Too much horsepower is never enough

What you said....

 

Doesnt this fall in same catagory as having too much money

 

When you are spinning the tires or doing wheelstands in high gear you are probably close to having enough power. Anything less that that means there is room for improvement.

 

Just wait till I get my 600 HP flathead going. I'll show you all.

 

As everyone else said depends on the ride. I had 500 hp and 1000 ft lbs in an o/t diesel. Yet my 180hp o/t vw will get down the road much better. I have around 300 in my apache and its a blast as well. All depends man. In general i would say 450 ish maybe 500 is pretty killer for a street machine. Much more than that and idk if youre gonna actually drive it that much

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Yep!.... Or a small pecker....

 

Naw... The small pecker thing falls under the same catagory as owning a Hummer.

 

hahahahaha!

 

That to!!..

 

When you are sitting at a light or stop sign in neutral, and your cars windshield, mirrors and steering wheel are shaking... that might be an indicator that you have nearly enough power. When you put it in gear, hit the gas and then find yourself steering your ass off to go straight... that might be an indicator that you have nearly enough power. If I started my car, put it in gear, stepped on the gas and all of those things didn't scare someone... I'd know that I needed more horsepower!

 

I think EJ Potter's bike might just have to much horse power for me and a full pass. I'm sure it can't out run the 1000 hp at the wheels BMW a kid was talking about the other day though.

 

I've been squandering horsepower!! Is that kinda like not composting your kitchen waste??

 

Depends on what kinda tires. But uh yea, 4th gear wheelstands would probably indicate that you are closing in on enough. But only if you are carrying them, just jerking them on the shift doesn't count...

 

Light weight pre-war hot rod:450 horsepower
3500 lb. post war: 650 horsepower.

But only if the tires/chassis is dialed in for it.
Anything more is just lust on the street.

 

I think this o/t Aussie Holden ute might actually fall into the 'too much horsepower' category...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWvDHFETN4g

Cheers, Glen.

 

I think Porknbeaner said it best.

All pecker jokes aside, If you cant hook what you have NOW, spend NO dinero on making any more HP/TQ.

Lets face it gang, making the HP is EASY these days....IF you got the gold to do it then the hard parts/experience is there to be able to do it. Its all coin, one way or the other.

I love nasty muscle cars almost as much as traditional hot rods and kustoms, esp MoPars. I just put the finishing touches on a 572 Hemi thats taken over a year to put together and was designed to be a runner on pump gas.

Aftermarket siamesed Mopar block, a custom hard roller, Bryant crank, Saenz rods, coated Diamond pistons, CNCd Indy Legend heads, Stage V rollers, gear drive etc the list goes on.

Made 850HP @ 6300 and 770TQ @ 5000. If I put a more aggressive stick in it and a higher CR it would have made 1000+ easily, but what for?

This thing will NEVER hook on the street in my Mopar. Period. With the appropriate chassis/rear susp mods it'll hook fairly well on slicks at a prepped track and if it does hook properly it should go 135-140mph and mid 9s are on the cards. Im happy with that for a car I can drive on the street and is NA all throttle.

You have to realise than making this much or more HP/TQ needs a serious convertor/trans/rear end/suspension that can take the abuse and WORK properly to deliver that HP/TP in the most efficient manner possible and thats more coin as well. Get the total pkg right and itll run very hard...and FAST.

I have a few mates running 8s at the track in street cars with turbo'd small and big blocks. Everything from Bow Ties to Fords and a few Mopars. One is knocking on the 7 sec door is a street driven ride that is reliable and runs on pump gas - all this form a 410ci Windosr based combo. I dont care what anyone says, 165-180 terminals in a street based car is fuckin NUTS and takes some serious commitment in terms of $$$ and the balls to keep your foot it it at those power levels.

Another buddy just finished up his stroker twin turbo Windsor - 1280HP that will go easy 8s at the track as well - on a 10" tire. Serious shit folks.

There'll always be someone crazier or someone with more coin than yourself who's willing to blow it on the car and does'nt have a ball and chain preventing him from doing it as well as having the financial means.

