Of course many car enthusiasts care about speed (HP/Torque) as much as the next car geek, it plays an important part on car purchases, overall quality, build, etc. etc. We all like to have fun in our cars from time to time, let it be racing or going WOT when you're getting onto the freeway ... but how fast is too fast? It's a question I've been asking myself and others. A decade ago the average car had about 200 horses at the crank give or take, nowadays you have family cars such as the Honda Accord, Nissan Maxima or the Toyota Camry/Avalon pushing about 260+ horses. Now these are family cars once again, once you go into the more sporty cars, you have relatively inexpensive cars such as the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and the Subaru Impreza WRX STI with 300 horses stock to the G37 with a whopping 330 HP naturally aspirated. Than you get into the higher tier cars such as the M3, M5, C63, IS-F pushing out 400-500+ horses. In another 10 years, is 400 horsepower going to be the average? Another thing to add is yes we do have rev limiters and what not, but whats the point of having 5XX amount of horses if you can't even use it all ... I remember reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and in his dystopian world, people drove so fast they had to make enormous billboards just to have people be able to see them because they drove too fast. Is this the world we're heading to? Your thoughts please.

 

I don't think HP will continue climbing that much. I believe for now the HP wars are over in favor of fuel economy, emissions, and safety.

What I think though is that it doesn't matter whether you can use ALL the power in a daily or real life situation. I think that a lot of people buy these high HP cars because they like to know the car does have that power whenever they might need it. All that power honestly is not a necessity, but a lot of people like to know that it's there. With enthusiasts, it is the obvious thrill of speed, feel and performance.

 

How fast is too fast?

Many people find out the hard way:

 

Let me rephrase this ... how much is too much


With technology enabling us to have higher HP + better gas mileage, I don't see it topping out anytime soon.

 

one thing to keep in mind is weight of vehicles have drastically increased over the years too. so although hp have increased a lot on average, and performance of vehicles have improved over years, but i wouldn't say it's linear.

of course, there are all the sports cars out there with 400 hp and they can do quite amazing stuff, and i agree that on normal roads they can't really use all of them, but i do know quite a few of those cars go on tracks regularly too

i don't see a limit to the question of how fast is too fast

 

I've said on here for years there is no reason many of these vehicles need so much power. However they are a business and marketing can easily sell vehicles based on "numbers" and things like "HP", especially since most people don't "know" about cars but they know what 300hp is .

As we look most increases in power today come either with either no penalty in MPG or a slight increase in MPG.

I don't see gas only vehicles as gaining more power to levels like 300hp plus in the mainstream level. What I do see is hybrids getting more power and more MPG and people trying those out more and more.

As we look at sales, V-6 sales of the Altima, Fusion, Camry etc are still 20% or less. Most are I-4s. I would like to see those I-4s getting more fuel efficient and leave a little power behind.

So what we are seeing is a great increase in technology, the power of marketing, more people wanting cars (well until the economic crisis hit) ,dumber consumers (my opinion) and better marketing.

However, if fuel prices spike up, if cars get taxed even more and the economy continues to blow, consumer trends will continue to change towards more MPG and less power.

I DO WISH there was a change in driver knowledge, testing. That TO ME is what we need. Then more power isn't a problem if people are more capable as drivers.

 

funny you say that, because that is how i learned.

 

It's true, to some extent, that more driver skill lessens the risk of fast, aggressive driving. But it is also true that, no matter what your skill level or how advanced the safety features on your car are, you can't overcome the laws of physics and kinetic energy. All other things equal, the faster you go, and/or the less traction you have on a slippery surface, the longer it is going to take you to stop, and the less bite your tires are going to have in cornering. While ABS, for example, may keep you from skidding or losing control of steering on a panic stop, it doesn't necssarily make you stop any quicker, because, on any given surface, the tires are going to have only so much bite, ABS or no ABS. And, of course, the faster you are going if and when you hit something, (all else equal) the higher the total impact force is going to be, and the more likely, even with seat belts and air bags, you are to be injured or killed.

However, I agree that basic high-school and Primary-Student driving courses are simply not enough. They simply teach you basic traffic laws, how to press a couple of pedals and start, stop, look at signs, obey speed limits....and little else. Far more, IMO, needs to be taught about auto dynamics and things like driving a manual transmission, understeer, oversteer, driving on low-traction surfaces, impact force, etc......and how vehicles actually operate.

 

I personally would not want anything faster than lets say IS350, Honda S2000, etc. I don't have the skills to handle them properly, and neither do most average drivers.

I've driven some very high power cars - a W12 Bentley, modified Caprice, modified Eclipse, and while the shear power provides for some insane adrenaline rush, I know that it would eventually lead me to bite off more than I can handle and crash. And if I was to take them around a track, I'd probably spin out.

 

It sure makes for some interesting decisions when buying a new car. This increased competitive pressure delivers much better products to the consumer.

Personally, I hope it continues for the next few years at least. I expect my next car to have 500+ hp. Not that the F's 400+ isn't enough....trust me, it's more than enough ....but with what BMW, MB and hopefully Lexus (c'mon GS F!) are doing with their performance sedans, that appears to be the new standard.

 

I don't think a decade ago the average car had 200 HP. It was less.

I do think that a Camry doesn't need 270 HP. It should have a smaller, more efficient 6 cylinder option because there are still people today who buy cars based on the number of cylinders.

 

With power it all depends on how it is used, the car/platform and safety devices that are in place. Looking back at the muscle car era, putting some of the insane power in some of those cars with hemi's, big blocks etc, was really insane if used to their full ability,they were death traps, especially with inadequate brakes. So today, given a driver that does not take crazy risks, and having a traction control system that is ON, I think having a 400 hp car is not unreasonable. Once cars get in the 600 hp range, even with all the electronic and safety advances, things start to get hairy.

 

How fast is too fast?

It all depends on how sharp a curve is.

For me a Miata is plenty fast.

 

i think the avg person will do fine with around 300. that is plenty enough for power and efficiency.

and i think topping out at 500hp for the exotics is good enough too. I think we have definately peaked, but BMW has the next move with the M5 next, ***** in their court.

 

sorry for the dumb question guys, but what does WOT stand for?