How much is too much power for street?

[inlinesix]

What car is that. Copen?

Copen is front engine front wheel drive.

 

I m driving MRS.

[inlinesix]

Anyway, here's a good video posted todays at Autoblog

 

COOL video.

[Kiadaw]

Copen is front engine front wheel drive.

 

I m driving MRS.

MRS less than 1K in weight? That's light.

[Jq1988]

as long as enough power to smoke the blue and yellow cabs...is sufficient

[Hydrocarbon]

Copen is front engine front wheel drive.

 

I m driving MRS.

 

I love the MR-S! I wish they still made it / sold it (new).. Have never ridden in it before, but it's a "planned upgrade" of mine in the sense that I hope to be able to afford / buy a secondhand one, maybe by next year. For a MR car, it's price is reasonable, just not too sure about maintenance.

 

Have sent you a PM, hopefully can get more details from you, if it's alright with you.

[Kiadaw]

I love the MR-S! I wish they still made it / sold it (new).. Have never ridden in it before, but it's a "planned upgrade" of mine in the sense that I hope to be able to afford / buy a secondhand one, maybe by next year. For a MR car, it's price is reasonable, just not too sure about maintenance.

 

Have sent you a PM, hopefully can get more details from you, if it's alright with you.

You can also consider a used Boxster or Cayman, or elise, if they are within your price range.

[Hydrocarbon]

You can also consider a used Boxster or Cayman, or elise, if they are within your price range.

 

Thanks for the advice. I did consider the Elise, but the price range is higher than what I'm willing to part with by mid next year (both the price and yearly depre). And don't really like the looks of it as much as the MR-S.

 

I also considered the MX-5, but didn't like it very much, and even after doing research on it, still didn't like it. Didn't even consider the Boxster or Cayman, as I don't like the design.

 

Looking for a 2 seater convertible with a MR layout. Or at least, an FR layout. BHP has to be comparable. Then again, don't want to hijack this thread.

 

I shall contribute back to the thread by saying that the MR-S has what I look for in terms of power / weight ratio at current moment. 138BHP / 996Kg or 1003Kg, depending on which source you trust. I think that as Singapore has many traffic lights and not much in terms of long roads with no speed limits / TP / speed cams, this power to weight ratio might be enough for most drivers.

[Tigershark1976]

With Speed liimit of 90km/hr on Expressway and max 70km/hr on major arterial rd, plus the traffic jam every now and then... think 200bhp is the max a street car need.... Anything more is just a waste.

[Simplecar]

The required WHP depends on what the rest are driving. Many here would want to have one that is 'faster' than the rest so that he/she can respond faster in the event of incidents etc.

 

Yes, I too would like to have a car that is faster than taxis.

I would like to have a car with good brakes as well.

[Beehive3783]

This question was asked on a forum I frequent but I'm interest in knowing whats the opinion of Singaporean driver/car owners.

 

I purposely posted the poll in whp because what matters is what the car can put to the ground not at the engine. My opinion is anything more than 500whp is too much and really no point. So how much power is too much for street in your opinion?

The question you should be asking in Singapore context is: how many people can afford anything more 300whp?

[Fuelsaver]

150-200whp/tonne is a sweet spot for me as a daily drive. Anything above 250whp/t really has little chance to even touch full throttle.

Can full throttle. The issue is how long can we hold it. Here, just a few seconds till reach speed limit or the next traffic light or queue.

[Beehive3783]

This question is a little simplistic. On the one hand, one can never have too much "power", even in a street car, since "power" can get you out of bad situations quickly. There are many situations when accelerating out of danger is more effective than braking and praying.

 

You're right about this point. Countless times I have accelerated to get out of trouble/bad traffic instead of braking and slowly filtering out.

[Picanyeo]

For this question, I really feel it depends on individual's driving style. For me, I feel a 1.6L with about 120+bhp would be sufficient for SG driving. This would be translated into 90 - 100whp. Not a speedster, but something to ferry the family along. It's modest in FC and cheaper to maintain in terms of road tax. Save a little cost here and there and it will accumulate to a significant amount. But of course, some bros will find it insufficient omph for them.

 

 

[Strudel-]

For turbo cars if ur running wif big turbos wif massive turbo lag vs a stock turbo i rather choose the stock one for its responsiveness. Given ur car got 800whp but only starts to spool at 5k rpm oso no use. Those small turbos will be at the next light waiting for u already. Lol

 

 

Exactly thats why I'm curious whats the mentality of Singaporean car owner/driver. With bigger turbo, natural comes bigger lag. However with proper engine work the lag can be reduce quite significantly. Another thing to note is this "power" may not just come from forced induction. Can be NA with big cc too.

 

 

 

Laziness I guess, from accompanying my friends go car buying / sight seeing. A lot of time they will just say so and so car got more bhp than the other, which makes it better. Not everyone will know to calculate power / weight ratios, and it's hard to keep explaining to people. Got a friend say, if so important, why not listed?

 

 

Its not rocket science leh. power / weight is simply dividing the power (as what the salesman quote) by the kerb weight of the car listed on the brochure.

 

 

 

Strudel, you have been living down under for too long liao leh, few people use the term WHP in Singapore. Hahaha. Because its silly to quote BHP. I think those tuners in Singapore just want to make the owner feel better with a higher figure.

