i've been wondering lately with all the high hp cars comming out, each toping one another, how much hp is too much? there is only so much you can do with huge numbers. i know that in a straight line more can be better, but i'm thinking about trackable hp.

 

if you cant control it... its too much.

 

there is no such thing

 

I read about a guy who had a farrari testarossa with twin turbos and about 1000hp. it was uncontrollable. also the old F1 cars with turbos I have read about would switch ends at about 140mph if you weren't careful when up shifting. the honda powered cars where rumored to have 1500 BHP. any hp that goes up in wheel spin, is wasted hp.

 

so all cars should have 40HP so you can never spin the tires?? what do you actually mean? You do realize that top fuel dragsters are spinning their tires through the whole run. Acceleration that is so high to overpower the tires by around 15% is optimal for making it down a race track as fast as possible.

The amount of power one needs is directly related to the "tightness" of the nut behind the wheel!!

 

Depends on the nut behind the wheel.

I start to have trouble around 5lb's/hp to drive a car at the absolute limit. I can keep most of my street drag cars going in a straight line at around 3lb's/hp. Anything with a power to weight ratio better then that is flat out not fun the drive.

I have one in the garage right now that will be around 1000lb's of car ~300hp and that should be a hoot to try and keep on the track.

 

Well ah ..If the tire is spinning faster than the car is moving, is that not wasted HP ?because the tire are not getting enough traction, due to too much torque be applied to overcome the weight thats being moved. Thats all I meant. and no way should all cars only have 40 HP.

 

Things like electronic nannys and AWD have made these cars with insane horsepower approachable by the average citizen.

I can stick my wife in the 911 turbo and she does just fine running to the grocery store. Likewise I can turn off the T/C and still have fun at the track (although -- and I hate to admit this -- but I ran quicker laptimes last year at SCR with it on .. ahem).

The same scenario applies over and over -- the Z06, high horsepower Mercedes, BMW's etc. Given the electronic nanny any nut can safely control the car in almost every circumstance.

So I would say there really is never enough IF we have electronics to make up for our inabilities.

Evidence of this theory is supported by the large number of Porsche GT2 and GT3 cars wrapped around various objects by their owners. They don't have any nanny. You screw up there and you pay the price.

 

Hell...forget about GT2s & GT3s, we see enough of that on S2Ki.

As for the topic:
You know you have too much HP when ...

 

So the traction control is still limiting the power thats available, so it is too much hp for the conditions. so you can have a car "with too much HP"