Way too powerful

[HenR56]

Probably not too powerful but certainly too much for my girlfriend (now wife).

Was about 11 years back and was my 2nd 300zx Twin Turbo with about 300bhp. I was away for the weekend and she was supposed to be picking me and a couple of mates up from the airport. As she drove a 2 seater BMW Z3 she was going to use the 300. It was wet and I stressed to her not to compare it to her own rear wheel drive car and to take it easy especially off a roundabout. Alas she made it 3 miles from home before ending up the wrong way against/In the central reservation of a dual carriage way (she was fine).

I hopped in a cab and as it pulled up next to my written off car and tear stained girlfriend (wrapped up in police issue high viz jacket) the officer jogged towards me insisting I took it easy on her as she'd had a rough night.

I always wonder whether I'd have received the same treatment if I'd been driving.....

[Loyly]

Byker28i said:

No cars, but my last bike, a ZZR1200 I only opened the throttle full about 3 times in 9 years of ownership, you just never needed to it was that fast.

I've always wanted to try one of the big hyper-tourer bikes like a ZZR1200 or 1400, a Hayabusa, Super Blackbird, VFR1200F or K1300S. I can imagine they must be wild. A mate of mine recalls having a roll on drag race against a friend on a Hayabusa years ago, heading East past Benfield Road on the Coast Road out of Newcastle at night. He was on a CBR600F and his mate on a first generation Hayabusa. They both took off from 50mph past the camera and the Hayabusa nearly skipped the crest in the road at the Wills Building. Crazy!

I'd love to try a first generation ZX10R. Possibly the most 'mental' bike of recent years and too fast for me to enjoy regularly. They were known for being a little bit twitchy and prone to head shake which led to later models being fitted with a steering damper. Absolutely savage power but without the electronics aids or friendly nature of more recent litre bikes. Kawasaki have always been known for putting stonking engines in their bikes.

[unsprung]

WestyCarl said:

I drove an Ariel Atom Supercharged on a wet track recently, it's one of the few cars that I never really felt in control of.

when thinking of power-to-weight, the word "ludicrous" comes to mind -- let alone in the wet!

[Krikkit]

Weso said:

One of the lads at work has an Evo X.
Spent a fortune on it, ended up over 900bhp (I've seen the dyno graph).
Reckons it was undrivable so had it wound down.
Wes

I sometimes wonder if it's because the chassis starts twisting under that kind of power level, then the geo is out and causes traction/stability issues.

[Welshbeef]

unsprung said:

WestyCarl said:

I drove an Ariel Atom Supercharged on a wet track recently, it's one of the few cars that I never really felt in control of.

when thinking of power-to-weight, the word "ludicrous" comes to mind -- let alone in the wet!

Are they not >600bhp/tonne with >300bhp total power.
The V8 is nearly 1,000 bhp/tonne and mega total power

[bennno]

I have had a lot of quick cars, probably amongst the quickest included a GTR R35, Cerbera and a Caterham.

However current steer is a 2wd F Type with the 500bhp supercharged 5L V8 - engine really does push the boundaries of the chassis and tyres.

[myvision]

Loyly said:

I've always wanted to try one of the big hyper-tourer bikes like a ZZR1200 or 1400, a Hayabusa, Super Blackbird, VFR1200F or K1300S. I can imagine they must be wild. A mate of mine recalls having a roll on drag race against a friend on a Hayabusa years ago, heading East past Benfield Road on the Coast Road out of Newcastle at night. He was on a CBR600F and his mate on a first generation Hayabusa. They both took off from 50mph past the camera and the Hayabusa nearly skipped the crest in the road at the Wills Building. Crazy!

I'd love to try a first generation ZX10R. Possibly the most 'mental' bike of recent years and too fast for me to enjoy regularly. They were known for being a little bit twitchy and prone to head shake which led to later models being fitted with a steering damper. Absolutely savage power but without the electronics aids or friendly nature of more recent litre bikes. Kawasaki have always been known for putting stonking engines in their bikes.

