You know have waaay too much power when. . . . .

You miss your 1.6 Miata because using ALL the power ALL the time & the having to plan your way through traffic made the commute so much fun!

But the FR-S/BRZ needs more power!

It's pretty hard to have too much power, but easy to have not enough chassis to let you use the power.

I worked at a Ford dealership for a bit in the 90's. My favorite parts runner car was an Aspire because I could drive it flat out all the time and nobody ever noticed.

Too much power: 29 modal a pickup. Rock hard n50 bias plys. 4.56 gears. 4 speed. 300 horse 327.

Got on the throttle a little at 50mph going straight in the dry. Looped it through the median.

These threads made me realize the fastest running/driving car I've had up to this point was a 1996 Jeep XJ 2 door 2wd with the 4.0. 190hp and plenty of torque in a sub 3,000 lbs sketchy chassis never felt that slow.

slow car fast is better than fast car slow!

"...it will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear." --Captain Nice

Never.

If you think it's fun to have to plan and practically have to make reservations 2 hours in advance to get around soccer mommy in her Buick Enclave, then more power to you (pardon the pun).

I daily a Focus ST. 270hp/270tq means that in traffic instead of driving being a GO FOR IT!!! experience. It's an exercise in self-restraint. I can hammer the piss out of a 1.6 Miata and not have to worry too much about getting a ticket.

Klayfish wrote: Never. If you think it's fun to have to plan and practically have to make reservations 2 hours in advance to get around soccer mommy in her Buick Enclave, then more power to you (pardon the pun).

This is exactly what racing is for me. Accessing the situation... looking for an opening... GO FOR IT!... and make the pass! If it takes you that you that long you're not driving hard enough!

LuxInterior wrote: I daily a Focus ST. 270hp/270tq means that in traffic instead of driving being a GO FOR IT!!! experience. It's an exercise in self-restraint. I can hammer the piss out of a 1.6 Miata and not have to worry too much about getting a ticket.

This kills me with my miata. I can't get out of the way of minivans and SUVs, but at the same time just winding out third gear puts me in "hand over your license" territory.

Sure more power to get out of everyone's way would be great, but 2nd gear already puts me over most local speed limits.

fidelity101 wrote: slow car fast is better than fast car slow!

On the street yes. On the track no.

I like having enough power to spin the tires corner to corner at will.

I wouldn't say I have too much power, but my 540it has enough power to make my commutes moderately interesting. There's a pretty steep hill that I have to get over on the way to work and it's pretty fun to floor it in anger and watch the speed climb to 100mph while going up a 45º slope. And I definitely have enough power to go 100mph on a highway with a bunch of people in the car and the AC blasting, so I guess I can't complain too much. Terrible gas mileage though.

RevRico wrote: This kills me with my miata. I can't get out of the way of minivans and SUVs, but at the same time just winding out third gear puts me in "hand over your license" territory. Sure more power to get out of everyone's way would be great, but 2nd gear already puts me over most local speed limits.

My Corolla feels stupidly fast on the roads here. If I can't pass something, it has more to do with space than speed. The top of 2nd gear is the speed limit (which people often don't get up to), the top of 4th could get you banned from driving for life, the top of 5th might give you the national speeding ticket record on top of that.

The bigger track here only has room for me to get up to the top of 3rd, but when people come out with cars that are powered my more than four ill-tempered hamsters, it reminds you that the car isn't that fast after all.

So far the most power in a street car I have driven is a twin turbo V12 and it still was not enough. Although it did make nice noises.

I think my dakota has a whopping 120 hp at this point. At the crank. If I'm lucky.

It can still spin one of the tires and sometimes the other one.

In reply to Grizz:

I think you have my S10's screamin' 2.2 liter beat !!

In reply to einy:

It's surprisingly fine at getting out of its own way and doesn't seem to care when it's got a bunch of weight in the bed. I think it has a limited slip in the back that's kinda forgetting it's supposed to work.

LuxInterior wrote:

Klayfish wrote: Never. If you think it's fun to have to plan and practically have to make reservations 2 hours in advance to get around soccer mommy in her Buick Enclave, then more power to you (pardon the pun).

