How much is too much?

DAIR said:
Don't you drive trucks for a living?

Your E38 must feel like a rocket compared to your company chariot.
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It does indeed! (Hence my earlier post in the thread about power to weight) after ~10 bhp @44t, 235bhp with just under two is lovely. :)

Frozennova said:
To be fair, given he used to drive Scanias some of their cabs are 700hp and fairly quick with no trailer unit off the line
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My current one is 450bhp but I had a spell in a 730bhp 16litre earlier last year just after I’d left Stobart, it pulled a low loader with a JCB earthmover on the back easier than my current one pulls an empty trailer!
 
Quite happy with my 230bhp in a ~1300kg car! I don't think any more power would be much different, there's so few times you get to plant your foot on the roads most days.
 
I pretty happy with my car. Only has around 240bhp and weighs around the 1200kg mark.

I guess as car become heavier that need to increase the engine output. To help move all that weight around.
 
I think 200 HP/ton is about when you have enough acceleration at regular speeds to drive without really worrying about what other people are doing.
 
Power is extremely fun but you get used to the acceleration of a fast car very quickly and it loses it's "stomach on a rollercoaster" feel within a few days. Also, from my experience I found that weirdly a "medium" amount of power (say 500hp in a family sized car) is less "usable" than having a ridiculous amount of power in the same car, which sounds odd but I found it to be true for me, as you have to accelerate for longer periods with a 500hp family sized car to get to silly speeds and the chances to do that (due to traffic and/or road) are rarer than in something uber powerful which you only need to accelerate for very short amount of time (5-10 seconds) to be going at that same silly speed.

However power isn't everything and, as mentioned, the feeling of whatever silly power you have disappears rapidly, which is another reason I liked giving passenger rides, to see their reaction to something I've got used to, where as something that handles well will always have that feeling no matter what and I find a better handling car to be much more "fun" than a faster car for 99% of situations.

My favourite car has been my RWD R34 Skyline at 450hp and 1350kg-ish which was powerful enough to feel "fast" but light enough to feel "sporty" on the handling. All of my other "fast" cars (500hp & 900hp) have been 2 tons+ which takes the "sportiness" away TBF.
 
430bhp in a 1.4tonne car does me well enough. Actually getting quite bored of the power now anyway. Think I would happily go back to around 150-200bhp in a similar weight ratio.
 
I've had three cars now which are about 200HP at 1250KG and they are good fun but I feel like 50% more power would be nice... No small bump, give me 50% more! :D
 
Acme said:
Going frim a 192HP car to an 89HP car for a few months was crap :(
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each to their own, i went from 187hp to 50hp and thought it was great fun, okay it was an old swift so light and nimble with steel wheels, but it was fun on any road under 70mph and did more overtaking than you would imagine and safe overtakes aswell, stepping up to a 67hp 107 was nice and still as fun and did all the same as the swift but was better on motorways, for a 1ltr city car, it sure had no problem me dropping to 3rd at like 50mph to overtake in slow traffic, pulled surprisingly well.

but with that said, it nice to have gone from a 70hp 113lbs/ft 1.4hdi in a 307 that was my previous car to my petrol 1.6 118hp 118lbs/ft pug 2008, so much quicker and as fun to drive(i actually found a 1.6 petrol 307 rubbish too ironically), so easy to drive at 30-35mph in 5th even round tight back road bends. i look at performance/mpg/tax/insurance/practicality and i tend to try find that ideal balance, oh and purchase price, i couldve had a new mazda 3 2ltr petrol thats quicker, better mpg, £30 tax and probably no difference on insurance, but were costing like £2k more than what my pug cost, so was out of reach, same with leon FR models.


my car history and power differences goes as followed: been driving 14yrs

metro 1.1 60hp(1st car) > punto 1.2 60hp > mk6 fiesta 1.25 75hp > MGF 1.8 118hp > puma powered mk5 fiesta ZS 127hp > mk2 mondeo 1.8 125hp > punto 1.2 60hp > corolla T sport 1.8 187hp > 02 suzuki swift 1ltr 50hp > pug 107 1ltr 67hp > pug 307 1.4hdi 70hp > pug 2008 1.6 118hp

with a mix of 90hp/155lbs/ft - 147-187hp/280lbs/ft depending what Evoque my mums partner has and had as they will have been the more powerful/torque diesels over the years
 
Scania said:
It does indeed! (Hence my earlier post in the thread about power to weight) after ~10 bhp @44t, 235bhp with just under two is lovely. :)


My current one is 450bhp but I had a spell in a 730bhp 16litre earlier last year just after I’d left Stobart, it pulled a low loader with a JCB earthmover on the back easier than my current one pulls an empty trailer!
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Hell yeah on euro truck sim 2 you can get well up to well over 100 in the volvo and scania bad boys
:D
 
Acme said:
Going from a 192HP car to an 89HP car for a few months was crap :(
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Going from 900HP to 130HP (loaned Golf TDI) wasn't that bad, mainly because I really loved having a manual box again for heal-toeing, rev matching etc which makes even a dull commute more fun, plus the lack of power meant overtakes now had to be planned well in advance rather than split second "Oooh theres a gap" decisions which meant that pulling off a good overtake felt more rewarding. The oddest thing I noticed was how my "900HP trained" body unconsciously reacted to full throttle in the Golf as I found myself pulling my upper body about 2in closer to the wheel ready for my body to be thrown back by the brutal acceleration to follow which the Golf obviously didn't have and I never knew my body did that in the Audi.

Going from the Golf to a Seat Ibiza 1.4 petrol (another loaner) with it's horrific 7 speed DSG box on the other hand was horrible, just due to the awful auto/manual hybrid feel to the gearbox which would shoot upto 7th gear by 35mph yet still did screamed at 3000rpm at 70mph in 7th - filthy heap of crap thing it was!
 
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