How fast is enough?

That stupid watch instantly movie post got me thinking, how fast do you really want your ideal car to be? Is your ideal car completely bezerk power , or something with a balance of grip and power that you can exploit without going to prison?

Balance.

I loved my 100HP hot hatches and enjoying my 150HP 240SX that rides on rails.

Easier to drive at the limits and cheaper to run.

Ideal car? Enough power to lay black stripes from the exit of one corner to the entrance of the next.

If you have to ask, you're on the wrong forum

See also "How cheap is cheap enough?"

Depends.

I'd rather own something insanely fast.

I'd rather live with something a bit underpowered daily.

Mark Donohue used to say if he couldn't spin the back tires at 160 it wasn't powerful enough. And to quote Roger DeCoster, multi time MX World Champ, that's why the throtte turns both ways.

My mustang DD is about 325 HP in a 3500lb car, so a little over 10lb/hp. It's fast enough to be a hooligan and pretty much outrun anything I need to (in real driving, not talking street racing which is abad idea.) It's grippy enough to scare people, but loose enough to slide around if I want while maintaining some kind of comfort. I really like it as a fast car that I can drive all the time without feeling like I'm juggling a hornets' nest while dancing with the grim reaper anytime the streets are wet.. I'm not sure insano-power would be all that fun on the street. But I'd be willing to give it a try for a while if someone wants to loan me a car...

I've been lucky enough through friends to drive several 500+hp cars, and I have to say its quite addictive.

My Mazda2 was a joy to wring out because you could truly hammer on it and not be exceeding what the other cars were doing around you. The 911 is glorious, but for much much smaller periods of time. A car that is raced should be able to exceed traction limits at all times.

Depends on a lot of stuff--what is it used for, where do I live, how far do I drive...

I drive a Miata every day. I have 2 fun turns, if I'm lucky, I love the car, but at this point in my life would probably be happier with something that was faster for the straight lines that I drive to work.

I'm glad to see this question asked, because while "too much is never enough" sounds good on paper or in a bar, there's a lot of good reasons for restraint. A way overpowered car will typically be A - slower than one would expect, B - unreliable, and C - dangerous. Not that I wouldn't love to run a 4:1 power-to-weight ratio at the track, but only in a balanced package, and would actually prefer something that's less likely to get me into trouble on the street. So, assuming a well-balanced package, I'd say:

4 to 9:1 at the track 7 to 10:1 for my sporty car 10:1 to 14:1 for my truck or spouses car.

Vintage cars are judged by a different standard.

It depends. In a non-competition setting my ideal is fun, and fun is all about how it feels. If it feels like you're going fast and feels like you're pushing the cars limits, without overrunning your limits as a driver, that's fun to me. If that mostly occurs at speeds that won't get you thrown in jail, it's more ideal for the street. If that mostly occurs at speeds that will, it's more ideal for the track.

I have driven totally stock cars that are faster than my ideal for the street. I have not yet driven a car that is faster than my ideal for the track...But having a general idea of where my talent runs out, I'm confident that there are plenty of them to choose from right now. Given more time and practice in such cars though, and I'm sure that number would quickly drop too. If more power necessitates driving more conservatively, it's is a good indication that the line may have been crossed.

My bike seems to have more than enough......but for some reason I already want more power......

If I'm not terrified to stand on it, it needs more power.

Not sure if your question is about power or speed?

I drive an underpowered car (FRS) and yet, unless the traction control is on, it will bite you in the rain. So, does it have "Too Much" power or still "Not enough"

If I force fed a 1990 Miata a LSx engine, I imagine it could also catch me unawares.

The TOO MUCH point is when it is bound to get you when you are not paying attention. Not that I am worried about us, but about the innocent by-standers.

As fast as possible on the track. I'm pulling the 5.3l V8 out of my Miata because I want more. More more more. And I'm working on the chassis and the aero because I want more. I'm at the point where it's starting to ask a lot of me, so I'm working on me too.