This is exactly what racing is for me. Accessing the situation... looking for an opening... GO FOR IT!... and make the pass! If it takes you that you that long you're not driving hard enough!

Yes, I know. There is strategy involved in setting up for a pass in road racing. Trust me, I've done more than my fair share of shifts in Class C cars, or slow class B, in LeMons (the slowest class). Racing this weekend at Thompson, driving a Class C. It's situational awareness, decision making, traffic management, etc... But road racing is an entirely different animal than driving on the street, especially on the highway. Very different dynamics and situation. Sure, some racing skills come into play, but if your car simply lacks the power to squeeze into a hole that suddenly opens, all your road racing skills are useless. For example, it's very common for me to be in traffic that's 6 lanes wide. My lane slows to 30mph, but the lane to my right is still going 55. In my mirror, I see a car in the right lane move into the lane to their right, which opens a hole I could get into. If I try it in the Elantra, I'll get creamed.

For reference, my prior DD was a FoST, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Mine even had the Ford Racing ECU tune, so I had something like 360tq. It was waaaay easier to shoot into holes in traffic in that car.

When that 1300 foot straightaway suddenly has only 200 feet left... and all you did was blink.

My Cayenne Turbo S (525hp) is fast enough that even with light throttle I have to back out of it to avoid hitting people in front of me.

Maybe people just like to mosey on away from stop lights here, dunno. Pretty annoying tho.

Klayfish wrote:

LuxInterior wrote:

Klayfish wrote: Never. If you think it's fun to have to plan and practically have to make reservations 2 hours in advance to get around soccer mommy in her Buick Enclave, then more power to you (pardon the pun).

This is exactly what racing is for me. Accessing the situation... looking for an opening... GO FOR IT!... and make the pass! If it takes you that you that long you're not driving hard enough!

Yes, I know. There is strategy involved in setting up for a pass in road racing. Trust me, I've done more than my fair share of shifts in Class C cars, or slow class B, in LeMons (the slowest class). Racing this weekend at Thompson, driving a Class C. It's situational awareness, decision making, traffic management, etc... But road racing is an entirely different animal than driving on the street, especially on the highway. Very different dynamics and situation. Sure, some racing skills come into play, but if your car simply lacks the power to squeeze into a hole that suddenly opens, all your road racing skills are useless. For example, it's very common for me to be in traffic that's 6 lanes wide. My lane slows to 30mph, but the lane to my right is still going 55. In my mirror, I see a car in the right lane move into the lane to their right, which opens a hole I could get into. If I try it in the Elantra, I'll get creamed. For reference, my prior DD was a FoST, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Mine even had the Ford Racing ECU tune, so I had something like 360tq. It was waaaay easier to shoot into holes in traffic in that car.

I respect where you're coming from, but for me the Fost is just... boring. It's quick and comfortable, but dull. Last week, I had much more fun working my way through 40 mph traffic in a rented Hyundai Accent than I do in the ST. The ST is a far better highway cruiser than the Accent. But then so is my wife's V6-powered-Nissan-Altima-yawn-machine.

Shooting gaps in the Accent requires skill. Zero talent is required to do it in the ST. Just push the pedal down... woosh. :-|

docwyte wrote: My Cayenne Turbo S (525hp) is fast enough that even with light throttle I have to back out of it to avoid hitting people in front of me. Maybe people just like to mosey on away from stop lights here, dunno. Pretty annoying tho.

I have the same problem in the Jeep with 350-ish hp. Some people just crawl off the lights that slowly.

I've had plenty of times where either I'm having to feather the throttle up to 20 or so (because minimum continuous throttle is too much) or I'm giving it a hair more than that but the trans is still not letting the motor spin past 1600 rpm because I've barely got the throttle cracked at all.

A comfortable pace of acceleration in that thing leaves most people in the dust at traffic lights.

Well 300 horsepower in a 2800lb car with 4.10 gears wasnt enough so i added nitrous, now that im a bit older i feel like 500 in my 3200lb car would be about perfect.