How much is too much power for street?

[Hubwee]

Been driving around Singapore with a 300hp turbo SUV , a 516 hp 6.3 litre V8 coupe and a 562 hp 4.5litre V8 sports and would think that for Singapore , the V8 coupe is most suitable for our city traffic and bits of highway . finds the SUV slow on pick up and overtaking during certain time and the sports one too touchy ( high reving ) for our city traffic .

 

So would think that any cars with about 400 - 450 hp will be just nice for singapore traffic , especially with those drivers whom speed up to close the gap when they see you signalling .

 

 

[inlinesix]

Weight plays a part, but must be considered with all other factors. Like i said, look at race and time attack cars. Most series have minimum weight requirements, not maximum, or else they'd just be made lighter and lighter. Or take for example one of my favourite cars of all time, the Ferrari F40. It has a kerb weight of around 1100kg, which is around the average weight of a b&b car nowadays or even less. Not something that people would consider unstable or floaty just because it's light.

 

Tamiya mini 4wd is too far removed from the equation, no suspension, aero or steering and they just ride alone the walls of the track to make the turns. If you look at RC cars, suspension and weight distribution starts to come into play (excuse the pun).

F1 car has the best pwr/weight ratio. 1:1.

 

Nowadays, even road racing bike also got minimum weight.

[Zyklon]

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.

 

Above 250whp/t is really entering m5 territory liao...really very little chance here to even hold full throttle for a few seconds without risking license or feeling dangerous. Most of the time is really just give a little more throttle and gian song nia.

[1fast1]

sounds easy but its not so simple. also i believe the equation is not applied for spinning wheels with a inflatable material.....there are so many variable..CG, suspension, tyres, tyre pressure...they are more important...a poor suspension setup will probably not adversely affect a heavy car as much as the lighter car. Any weight removal (say the car bonnet) will not shift the CG of a heavy car vs a lighter car. Even no of passengers will affect the lighter car more.

 

The equation is simple but it certainly holds for cars. You brought up lots of factors, but they don't actually impinge upon the point I was making - adding mass to a car does *not* improve traction.

 

Let's make things a little more complicated for added realism. In classical friction theory, the limiting friction does not depend upon the contact area between the surfaces. But tyres don't behave the same way. A bigger contact patch actually improves traction.

 

The reason for this is that tyres exhibit something known as load sensitivity. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_load_sensitivity. The coefficient of friction actually *decreases* as the load on the tyre increases. This is one of the major reasons why the speed you can carry through a corner decreases as you increase the laden weight of the car.

 

The main way of adjusting the tyres to compensate for this is threefold:

 

1) get stickier tyres, thereby increasing the coefficient of friction.

 

2) get wider tyres, thereby increasing the contact patch, which reduces load/unit area. Because of load-friction dependency, you increase the

Edited June 10, 2013 by Turboflat4

[Strudel-]

F1 car has the best pwr/weight ratio. 1:1.

 

Nowadays, even road racing bike also got minimum weight.

 

Not only that. F1 cars are purpose built. Aerodynamics and distribution keeps the car to the ground a lot. All "cut" those air 1.

 

 

Again, no argument. You're also saying lighter is better (for different reasons), which is the point I was making all along.

 

Light is of course better but everything else, theres always a balance. I dont think anyone is disagreeing with you in that aspect.

[Simplecar]

For those whom voted, have you driven/owned such high WHP/BHP cars before?

Yes.

10 char

[Hydrocarbon]

The equation is simple but it certainly holds for cars. You brought up lots of factors, but they don't actually impinge upon the point I was making - adding mass to a car does *not* improve traction.

 

The main way of adjusting the tyres to compensate for this is threefold:

 

1) get stickier tyres, thereby increasing the coefficient of friction.

 

2) get wider tyres, thereby increasing the contact patch, which reduces load/unit area. Because of load-friction dependency, you increase the

[inlinesix]

Previously, i was driving Nissan Sunny. The car feels floaty above 130km/h.

 

Now, i m driving a lighter car with more power. Up to 140km/h, it is as planted as BMW E39.

[Hydrocarbon]

Previously, i was driving Nissan Sunny. The car feels floaty above 130km/h.

 

Now, i m driving a lighter car with more power. Up to 140km/h, it is as planted as BMW E39.

 

I thought Sunny quite heavy and will feel quite planted?

 

Hmm, the lighter car = MR-S?

[Ungtiong]

The equation is simple but it certainly holds for cars. You brought up lots of factors, but they don't actually impinge upon the point I was making - adding mass to a car does *not* improve traction.

 

Let's make things a little more complicated for added realism. In classical friction theory, the limiting friction does not depend upon the contact area between the surfaces. But tyres don't behave the same way. A bigger contact patch actually improves traction.

