Whats more important

[MG CHRIS]

In the eyes of ph which is more important less power but less weight, or more power and more weight?

[dvance]

More power and less weight

[ZOLLAR]

dvance said:

More power and less weight

Agreed.

[Alfachick]

Depends what its for.

Sports car = less power less weight = better handling generally
GT car = more power more weight = comfy relaxed ride, yet still swift.

[ewenm]

I'd pick light over powerful (but both is nice). Lightness is better IMO because it has more benefits than just needing less power to get the same power-to-weight ratio, such as the brakes don't need to be as big, there's less mass and hence less inertia to overcome in cornering, you don't need power steering, etc etc

[Small Car]

I have a Morgan (low weight and power) and an SL500 (big weight and power) and you have more fun thrashing the Morgan than the Merc (which can get you in trouble) - but - the Morgan is just lacking that real ooomph you need to overtake so for everyday I would probably go for more power and weight (but much bigger costs...).

[Riknos]

dvance said:

More power and less weight

This.

But as a general rule, less weight can help not only straight line acceleration, but better cornering and braking, whereas weight reduces these.

You're talking about two completely different car classes though here..

[LukeBird]

Less weight.
Ride, handling, braking etc. are all benefited from a light weight car and generally make a far better steer.

[RobM77]

Less weight every time for me, because as others have pointed out, performance isn't just about straight lines. Light cars generally handle, stop and steer better than heavy cars. They also are radically cheaper to run - my Caterham and Elise never wore out their tyres, they just needed replacing because they'd got old! The only thing a light car suffers from compared with a heavier car with the same power/weight ratio is a lack of top speed, because top speed is just about power and drag, not weight.

Also, as Ewen points out above, in engineering terms being light is a virtuous circle, and being heavy is a vicious cirle. For example, if a light car is so light that it doesn't need power steering that makes it lighter! Same with servo brakes and other things. Virtuous circles in engineering are much more pleasing