How much power is "enough"?

[Vogz]

My 900+ HP Toyota Supra TURBO - YouTube

Cool video about the ongoing quest of a speed freak for more power, and when more isn't necessarily better.

So how much power is "just right" for you guys?

Click to read more...

 

[Mike K]

500hp, similar level of torque. I can't fathom needing anything more out of a reasonable weight street car.

You get to a certain point and the car becomes too much of a chore to drive. I'd rather have a 500hp car I can go wide open throttle in than a 700hp car I have to feather the throttle in, keep it straight, hope it hooks, hope it doesn't break, etc.

 

[utryd2]

The need for more is when the thrill is gone. I couldn't give you a number.
Its all relative on how you drive your car and what you want to do with it.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

7,000hp or 70,000lbs of thrust

 

[Burtonrider10022]

Currently? I'd be happy with about 200HP/220TQ I simply DD my bloated Lancer hatchback to and from class & work so I don't need anything more than that, but the current 150HP/150TQ is weak sauce.

 

[Pewter-Camaro]

high 11 sec 1/4 for my daily car on DR's and I'm satisfied. If it was a 2nd car there would be no limit... lol.

 

[Mook]

10s or bust ...so whatever power that takes.

 

[K0R3AN]

500

 

[Sprayin]

You can never go fast enough.

 

[nytebyte]

Just enough power to keep the rear tires from breaking loose in 3rd gear.

 

[Shocker]

I would say I'm happy with where I'm at with the car. Do I want more... of course, but I'm never going to be the fastest and I'm never going to have the most power so why keep dumping $$$ into it especially since it sits 75% of the year. You say drive it more then... I would, but I teach in a bad area and would never want to risk someone doing something to it. Plus it's around a 100 mile round trip and I get like 14mpg.

Then comes the $ part... 2 routes of finishing up if I did go on: N/A or Power Adder....

N/A: Fast Intake, TB, upgrade the air intake, misc.. and retune = up to 2.5k

Power adder: TVS 2300 + misc and retune = maybe 8-9k

I can't justify any of that on a car that I already had to put in that due to a spun bearing and that's when I was living at home. Now with a home and young family to take care of the car is a second thought. I put/mod things here and there, but we are talking a couple dollars here, maybe a couple hundred there... I do hope to finish up a N/A build in the next couple of years, but other things have to be done first.

The GTO is more I could ever ask for.... I DD an Aveo5!!

 

[l0wb00st]

I don't think there's a power level that you will ever want to stop at. At least that's how it is for me so far.
I remember thinking 350whp will be enough, I'll be more than happy with that. Then I got 350whp and I was happy for a month, and then I was thinking 450whp...450whp will be more than enough to keep me happy for a long time. Then I got 450 and was happy for about a month again. I'm up to almost 650whp and I'm already kind of thinking what if I push to 700 or 750?

 

[Spivitz]

The perfect power to not breaking anything ratio works for me.
I'm around 400 at the wheels

 

[greasy]

I would like to think 600-700 RWHP, but I will tell you when I get there!

 

[willizm]

If I'm not about to shit my pants when I'm hitting the gas then it's not enough.

 

[Turk]

The M3 had around 625hp, and I know if I still had it, I would have put a smaller pulley on there and dyno tuned it to try and get around 700hp. That would have been enough for me on a RWD car. On the R8 with quattro, the sky's the limit. Depending how long I have that car, I could see it having....

 

[MikeyLikesIt]

The M3 had around 625hp, and I know if I still had it, I would have put a smaller pulley on there and dyno tuned it to try and get around 700hp. That would have been enough for me on a RWD car. On the R8 with quattro, the sky's the limit. Depending how long I have that car, I could see it having....

I was going to say something similar. FWD, RWD, and AWD would have different "enough" power limits for me.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

The M3 had around 625hp, and I know if I still had it, I would have put a smaller pulley on there and dyno tuned it to try and get around 700hp. That would have been enough for me on a RWD car. On the R8 with quattro, the sky's the limit. Depending how long I have that car, I could see it having....

twins soon?

 

[syP]

The cobra is extremely tame at ~700 at the crank. I can just hop in it and drive across the country right now with the a/c blasting the whole way and be fine. First gear is kinda of non existent.. But the rest of the gears hook

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

im sure you meant "v6 whp from a v8"

 

[SleeperLS]

all I know right now is that 400 isn't it.

 

[Csurane24]

There's no such thing as enough power. Like Tom said, there has to be the thrill. Until you achieve that then you're not getting enough. Hopefully you can control what is enough though

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

he who dies with the most horses wins

 

[blck10th]

When my car was in the 450's it was very fun on the street and quick enough at the track.

There is never enough power. You just get used to the way your car is.

Right now the power my car makes it is not as much fun in the street. But it's more fun at the strip. To bad I can ever get there.

IMO 500 to the pavement is a good number to have fun both at the track or on the street.

 

[Terminator-Fux]

Never really enough. More power = More $$$