 

The reason for this is that tyres exhibit something known as load sensitivity. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_load_sensitivity. The coefficient of friction actually *decreases* as the load on the tyre increases. This is one of the major reasons why the speed you can carry through a corner decreases as you increase the laden weight of the car.

 

The main way of adjusting the tyres to compensate for this is threefold:

 

1) get stickier tyres, thereby increasing the coefficient of friction.

 

2) get wider tyres, thereby increasing the contact patch, which reduces load/unit area. Because of load-friction dependency, you increase the

[Renegade777]

Interesting. Even if you mean crank hp, that would exclude cars like the new Porsche Carrera S, which almost everyone on the planet would classify as a pure sports car. And if you meant whp, you're even excluding most modern Ferraris.

 

Maybe you meant "supercar" or "hyperexotic", not "sports car".

 

But this sort of thinking is telling of the various attitudes that people have about "power". Maybe we shouldn't even talk about power, and instead discuss what sort of performance is overkill for the street - in terms of 0 to 60 from a standing start, some sort of in-gear rolling acceleration figure (probably the most relevant, although difficult to standardise), and maybe top speed (the least useful since it'll never be attained legally, even in bread-and-butter cars).

 

 

Hehehe.... To me sports cars are Ferraris, Lambo, NSX, SUPRA, GTR etc. The other types of powerful cars like Rex, Evo, Type R etc I consider them as Rally or Track cars. The last ones who mod and mod to become monster is "Zhng" cars.......Really there is no fixed definition to what type of sports car is consider a sports car. Nowadays, you can find saloon cars especially luxury ones equipped with huge HP.

 

 

[inlinesix]

I thought Sunny quite heavy and will feel quite planted?

 

Hmm, the lighter car = MR-S?

That's an outdated thought. Nowadays, it is all about aerodynamic. Otherwise, what's the need of spoiler & rear diffuser?

[Hydrocarbon]

That's an outdated thought. Nowadays, it is all about aerodynamic. Otherwise, what's the need of spoiler & rear diffuser?

 

For Sunny, I've only sat as passenger / didn't go past speed limits, so can't say much at the higher speeds. Quite a few cars I see, the spoiler / mods are mostly cosmetic, especially lancers. (P.S. I'm very noob at such stuff, please guide me through if I'm wrong or say something wrongly.)

[Strudel-]

Looks like a lot of people are in the opinion of the more the better even though its for street.

 

And as asked before, its quite interesting to see how many of those voted actually knows how a 500hp car feels like. Either that or MCF forumers are all rich!

Edited June 11, 2013 by Strudel-

[BlueOldMan]

For Sunny, I've only sat as passenger / didn't go past speed limits, so can't say much at the higher speeds. Quite a few cars I see, the spoiler / mods are mostly cosmetic, especially lancers. (P.S. I'm very noob at such stuff, please guide me through if I'm wrong or say something wrongly.)

U r not wrong , majority of lancer owners r gng for the comestic look in Sg

6 yrs ago, I did a sale of the final drive in slc

70% got from me are gen2 rest cs3

Alot enquiries from cs3 but when they heard the price, they rather spend on intake, spoiler bodykit

Many on spoiler, do they touch that speed to use the spoiler???

My cs3 hit close to top speed with out any bodykit n spoiler

Even agent spoiler I too tear it off

I like empty look

Hahaha

[Ungtiong]

Looks like a lot of people are in the opinion of the more the better even though its for street.

 

And as asked before, its quite interesting to see how many of those voted actually knows how a 500hp car feels like. Either that or MCF forumers are all rich!

 

Only in singapore we are faced with this...In Aus, the Holden HSV GTS is only 100K....cheaper than the Altis a few months ago!!!!!. Google HSV GTS and you will know it more than enough for almost everybody, it can kill most cars on the road, except for some supercars and the GTR. Instead i should be "happy" with my more expensive Altis at less than 1/5 the HP :(

Edited June 12, 2013 by Ungtiong

[Icetrap]

The purpose is to know whats does everyone else think. As I said ON the street. Yes if you're rich you can buy a Zonda for all I care but if you dont think theres a limit for street, just vote >600 or dont even bother voting?

 

However I do agree in ever aspect of the driver being in control of the car. That said I personally think its pointless to have something that powerful on the street. Dedicated track car on the other hand is another story.

 

Mod the driver before you mod the car.

 

You can put an idiot in a Picanto and he can wreck havoc in something less than 100hp.

[inlinesix]

For Sunny, I've only sat as passenger / didn't go past speed limits, so can't say much at the higher speeds. Quite a few cars I see, the spoiler / mods are mostly cosmetic, especially lancers. (P.S. I'm very noob at such stuff, please guide me through if I'm wrong or say something wrongly.)

No pun intended.

 

When i was in Sec sch, i already have deep technical discussion with my good friend. In those days, we don't have internet.