Too Much Power 'For The Road'

  • Thread starter Thread starter rjk
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rjkoneill said:
I would love to see some input on this thread from Iceman and JP who have owned big power GTRs and other exotica.
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Heh. The Nissan GTR went straight to the top of my car lust list when I sat in one at Goodwood just before it became for sale over here. I had headroom and legroom (even wearing combat boots) and it was fast, but by the time I could afford one, they'd altered the interior such that I no longer had headroom.
 
As taken from PH....

"Straights are for fast cars, corners are for fast drivers".

I think that with limited experience you crave straights and so seek power, with more you seek corners and therefore look for other things such has chassis balance, steering feel, braking response, driven wheels and suchlike. It's not a science and not a catch all, but I tend to this this is often the case.

Massive horsepower on the road is great for traffic light GP's and showing off to buddies but it tends to make nice roads more of a bore as you don't have the freedom to drive the car safely with massive power that in an MX5 for example you could. Coming into a bend at say 50mph and having to coax a nicely balance car through it is less obvious than approaching at 140mph and having to shed 80mph to commit to the bend.
 
X6M was a bit too fast for the road I thought, although I had just driven it around the nurburgring! :D
 
I find the same with bikes. I've had loads of powerful bikes (160bhp+) but other than track days they are quite dull on the road. Redline a litre sports bike in first and its doing a ton, so in reality you spent all day tickling the throttle and generally feeling uninvolved.

I have much more actual fun on lower powered bikes where you can rev the engine through the gears and still be within the law, or at least not at 'go to jail' speeds.
 
Housey said:
As taken from PH....

"Straights are for fast cars, corners are for fast drivers".

I think that with limited experience you crave straights and so seek power, with more you seek corners and therefore look for other things such has chassis balance, steering feel, braking response, driven wheels and suchlike. It's not a science and not a catch all, but I tend to this this is often the case.

Massive horsepower on the road is great for traffic light GP's and showing off to buddies but it tends to make nice roads more of a bore as you don't have the freedom to drive the car safely with massive power that in an MX5 for example you could. Coming into a bend at say 50mph and having to coax a nicely balance car through it is less obvious than approaching at 140mph and having to shed 80mph to commit to the bend.
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Spot on, I spent about £5k on modifying my ITR, the vast majority of it was on bigger brakes, having it re-bushed and adjustable suspension fitted by a motorsport team and lightweight wheels with sticky rubber.

Admittedly i did fit a Mugen intake and Twinloop exhaust, but that was more because i liked the noise they made when i was wringing it's neck, which obviously is most of the time in a torqueless wonder... ;)
 
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Sagalout said:
I find the same with bikes. I've had loads of powerful bikes (160bhp+) but other than track days they are quite dull on the road. Redline a litre sports bike in first and its doing a ton, so in reality you spent all day tickling the throttle and generally feeling uninvolved.

I have much more actual fun on lower powered bikes where you can rev the engine through the gears and still be within the law, or at least not at 'go to jail' speeds.
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The issues with bikes is amplified as they make up speed so quickly but give you much less room for manoeuvre it makes them significantly more risky to really push on.
 
As much as I love speed / power I do still find it very intimidating. I never realised how much so. Until I got the M135I.

I've yet to mat the throttle. However, I have given it a slight push. Once or twice since getting it (Saturday just gone). Needless to say it both excited me and scared the crap put of me.

I don't know how I'd cope with a car that had twice as much power.
 
theone8181 said:
The 911 is quicker round corners? Possibly in a straight line as well.
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He bought it because it's a better sports car, significantly better and I made the comment to support my point. It isn't faster in a straight line, the Mustang was rapid at that, but it is significantly more rounded and better on track lap after lap. As I said, as you get more experience you look for different things. BHP to me is very much a done that, bored thing if that is all a car offers, but for others they crave more and more.
 
Lower powered cars can be great fun. Bearing in mind my current car is only a 130bhp diesel, it's still enough to get you into trouble. I have every intention of remapping it to 170 though, because it could do with a bit more, at higher speeds it feels a bit blunt, so overtakes and the like aren't as easy as they could be.

My old 1.2 corsa was great fun, despit only having 75hp or so. Toyo t1-r tyres and in the dry it just stuck. Country lanes were great fun. I have relatives on the Isle of Wight, when I used to go visiting I could more or less keep the throttle in permanently (needed to keep any speed up!) and just carry momentum through the corners. If you misjudged and lost speed, it was very difficult to get it back again.
 
rjkoneill said:
I would love to see some input on this thread from Iceman and JP who have owned big power GTRs and other exotica.
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Sorry Rich, Just catching up on the forum as I am on holiday :p

Some very good posts in this thread, how is the manual F-Type coming along Jonny ;)

tsinc80697 said:
All of my comments refer to my >600hp GTR :) It does have too much power for general roads, unless you're sensible.
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tsinc has already made some good points about the GTR and how fast it can be, I will add some of my thoughts on why I sold it.

One of the reasons for selling the GTR and moving to an R8 V10 was the performance, but it wasn't the main one as the V10 is obviously still a quick car!
With the GTR (mine was tuned to 640bhp/610lbft) you mash the throttle and are going say 120mph from 60mph in about 6 seconds, I recorded 62-124mph (100-200kmh) in 6.45 seconds.
That is fast, but it is still plenty of time to understand how fast you are going and be aware.
I also recorded 50-70mph in 1.31 seconds, that is just amazing for overtaking, you can be past things so fast that I think it was actually pretty safe as you are on the wrong side of the road for less time.
I think the problem with it was me, I was driving too fast when I shouldn't and with the gearbox you didn't really have to think about driving it.
Sure you have to counter steer a bit when the back end gets happy and get the braking right when driving fast but it felt a bit lazy.
After the excitement of finally owning one wore off it just wasn't satisfying to drive fast.
High speeds end up just feeling slow as it handles the speed so well and if you don't drive it hard at normal speeds it is not exactly a nice car to drive.

I also wanted a manual gearbox again and with a high revving NA engine the R8 V10 was the perfect choice in my opinion.
Being able to go from cruising along in 6th and drop straight down 3rd without having to go through all the other gears to get there is so nice.
The satisfaction of shifting though a gated manual is so good, each gear is like a bolt action rifle!

So, I don't think there is really such a thing as too much power, it is more how the driver wants to drive, is it about the destination or the journey getting there, sure you can go bloody fast without trying but other than the acceleration and g force was it really that fun doing it.

Not the greatest of posts, just woke up and jet lag!
If I think of something else I will update it.
 
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