feel like I've done too much to the car to the point it's not enjoyable to drive. It makes a great race car but is a poor excuse for a streetable car.

 

Edit: maybe not necessarily horsepower, maybe quarter mile et. How fast is too fast for a daily driver?

Edited April 24, 2015 by h22eg6sir
Added discussion

[BBQdDude]

My last car was at 500whp. I liked it. I have not had the pleasure of going higher...yet.

[Forrest Gump 9]

According to some 3000 whp.

 

But that really depends on the car. My last car ran 10's in the 1/4 mile and made ~560whp and it was perfect daily driver. I drove it year round.

[EssFo]

To me it depends on what you have to deal with to drive it. A 1000 WHP car that has a light clutch, is semi quiet, doesn't overheat, get's more than 8 mpg would be OK in my book.

[STEVE-O]

Whp doesn't matter it's what you can hook that matters

[Second Gen]

The ReX (RX7) put down 400 RWHP and about 320 trq. For that light of a car it was nice (Would have liked to had another 50 - 100). The additional HP was not realistic without additional pinning on the motor and did not. Assume most of this discussion really comes down to HP/Trq to weight ratios..

 

My old car was just under 2700 lbs.

[greg1647545532]

Depends on what kind of car, but I think anything over 150whp for a normal small car isn't worth it. Also, it's too easy to put too much tire under cars now. Getting anywhere close to the limits of a good summer tire on public roads is dangerous.

 

In other words, when the designers of the GT-86 picked a target of 200hp and put it on skinny little Prius tires, they knew what they were doing.

 

I know my opinion is in the minority here, but I'll pick slow car fast over fast car slow every time.

[Jackson1647545504]

We need to start lining up some races. 100-250 perhaps? Or 80-whomever stops accelerating last?

[ShowHBK]

http://static.carthrottle.com/workspace/uploads/comments/1316595744_clarkson-power-54db2c4ab49ca.jpg

[Miller]

I think 500hp is just right for a daily.

[wagner]

To me it depends on what you have to deal with to drive it. A 1000 WHP car that has a light clutch, is semi quiet, doesn't overheat, get's more than 8 mpg would be OK in my book.

 

This

 

I think 500hp is just right for a daily.

 

And I think this is close.

 

Its all about where the power comes in and how it drives. The 800hp GTO I did a feature on drove almost stock but was slightly annoying with how tight the suspension was.

 

500-600 is good for heavy daily use, bigger power if it behaves more power could work.

[oh8sti]

I think 500whp is great for daily use. Go any higher than that the reliability really starts to suffer imo.

[POS VETT]

How much money is too much?

[vonrottes]

I'm going to say 500hp...since thats about where I want my S10 to be as a daily driver.

[DKilbourne]

Depends on the car and power adder. Let's just say that close to 700 wheel on the street can get a little hairy at times. However, all you have to do is stay out of it.....

[99BlownYellowGT]

My car makes 670 and i could easily daily drive it i just choose not to

[o0n8]

Whp doesn't matter it's what you can hook that matters

+1

 

Spinnin ain't winnin!

 

I know my opinion is in the minority here, but I'll pick slow car fast over fast car slow every time.

 

I'm with you on this. Spoke with a Mazda engineer at Mid-Ohio a couple years back and he stated anything over 275 wheel horsepower in the fwd was pointless.

 

Each car will be different and it's really up to the driver on what's streetable. My speed protege came with 170 hp at the crank, I'm conservatively guessing I had it up to about 175 whp and thought is was great.

 

Conversely my 6 wagon came with 215hp at the crank and dyno'd at 182 whp last May completely stock (and 10 years old). It can get out of it's own way and merges onto 270 just fine, a little more power might be nice but not necessary. Sways and coil-overs yes please!

 

Things like stiffer motor mounts and the power the trans can hold and put down is a big factor too.

[Geeto67]

Lettuce discuss. How much power is simply too much power for a true daily driven, manual transmission street car? I drove my car for the first time in a while yesterday and was quite annoyed trying to keep it on a leash, not spin the tires at every stop light etc. I feel like I've done too much to the car to the point it's not enjoyable to drive. It makes a great race car but is a poor excuse for a streetable car.

 

Edit: maybe not necessarily horsepower, maybe quarter mile et. How fast is too fast for a daily driver?

 

Too much power is when you look at the gas pedal funny and the car flips backwards on it's roof. When your car is a homemade tilt a whirl as much as it is a car then it's maybe too much...or not enough chassis - I can't decide.

 

There really is no set number, as the hellcat proves you can drive 707hp everyday with a factory warranty if you want to (whether someone actually does it is another story) and there are 300-400hp cars that will feel less comfortable than aggressive prison rape if you try to drive them daily.

 

This depends on a lot of factors:

 

- how old the car is

- how much stuff actually works

- how much bullshit you are willing to put up with

- how skilled you are, etc.

- whether your work minds if you show up drenched in sweat

- are you able to adapt your driving style

- are you patient

 

There are more but these are some of the basics. I drove, by choice, a 400hp (est at flywheel - 350 dyno hp at wheels) 1967 GTO as a daily in the late 1990s. The car constantly overheated so I had to run the heat even in the middle of summer, had no abs, no A/C, hated hot restarts, sounded like a lars ulrich drum solo being played inside a tin can in the car, had a cam so heavy that the brakes transitioned from power to manual when the rpms dropped below 1500, road like a hay wagon, had a manual valve body with a shift so hard it felt like a kick in the ass every time the car shifted even at 5mph, and was generally miserable. It liked to spin the tires at every light and hang the tail around every turn. for an early 20 something it was awesome and I didn't work in an office so coming in sweat was the price to pay for badass awesomeness. Conversely my father's 1990 Zr1 made the same power, handled better had abs, modern tires and suspension, took pump gas, the a/c worked and it never overheated. and it weighed the same. As a 20 something I was willing to put up with a lot, even now I am willing to put up with most of that same stuff in a 200hp 20 year old jeep wrangler - but not everyone is a masochistic internet asshole.

 

Point is, if you are struggling with the car chances are you are having a hard time adapting. give it it time, either you will adapt or hate it so much you buy a crappy honda civic auto as a commuter.

[Mojoe]

How much money is too much?

 

This is where I am with it.

 

I'm also a fan of eco mode and being able to get good MPG. When you're talking DD and power, I have to have some good MPG. There are some 400+ cars that can still get 18+MPG. For me, a 350hp AWD car that gets 20MPG+ is a very good ballance.

 

If your DD is a 500hp car, do you still have different car that is "the fun car"? What is it and what power is it making?

 

That goes right back to, "How much money is too much?"

[Not Brian]

400-500 would be tolerable on the street but it's hard to get there without boost, but I would not want a boosted car as a daily simply because of general annoyances like warm up times and heat soak in traffic.

[kirks5oh]

For me it all depends on how the car puts the power down. Anything over 400hp here in Wisconsin, and you can't enjoy it for at least half the year, if it's rwd. I can still break the vette's tires loose at 80mph in late April. Fuck that noise. But the gtr? I can beat it like a red headed step child nearly all year round. I hate the thought of breaking parts on a car. I've found that most cars can tolerate 20% more power on average and be COMPLETELY reliable. That's the number I care about most. Any more that that, and you're risking breakage with spirited driving

[Mr. Jones]

I think it greatly depends on the car.

 

A 500~whp C5 is not the same as a ~500whp GTR.

[Alex L.]

There's no such thing.

[TurboNova]

6-700 wheel on tap.. is more than enough

[Aaron]

257hp