For some reason, though, people are equating fast with overpowered. No, it's about fast. Better cornering, better braking, better acceleration.

On the street, it doesn't matter. Trying to go fast is just an exercise in frustration most of the time.

yamaha wrote: My bike seems to have more than enough......but for some reason I already want more power......

Same here. My dd is a 170+HP streetbike. It's comfortable, reliable, gets good mpg, and is damn fast. It's so good at being fast, and so tame for what it is, I could be happy with some more power.

I get bored as hell with high power cars - I've owned 500 hp RX-7s, 400 hp RX-8s and Eclipses, etc . . . boring.

Driving the piss out of a 115 hp Miata, now that's entertaining.

It all kinda depends, my brother's tuned up 04 Cobra made over 600 hp, and was fun in a ridiculous kind of way, but only something I'd want to take to a cruise-in or car show on the weekends...it wouldn't be much fun in the mountains.

My current horsepower vs. balanced car is a new Boss 302. Just enough horsepower to feel fast, but never out of control. I don't think I want much more than that in a street car.

Cretinx wrote: I get bored as hell with high power cars - I've owned 500 hp RX-7s, 400 hp RX-8s and Eclipses, etc . . . boring. Driving the piss out of a 115 hp Miata, now that's entertaining.

Imagine how entertaining it is driving the piss out of a 400 ft-lb Miata with some grip, though. It does require more gentleman's tackle.

I just spent the weekend at the track with my bone-stock 2011 Honda Fit. It was slow, understeered like a pig and by the end of the weekend I had no tires or brakes left. And it was huge, silly fun. Howling around the corners, turning rubber into noise. The corner workers dubbed it the MisFit, because it looked so out of place, but everyone was surprised at how fast (or rather, unslow) it was.

Ultimate track car? Not in a million years. Fun, especially on the street? Yeah. Lots. Plus I got way better mileage than anyone else!

I think it is a mistake to start out a competition career in a large engined car. I started racing along with others that were driving hot Camaros and Corvettes while I ran a stock engine MG. I learned to drive every inch of the track and eke out every advantage I could find, while they horsed their cars around the track, making lots of smoke and noise, but never really learning to drive properly.

Today, I can drive well in just about anything, while the other guys can still just make lots of noise and burn lots of rubber, but put them into a low output car that requires finesse and they fall on their ass and cuss the cars, blaming them for the lack of speed.

Saw lots of this not just in track racing but in Solo. I used to slalom for practice and the hot 911s and such would get wiped by a stock engine NSU with around 1100 ccs, on any tight track, just because they owner could drive and they couldn't.

I've got a range of cars to drive today (fastest accelerating is a 350 bhp one that gets into the 12's in the 1/4) but I still get a kick out of driving modest powered cars at average higher speed. Not just because it pisses the drivers of more powerful cars you are following off, but that helps!

The older I get the less HP is important to me. The older I get the better I want the handling and the braking to be. My 924s is close to that. It needs about 75 more HP to be perfect. Basically a stock 951 or 944s2 are the perfect balance between HP, weight, handling and stopping for road use.

I think it is a lot more about how the whole package works than strait HP. I have driven cars with a lot more HP, with 0-60 times in the low 4 sec range, and they are great well mannered street cars that I could easily live with. The key is that they are a complete balanced package.

The revers of this is the Miata. 120 hp or so. Not very fast in a strait line compared to many other cars but as a package it is a winner.

It is like debating the size of ladies .. . . . well. .. . OK let put this another way. Most married men will attest it is the complete package that makes there wife the best!!! If you get married strictly because of the size of her.. . . Well you know. .. . . The marriage will more than likely not last.

I drove my 240 (which was 7.1: 1 ) every day and after a month it started feeling slow and didn't notice the heavy clutch. I could have used more power.

I hopped into my Malibu that has a stock clutch and though it was broken, it had very little resistance. I released it out and the car moved just fine. My thoughts were add more when you are used to what you have.