Agreed.
How much is too much?
- Thread starter MR_Punk
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Agreed.
This is interesting actually as it all depends on how you enjoy power delivery. Generally I'd be much more happy tootling about with plenty of low down torque available, knowing at any moment you can make easy progress, than having the rev the guts out of something to get anywhere.
I owned an 330i and an RS Clio at the same time a few years back with very similar 0-62mph times but the Clio delivery was awful compared to the lower down grunt of the 3 series.
If you have a thirst for exhilarating straight-line acceleration and you have a relaxed regard to speed limits then I don't suppose there is such a thing as 'too much'.
But in this day and age with speed cameras and police cars and speed bumps and pot holes around every corner, you do have to be careful when using WOT on particularly powerful cars for more than a few seconds. With many "ultra-hatches" reaching 60 in 4-5 seconds, imagine how fast you'd be going if you keep your foot down for a further 4-5 seconds.
I always get a little confused when people say this. Can you elaborate on what exactly you mean?
"Dangerously slow", to me, would define a car with insufficient power to maintain any/all given speed limits. I don't think any "proper" (i.e. not tiny little 2-seaters or bizarre old-fashioned low volume stuff) road cars have been made in the last 60-odd years which could be described this way, and certainly not with 110bhp.
My first car had 39bhp. It would happily cruise at 70mph for as long as you needed it to. Perhaps it can be considered frustratingly slow to a petrolhead, sure, but not dangerous.
But in this day and age with speed cameras and police cars and speed bumps and pot holes around every corner, you do have to be careful when using WOT on particularly powerful cars for more than a few seconds. With many "ultra-hatches" reaching 60 in 4-5 seconds, imagine how fast you'd be going if you keep your foot down for a further 4-5 seconds.
I always get a little confused when people say this. Can you elaborate on what exactly you mean?
"Dangerously slow", to me, would define a car with insufficient power to maintain any/all given speed limits. I don't think any "proper" (i.e. not tiny little 2-seaters or bizarre old-fashioned low volume stuff) road cars have been made in the last 60-odd years which could be described this way, and certainly not with 110bhp.
My first car had 39bhp. It would happily cruise at 70mph for as long as you needed it to. Perhaps it can be considered frustratingly slow to a petrolhead, sure, but not dangerous.
I'm probably the other way. Give me a lightweight car with a high reving engine and good build of power, although I can appreciate a lump of torque in a heavy car when I CBA and just want to pass. Maybe I'm getting old.
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EP3 type r, had to rag the nuts off it to go quickly, loved it, was much more fun to drive than current 340i. Maybe due to the awesome snicky manual box. However I wouldnt go back. 
EP3 type r, had to rag the nuts off it to go quickly, loved it, was much more fun to drive than current 340i. Maybe due to the awesome snicky manual box. However I wouldnt go back.
I had an ek9 1600 with around 200hp and 6k's worth of wheels, tyres and suspension. That was properly quick. Should have held onto it.
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Sure. The car was an Astra H (~10 years old now) 1.6 Petrol. New car is Astra 1.4T (150).
In Oxfordshire, there are tons of luxury german cars, BMW/Merc/Audi etc. Everyone thinks their journey is the most important, they use their cars as weapons, tailgating, undertaking, etc.
The main road here is the A34, it's a dual carriageway that should really be a motorway, the left lane is packed with freight.
The left lane goes at 55-60mph, the right lane goes at 75-80mph.
The riskiest part of my commute is merging on to the A34, the executive people try to bully you, the lorries have nowhere to go, and you need to get into a gap between trucks before you run out of road.
That bit of extra power means I can deal with the merging and lane changes in an assertive/defensive way - the difference to safety is night and day, and it's all caused by impatient drivers in powerful cars.
But that is not a problem with the car or something a level of power will solve.
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More power doesn't make people not jerks, but it does help you defend yourself. Not saying it's a race to have the most powerful car, but being at least similarly powered to those around you is clearly safer in my experience.
Current car I mostly drive has 75bhp and ~1530kg so it's you guessed it... slow
I hope to have at least 150bhp in my next (first car I actually own) car as I will be going a fairly short distance on the motorway daily (~35 miles)
Anything with more becomes even more crazy with insurance (£1500 -> £2000 a year :/ )
Should be enough, my brother had a 2.0TDI mk5 golf and he was fine with that on motorway + the extra torque of a diesel helped
I hope to have at least 150bhp in my next (first car I actually own) car as I will be going a fairly short distance on the motorway daily (~35 miles)
Anything with more becomes even more crazy with insurance (£1500 -> £2000 a year :/ )
Should be enough, my brother had a 2.0TDI mk5 golf and he was fine with that on motorway + the extra torque of a diesel helped
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Ideally 200-300bhp is a decent number for UK roads.
What of the car weighs over 1.5 tonnes?
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How so?
There's always someone with more power anyway. You can get cars with 700bhp and more, easy enough.
I've been doing well over twice the speed limit before and still had some ******** up my backside, flashing their lights and trying to undertake. Everyone knows motorcycles are fast, yet there's always someone trying to race me off the lights and cut me up.
More power makes people into more dangerous jerks.
Not sure, I think the danger was always the person. If I'm driving along at whatever speed and someone comes up behind I'll move over although I try to never sit in lane so most of the time they'll just bomb past.
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I agree with you, but this doesn't work on the A34.
I often smile at “not enough power is dangerous” - try 10bhp/ton!
You will only put yourself in a dangerous situation with low power if you’ve misjudged your situation.
I find 450bhp ample in my HGV even though at full weight it is only just over 10bhp/ton (44t) and smile at operators who run 730bhp tractors pulling loads that a 400bhp truck can handle easily, heavy plant for example warrants such power but little else on uk work.
Cars are just getting silly these days, yes they are getting heavier but the power increases are way beyond that factor, the next M5, for example - 592bhp - you don’t need that kind of power in a motorway muncher or any run of the mill car which a 5 Series ultimately is,it’s hardly suitable for a track where arguably you would want such power no matter how technically fantastic it undoubtedly is.
You will only put yourself in a dangerous situation with low power if you’ve misjudged your situation.
I find 450bhp ample in my HGV even though at full weight it is only just over 10bhp/ton (44t) and smile at operators who run 730bhp tractors pulling loads that a 400bhp truck can handle easily, heavy plant for example warrants such power but little else on uk work.
Cars are just getting silly these days, yes they are getting heavier but the power increases are way beyond that factor, the next M5, for example - 592bhp - you don’t need that kind of power in a motorway muncher or any run of the mill car which a 5 Series ultimately is,it’s hardly suitable for a track where arguably you would want such power no matter how technically fantastic it undoubtedly is.
This is how my wife's cars have gone, she didn't want anything powerful to begin with (and still doesn't by most people's standards) but has slowly worked her way up, it tends to be when we go somewhere hilly that she bemoans a lack of power i.e. inability to overtake on an incline.
55 > 75 > 105 > 130
The increased power has been accompanied by an increase in car size however so the drop in 0-60s has been less marked.
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Same here really, my latest car (206bhp) is actually slower 0-60 than my last one (150bhp) because of the weight.
I have a few friends who have had 300bhp+ when under 25 years old. I don't know where they're going to go without it being boring.