Hot Rods Horsepower minimum, got a number?

Billy, guess that's why the chute is on the back? Must be inconvenient in ttaffic!

 

190 hp Mexican GM 350 crate motor. Fun to drive would go fast enough. Without any difficulty. Odometer is set on trip not total miles.I like to drive my cars.I don't need a race motor for what I do .

 

300 Horse Will Take Me To The Next Valley.....

 

Personally, I am not a street car guy.

As far as the track goes let’s talking handling and hooking the power!

I’ll take a 400 horse cars that hooks up, over a 600 horse car that buzzes the tires coming out of the corners.

 

There aren't any corners on a drag strip, at least not that you have to turn at speed.

Driving a hot car to the drag strip, especially if it's several states away, can be a blast

 

After seeing this I wish to change my answer from 400 HP to 1250 HP
My plans change daily on engines for the T

 

And..... The skills to get the tyres "walking on the sidewalls" when driving at the limit of adhesion.
AND
Braking horsepower when you approach a hairpin corner at 170+ mph [if you f*** that up ,you cant lift off the pedal like in drag racing ]

Lightweight underpowered cars are real fun, you can really lean on them. High HP cars are more "steer it, and stab it"
Most Champion drivers developed their skills in underpowered cars .where they didn't have the luxury of power ,So they use other skills.
Put a high HP novice into an underpowered car and they are useless.

It is all about Tyre feedback

 

My wife has a modern sporty car that works really well for taking corners. but it sure is a nuisance just passing someone on a two lane highway...takes forever, even after downshifting a couple gears.

I'd rather have at least 3oo ft lbs torque. 500 or so is nice.

 

Well about 30 years ago I bought a very nice 47 Ford Coupe, all stock. I remember driving these cars in my teens and thought they were bad fast. So stock HP is 90 and the car weighs about 3300 lb giving about 34 lb/hp. While it drove very well and would keep up with traffic, fast wasn't anywhere in the driving experience. My 57 T-Bird was rated at 245 HP and weighed about the same as the 47 Ford. That gave about 13 lb/hp and the little Bird had a lot of zip. My current ride is a Model A with a 401 Nailhead comes out to about 9 lb/hp. The sprint car had about 3 lb/hp.

The 10 lb/hp seems to be a really good number, but I could live with a 13-15 lb/hp.

 

My pops told me one time he didn’t need horse power in his roadster because he’s already the koolest goddamn guy out there.

 

hey Tim, that pic of your roadster was inspiration for my current roadster project. Love it.

My last roadster project (avatar) had a used GM 290 horse crate in it that I picked up on the cheap and it was plenty with a stick behind it. Tons of fun and many smiles per mile.
Current roadster project has a little more hp at 357 (another gm crate deal that I couldn’t turn down) and it also has a stick behind it, so it’s going to be tons of fun too.



Need to get after finishing up final assembly, but it’s just too dang cold in my garage these days.

 

I'm really far south, and it's pretty damn cold in mine, too

 

What the hell is going on? How am I supposed to dream about movin south if that’s happening?

 

"hey Tim, that pic of your roadster was inspiration for my current roadster project. Love it". Thanks for the kind words .your car looks great

 

Honestly, I don't need much. I agree with many of the others here that opine that torque is the more important number, and I'd even add that that is even dependent on gearing. Having a good low gear to utilize that mechanical advantage and get you off the line is really what makes the most difference, and if that could be coupled with a tall enough ratio or even OD for highway cruising, then it's really the best of both worlds.

I think the real minimum number is somewhere around 150 hp in a full sized car and probably about 100 hp in a rod.

I can speak for myself that my Olds has a whooped 324 that made 185 hp on its best day and certainly makes less now, but that has not stopped me from driving it tens of thousands of miles, and really without fearing for my life by having a car that is so slow it couldn't keep up in modern traffic. The granny low in the Jetaway is a big reason for that, and the car would be brutally slow with something like a powerglide.

 

like I said torque makes shit move and is fun. Horsepower is bullshit. I used to port and tune turbine engines. 1680 hp on the Dyno. About 450 ft lbs. but at 16,000 rpm. At idle speeds it wouldn’t pull off a band aid.

 

Another simpler part of the equation is what engine the power is being made with. With my own target happy HP of 300 as the example. 300 on a flathead is pretty hairy compared to a 350 with 300 hp. Now same horsepower on a 454 with be an extremely tame engine.

 

A note to torque: the Nailhead in the Model A has 445 lb-ft of torque at 2800 rpm. It doesn't take much throttle to move out pretty good.

 

My 66 Bronco had 105 hp and the blue car has around 600 hp. Both of them are about right for their intended purpose.

 

This is rich. Just beautiful. We need a new math formula here.

 

Yup. Which means if you want to go fast without hassle, get a big, powerful, mild motor!

 

Yep!
And just about every Barstool Racer confuses Torque with the "Power Curve" [power throughout the rpm range]
Then we end up with cliché sayings to justify ignorance like "Horsepower is bullshit. Torque makes shit move"

In the real world a "big torquey engine" simply has it's power at a lower rpm [It is still Power]

A 200 ft/lb torque [@19000 rpm] F1 engine/car can certainly accelerate faster than a 400 ft/lb [@7000 rpm] F5000 engine. [The old F5000 cars are about 50 kg lighter]

Savvy racers like Bill Jenkins knew about this mathematical dilemma and exploited the rules to their advantage.
The rules had a weight / cubic inch rating so a smaller engine meant less weight .Then the smaller engines were built to rev higher.
Grumpy's 331 inch Vega had 660 hp @ 9200 rpm, and the Torque was 376 ft/lbs at this rpm which is an amazing achievement of VE

 

Yeah how I got into big blocks as a kid. My caddy 500 wasn't a street terror but was so much nicer to run than my buddy's 327s supposedly putting out similar power lol

 

I got a HP trophy at our Nats years back, in my A RPU it was a fun car which I drove interstate,
The HP you ask 27.8 at the wheels! It was a lowest HP trophy & my most proud! Hahaha

 

The one I've always liked.

 

Found this video and the cool comments about the Bronco Buster. (Click on the below Link, to get the comments at Youtube!)

Link - Featherweight: The Lightest Funny Car Ever Built - Doug Nash's Bronco Buster (youtube.com)

 

all I need is 90 HP, 4.30 gears with a 5 speed in a 2300 lb car. what I lacked in speed and power I made up for with noise and RPM's.

 

I am good with 220hp-300hp on the street. Figure when cruising at part throttle, it does not take much to cruise.

220hp 283 @ 3800lb car.

 

Different strokes for different folks

 

Yep! When taking a passenger for a ride
The acceleration excites them, but the cornering and braking terrifies them .

The guys with the biggest ballz in motorsport would be a toss up between "Isle of Mann" motorcycle riders, and Rally car navigators!