Horsepower-How Much Is TOO MUCH

In this video, I talk about horsepower. I answer a simple car questions: how much horsepower is too much? I think that the magic number is around 500 horsepower. I only think that because most cars with more than 500 horsepower use a lot of gas, have traction problems, and put a lot of stress on the car's components. Don't get me wrong, there are cars with over 900 horsepower that drive super smoothly; however, they usually have VERY expensive price tags on them! When it comes to practicality and daily driving, more than 500 horsepower is too much (in my opinion).

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[theylied]

In America there's no such thing as too much horsepower.

[NesVquez]

Your voice tone reminds me of Gary Vee. Good info bro. Thanks for the video 💯

[ThinkDifferentish]

500 wheel horsepower in my C5 Corvette. It is about too much. 1st and 2nd gears are quite traction limited which sucks. Thing accelerates so fast on the highway that cars that were far in the distance appear very quickly, and you run out of road before you find yourself at crazy fast speeds. Makes for very short bursts of fun. 500 wheel horsepower in my Jeep SRT-8 with all-wheel drive: I feel like it could use about 200 HP more because it does not spin even when I mash the gas pedal from a red light. I used to have a stock Fox body Mustang with 3.73 gears and a manual transmission. It was a lot of fun with 225 engine horsepower.

[peterwood]

My car history is 65hp, 122hp, 265hp then (315hp tuned) then 380hp then 430hp (tuned). IMO things get interesting past 250hp. Sweet spot for a fast sports car is around 400. I can see that I could drive 500hp and still have some legal fun traction permitting but yeh for me I'm gonna say 4-450hp max for the streets.

[joshuabushyhead]

My daily has 500 whp. I think if the car is being used as a daily driver 600-700hp would be max. You can't ever really (legally) use all the power, and it can get you into trouble very quickly and be dangerous. Especially if the driver is inexperienced w powerful vehicles.

[overtorque]

I think 500 is a good top number for road cars. What worries me is that kids today can afford used Mustangs, Camaros and what not for cheap and accidents happen with young minds, no experience racing and horsepower.

[justynkevlar]

It's not about horse power its about power to mass. I have blown pass super cars with my bike.

[BlxssedEye]

This will be a long read (lots to say)

Honestly how much is too much depends on what kind of build you're going for and what car you're in.
For example if you're in a lighter Japanese car then less power is needed and the opposite applies. I'll give you a perfect example a dodge charger is a great looking and powerful car yet its actually pretty slow with only 350 to 450 horsepower, why? Because the thing is a damn yacht with wheels.. a 2012 dodge charger srt8 makes 475 horsepower but weighs a awful 4400 pounds to 5300 pounds with a full trunk and 3 that's heavy making the car painfully slow, it won't feel FAST until around 750+ horsepower to 900 horsepower and of course that means needing beefy tires. Now the second example I'll use a 2006 subaru wrx sti it's turbo charged boxer 4 makes 300 horsepower at the crank and the car weighs 3200 pounds and 3900 with a full trunk and 3 passengers so I'd say 400 horsepower is plenty especially if you get a lighter performance flywheel which is recommended regardless of the car as it dramatically improves the transfer of horsepower from the crank to the wheels and the car revs faster making it more rowdy and like a race car again power also matters depending upon the build you want the car to be, track cars are very expensive to build and horsepower matters less than the handling and weight reduction, drag racing you'll need massive amounts of horsepower for example a drag dodge charger will need 1500+ to be really fast at a drag, and for daily driving purposes power barely matters, with a daily car you want sound, handling, and reliability so instead of chasing high horsepower try focusing on making the car sound good with a intake + headers + downpipe and exhaust + dyno tune and then get some coilovers, sway bars and wheels and tires and lastly a lighter flywheel so now your daily will Rev fast, accelerate more aggressively and carve through corners like a missile making it fun to drive without breaking down before you go to work.

Hopefully this enormous comment helped you learn a little about your next or current project car.

[joshpeters]

beginner drivers
should drive 110 to 115 horsepower for safety

experienced drivers
155 to 180 horsepower is good enough for freeways and most hills and everyday driving

anything hp higher
200. ++ hp
is for racing or speed demons and is not really needed for the most part
unless you have a heavy large van towing a lot of wieght

[SuperSnotgun]

For a daily driver you only need about 80-100 horsepower... but you need it around 2500-3000 RPM. That much hp at that RPM allows you to cruise American highways at 80-90 MPH with minimal stress on the engine and get up hills easily

[blessed]

Very good video.
Straight to the point

[zadeh]

I've driven more powerful and faster cars, but my tuned 310 hp Audi A4 was the best. It's unbelievably how much responsiveness and smoothness can make a car so much more enjoyable to drive. Cruising around town, (2000RPM) low end power/torque makes a big difference to the feel. And the response is instant and linear - almost no turbo lag or throttle lag. A lot of high hp cars, especially with mods, or bad tunes, give a very unrefined character - choppy power and unresponsive low rpm feel. And they may be faster by numbers (quarter mile, 100-200), but that's only on the condition you are mashing the throttle and banging gears, which most people are never going to be doing in day to day driving. I never thought I would say this from experience, but as a person who really likes to drive fast, once you get over a certain power limit (300-500hp), you don't see much, if any, day to day advantage in performance and driving enjoyment. Higher hp suffers diminished returns and gains are mostly only seen at ridiculously high speeds 120+ MPH, which is not practically useful in day to day driving.

[HandMadeRoyalty]

I know this is an old video but he didnt specify between 500-550 wheel horsepower or crank power.

[brandonelieff]

You can never have too much horsepower.

[shawnmartin]

I have S4 that makes 442 at the wheels and z06 that makes just under 600 at the wheels. The Audi is very streetable all year. The z06 can break tires loose at 80. It has heads, cam, intake, exhaust, full suspension upgraded and so on.

The Audi I put about 50k into. It is extremely fast off the line and is a beast through turns. I have walked away from muscles with that. But it’s definitely not the z06 lol

I don’t really care about gas prices myself. I make good money so I never really even look at prices. What bothers me most is the time it takes to get my car back. That bothers me more than cost.

[CheesusSVT]

I totally agree with you. Thanks for the video dude. 😁

[incognito]

the amount of horsepower should be no more than 2.45 times the IQ of the driver... TRADE YOUR CAR IN FOR A MITSUBISHI MIRAGE ALREADY