Speedys Garage - its all relative. Some will spend it on booze/drugs/broads - others will spend it on their ride.

Choose your poison.

Rat

 

So I guess what you are saying i, if you still have money left, and you are not thinking about upgrading the chassis/brakes/drivetrain to handle the power you already have then you don't have enough horsepower?

I'd say , if it doesn't scare you, you still don't have enough power

 

Humm..

There may actually be some method to your madness... or is it madness to your method.

 

damn i remember the day,not to long ago, when we were building sbc and we were trying to break the 300 hp barrier.we all couldnt start out with them factory 300+ hp chevys. we had to take 145-160 hp 350s and go from there.now days the #s we come up with still astounds me.

 

The sad fact of the matter is that no matter what you do and how you do it, we are not breaking any new ground here. All of this stuff has been done before! So what if you build the baddest BBC that can be built, some one else has done it too. So what is the point?

The point is to strive to be our own personal best. That is where we can derive some honest satisfaction. Not the kind of satisfaction that is based on the opinion of someone else. Because at the end of the day its our own opinion that will make or break us. You know if you have really done your personal best, and you are the one that can push those limits.

 

Way back in my younger years, there was never enough H.P.. I had a Vette with bbc, roller cam, Dominator carb, big heads, 4 speed and 4:88 gears on a custom nitrous set-up (1979). The car was designed to make me money, thus you couldn't drive it down to the beach on a hot Summers day. Now that I'm older, wiser and into cruising, I only need enough power to get me from point A to point B comfortably and economically.

 

No emphatically NO!!! Too much HP can always be equated with not having enough money. Speed costs money you know.

I have been trying to get a Hummer but it has nothing to do with size and everything to do with not knowing any chicks that are musically inclined.

 

Nope what i am saying if you (re read my post) is that :

i. the HP is EASiER to make NOW than ever before.
ii. you cant afford to CUT corners at all when you up the ante
iii. builds like this are budgeted out unless you are filthy rich which most are definat
ely NOT.
iv. 3o0HP in a light car in the wet on the street can kill you just as 850+ HP in a bad
chassis can scare the shit out of you/kill you at the track.

So by your inference, are you measuring HP by the "degree" by which it "scares" you? What if you don't scare easily, does you bank acct then determine how much HP will scare you ? How about your buddies input or your ego ?

Or, do you relate by the degree that you satisfy your performance goals ? Be they ET, MPH, reliability, budget and FUN ?

Dodored nailed it.

Sorry dude, I don't get your thinking.

 

My off topic daily driver and parts chaser (a 1982 V-8 S-10, with 14" pie pans) is an excellent example, at 2700 pounds and the bias of 1800 nose and 900 tail and a 4.11 Eaton posi with a 388 make for a fun ride but it is flat dangerous when the road is wet. I will not let friends drive it in those conditons because it is very light in the tail and just a little too much throttle sends it sideways during normal auto shifting and on ramp? You had better be damn ready! By the way, it runs 12.90s at 107mph with street tires and full exhaust and ballparks 275 rear wheel horse power. The engine was built as a clone of a Hot Rod Magazine engine that made 440 Dyno room horse power.

 

]Here's a few with too much !

Overkill and then some


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwRfHSKosP4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Gees Moose , ya got everybody wound up with that one !!

 

I never ment it quite that seriously, but tbh, once you can handle the horsepower you have, a lot of us (if not all) are going to try to find those extra few horsepowers if they can afford it
And yes, I'm quite sure 150 horses in a vintage style T-bucket can be a lot more scary than 550 horses in a late model AMG or Porsche.
No, you wouldn't settle for 300 horses just because you might drive your car in the wet occasionally, F1,LSR or Indy car drivers probably don't get scared as easily as most Corolla buyers.
And no, the question was never how many horses do you think you could have and still have a reliable engine that works on a budget...
AND even if you had a budget originally and 'enough horsepower', after two years, you have sold those extra parts behind the garage, and you are thinking about getting that bigger carb, or a more open exhaust, those headers etc....
We all have different limits, so the answer will be different for everyone....