 

Hahaha. Anyway, usable power is more important than top power. High torque at low rpm is much nicer in my view. Anyway between 150-300bhp should be more than sufficient for Singapore road.

 

Beyond that, the power is underutilize or dangerous on public roads. Is 400 hp better than 300hp, of course, but the fun factor does not improve significantly.

 

For instant, at 200hp, you can corner at full power, at 300hp, corning at 89% power, 400hp, maybe 60%. Straight line, obviously higher power is better, but the highest G is always when accelerated around corners, & the speed feel of the car diminished after certain hp numbers, as you often find you cannot put the power down.

 

I have own & driven cars from 75 HP to 425 HP, & in my opinion, 300hp is good enough for Singapore context. I also think the road often is more important than the car itself.

 

The 75 hp Punto I used to drive in England is more enjoyable than the 425hp evo (I can extract more power from it, consider I have a 22g blower (Stock is 16g), but I felt that is good enough, & I prefer a smoother Torque ) I owned back in Singapore. If I have the evo back in England or similar places, then it will be amazing. But then the evo will be not so comfy crusing on motorway for long trips. So GT style cars in my view are better if youi are not track focus. For me its the opposite leh. Small cc and nicely balanced cars (e.g. MX5, Elise etc) are nicer on track with lotsa bends and mountain

 

That's my view anyway, with my own experience of driving cars of different HP, & places. It does. Maybe use your current car as the subject and think what would be silly to run in that lo.

 

 

 

 

whp = wheel horsepower. The "real world" power generated by the wheels against the ground. Generally much lower than the brake horsepower (see next), because of parasitic losses in the entire drivetrain. The losses are lowest for FWD - front wheel drive, higher for RWD and really quite significant (25% or more) for AWD.

 

bhp = brake horsepower. The "actual" power generated at the engine crankshaft. Purely a function of the thermodynamic efficiency of the engine. This is what car manufacturers always quote, but you can almost never measure this yourself. The usual dynamometer studies only measure whp then extrapolate (through various inexact (and frankly, rubbish) conversions) the bhp.

 

I don't know if you realised it but when you wrote "ps", that's also a power related term. ps is the unit of "metric horsepower" in that it's very close (but just slightly smaller) than (imperial) hp. kW = kilowatt is the actual metric unit for power, and it's a much larger unit than hp or ps. As an electrical engineer, kW is my preferred SI unit but the thread is based on HP which is a more commonly used unit. kW is actually the smaller of the 3 units used. 300kW is approx 400HP.

 

 

 

 

Any amount of horse power in the wrong hands car can kill... So, picanto and QQ are both dangerous to me.

 

Helped you correct your post.

 

 

 

Thanks for the advice. I did consider the Elise, but the price range is higher than what I'm willing to part with by mid next year (both the price and yearly depre). And don't really like the looks of it as much as the MR-S.

 

I also considered the MX-5, but didn't like it very much, and even after doing research on it, still didn't like it. Didn't even consider the Boxster or Cayman, as I don't like the design.

 

Looking for a 2 seater convertible with a MR layout. Or at least, an FR layout. BHP has to be comparable. Then again, don't want to hijack this thread.

 

 

Unless you got the money for the Porsche, I'd definitely have the MRS over MX5 and Elise. Elise is by far the better looking of the 3 but its also by far the least comfortable too. Unless you have a 2nd car, I wouldnt bother.

 

 

 

The question you should be asking in Singapore context is: how many people can afford anything more 300whp?

 

 

I'm beginning to wonder if I should have even posted after attracting so many "pointless thread" comments. As mentioned in first post, the very same question was posted overseas but maybe that forum is more performance based.

 

300whp isnt that hard to get if mod mah...

 

 

 

You're right about this point. Countless times I have accelerated to get out of trouble/bad traffic instead of braking and slowly filtering out.

 

 

I feel helpless in my wife's care. Can only brake... and brake... and still brake.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Strudel-

[ChickenMob]

if B and B cars about 100-140whp should be good for local use liow.

anything higher than 300 not really that efficient in sg roads leh....

[LoverofCar]

as long as enough power to smoke the blue and yellow cabs...is sufficient

 

your daily life on the road must be very miserable...always thinking of getting ahead of the taxis...

[Hydrocarbon]

Its not rocket science leh. power / weight is simply dividing the power (as what the salesman quote) by the kerb weight of the car listed on the brochure.

 

Unless you got the money for the Porsche, I'd definitely have the MRS over MX5 and Elise. Elise is by far the better looking of the 3 but its also by far the least comfortable too. Unless you have a 2nd car, I wouldnt bother.

 

Those that I go buy car with, not so scientific. Some don't even do any research before buying, just go, see, like, pay.

 

Nope, no money for the Porsche. But even if I had, still wouldn't get it. Elise looks good, but just not my taste. And not going to keep a second car. I planned out with my brother, and he's planning to get either an RX8 or an Evo range. So if need be, we can swap.

 

Back to topic, power / weight ratio definitely more important. And the lighter the weight the better.

[Wt_know]

it's power to weight ratio that is critical

 

150bhp/200Nm for big fat body like 5-series alike is underpower

150bhp/200Nm for slim body like suzuki swift alike is shiok

 

SMRT bus close to 300bhp ... is it sibei powderful?

Edited June 10, 2013 by Wt_know