REALLY, how much extra power is enough?

[LBC Por Siempre]

After reading through some postings I'm starting to question if 300WHP is necessary. As I have already posted just recently.

Thus I ask a question for those who have achieved say anywhere between 240WHP After reading through some postings I'm starting to question if 300WHP is even necessary?

Thus I ask a question for those who have achieved say anywhere between 240WHP-275WHP; do you consider this to be a practical and substantial bump in power? And most of all are you happy with that amount of power, lets face it 240WHP-275WHP is roughly 288BHP-330BHP at the crank?!. Which for one of my original postings (Realistically what am I looking at to get 300BHP at the crank?) seems very attainable.

However, Alas, I review my thoughts. For a car so Thin in the Waist, being so extremely light weight. And why in the hell do I need to nail down an exact number that I need to achieve with the bump in power and torque? Being an American -MORE AND BIGGER IS BETTER- is what we all need, or is it? Sometimes I wish I could kick Tim THE TOOL-MAN Taylor en los Juevos.

Trust me when I say 500 Horsepower with a duel clutch transmission is way more than enough, because it really is. I had dreams of doing so much to that car when I bought it, but after letting all that power soak into my brains and veins I knew Porsche did just a fine job in what they meant to do. And if 0-60 M.P.H. in 3.1 seconds is too slow for you? Well buddy I don't know what to tell you.

I was invited to test drive the new 991 Carrera 4S Cabriolet (at Quail Lodge) during Pebble Beach) nothing like having your wind in your hair with gears shifting on demand and 400Crank BHP, made me question why I bought my 2012 997.2 911 Turbo in the first place. Is more power really needed at these levels? Just about 15 years ago with the last AIR COOLED (Sorry realized I wrote a confusing "NA", how can a car be NA with a Turbo - superlative Contradiction ;-) ) 911 Turbo, the 993 with AWD being offered for the first time, it one was pushing out 400BHP too. Its amazing at times what evolution and refinement can do to anything, talking about outside of automobiles and everything. And to imagine some of the executive management wanted to kill off the 911 Series in the late 70's and early 80's with 914, 928, 968 models. Could anyone ever imagine a Porsche without the evolution through the years of the 911? Even though the Cayenne financially saved Porsche.

But how much power is too much, and how power will be enough?

To me it seems its just a matter of iterations and you just stop when you feel you have enough!

[Hanni_0176]

"Enough" is purely subjective from person to person, as well as the intended driving conditions. There is no actual answer to your question, sorry.

EDIT: For me personally, I'd like to be at around 360 whp, give or take (roughly 420 bhp I think).

[BRZPDX]

that's like saying how much money is enough for a person. There is no right answer.

I think the first step should be to figure out what purpose the car is going to have. Track, auto-x, drag, drift, DD/show car etc. Then the $ to fun factor. Would you rather go to Europe with your family for a week or put a turbo kit on your car?

I personally think a stage 1 kit from various FI vendors that yields 250 ~ 280 whp is plenty for a long time. Just like anything, we will want more, and adding power as you add supporting mods will be fun to gradually increase boost/power to see the gains every step.

[Hanni_0176]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw7ajsKmbd4"]Joe Dirt - fireworks stand scene - YouTube[/ame]

[Pete156]

I'm running 260 to the wheels. It's plenty of power for this light a car, unless you want to go road racing. Car gets to 150 in a hurry, averages 30+ MPG, and is a HOOT to drive. The way I see it more power would compromise reliability by threatening driveline parts and engine internals. I'm very happy!

[dabocx]

Thats totally a matter of opinion, I had 280 and was happy for a while. Then I got 370 and now 280 feels slow, even the 370 has gotten a bit dull. Good news is there is a little left in the gtx28 so ill be going up a little more.

[jamesm]

i thought 250-300whp would be perfect, but now i think it's really still insufficient for this car. coming from miatas you expect it to respond to power the way they do being that it is 'lightweight' but it really doesnt. the car takes the power well, even at 350+whp it's just fun, never sketchy the way miatas get above 300whp.

maybe it's the fact that it remains well composed, and doesn't seem so extreme, that makes it not quite as exciting as you'd expect at a given power level. i think the car really got fun around 320-350whp on e85. being back on pump gas now it definitely leaves you wanting for more.

in the end of course it's subjective, but i've never met a guy who bought a turbo and then said "that's enough for me, i'll leave it just like that" for more than 6 months. they always up the boost, because they can and it's fun lol.

[ramiram1984]

WA roads are always wet, can't really enjoy it as much.

[utekineir]

Over 9000

[AVOturboworld]

Based on feedback, most of our customers have left their car at the 230~260whp level and are quite happy with them.

[1stGenBRZ86]

why is this thread in "Forced Induction?"

[BlueDubbinTDI]

Originally Posted by 1stGenBRZ86

why is this thread in "Forced Induction?"

are you getting to 300+whp NA? No.

[1stGenBRZ86]

Originally Posted by BlueDubbinTDI

are you getting to 300+whp NA? No.

No but this seems more like a rant and does not contribute as a Technical Topic to Forced Induction.

Why don't we expand the OP's topic to "why turbo the car at all?"

[BlueDubbinTDI]

Originally Posted by 1stGenBRZ86

No but this seems more like a rant and does not contribute as a Technical Topic to Forced Induction.

Why don't we expand the OP's topic to "why turbo the car at all?"

It is a rant, but when talking about power this high I'd qualify FI as a valid thread group. He may want more motor or whatever but on this engine FI or bust unfortunately.