Swapped my ZZR1200 it was far too easy to do stupid speeds without realising.

[WestyCarl]

Welshbeef said:

unsprung said:

WestyCarl said:

I drove an Ariel Atom Supercharged on a wet track recently, it's one of the few cars that I never really felt in control of.

when thinking of power-to-weight, the word "ludicrous" comes to mind -- let alone in the wet!

Are they not >600bhp/tonne with >300bhp total power.
The V8 is nearly 1,000 bhp/tonne and mega total power

Yup, 600bhp/tonne with no safety aids .

[Elysium]

Its Just Adz said:

I had a do in an F10 M5 and I that woke me up. Trying to spin the rear wheels at 100mph, I wasn’t a fan.

They are not that bad when you get used to them. They will wheelspin at 70MPH plus in the dry, but remain pretty stable. It's just the traction control and LSD working it's magic.

I think BMW wanted them to 'feel' like that had too much power, so some of the drama is engineered in.

[48k]

RenesisEvo said:

Curiously, for the opposite end of the spectrum - having driven a Caterham 310R, I thought a 620R would be insane for the weight of the car. But a ride in one showed that it was surprisingly serene and composed (on track admittedly), it wasn't the uncontrolled explosion I thought it could have been. Might have been down to the driver, he knew what he was doing

It's all down to how it's being driven. There are very, very few standard production road cars that are anywhere near as batst mental as a Caterham 620R. Even two up if you plant your foot enough not to break traction you are frantically banging the flatshift to keep up with the acceleration. Mash the pedal ignorantly and it will spin up the wheels and become a real handful. Fantastic fun to drive but you really have to have your wits about you (and a modicum of self control )

[cocopop]

A 900bhp Eunos Cosmo 20b with some sort of enormous turbo.

This one, in fact:





It was addictive.

[Weso]

myvision said:

Loyly said:

I've always wanted to try one of the big hyper-tourer bikes like a ZZR1200 or 1400, a Hayabusa, Super Blackbird, VFR1200F or K1300S. I can imagine they must be wild. A mate of mine recalls having a roll on drag race against a friend on a Hayabusa years ago, heading East past Benfield Road on the Coast Road out of Newcastle at night. He was on a CBR600F and his mate on a first generation Hayabusa. They both took off from 50mph past the camera and the Hayabusa nearly skipped the crest in the road at the Wills Building. Crazy!

I'd love to try a first generation ZX10R. Possibly the most 'mental' bike of recent years and too fast for me to enjoy regularly. They were known for being a little bit twitchy and prone to head shake which led to later models being fitted with a steering damper. Absolutely savage power but without the electronics aids or friendly nature of more recent litre bikes. Kawasaki have always been known for putting stonking engines in their bikes.

Swapped my ZZR1200 it was far too easy to do stupid speeds without realising.

Exactly why I sold my blackbird.
Good fun tho, but I was going to end up in prison/dead.
Wes

[Djtemeka]

WestyCarl said:

Yup, 600bhp/tonne with no safety aids .

Pah! My bike has 200bhp and weighs just south of 250kg so 800bhp/ton.
No traction or abs. Nothing but it’s still docile though.
Heavy front end keeps the front tyre down.. mostly

[rxe]

I drove a mate’s Impreza about a decade ago and it sticks in my mind. He’d had it modified, big exhaust, the whole 9 yards. Figures beginning with 4 were mentioned and shown on dyno charts - he believed it anyway. I got to have a go in it, and was looking forward to having a bit of fun in one of the iconic cars of the time.

What a disappointment. The throttle was binary and very non linear. You either had power or nothing, with very little consistency as to when you got power. Every time you went round a corner, it tried to kill you. The worst thing was it tried to kill you inconsistently. The back would squirm and break out in random directions when you put the power down. It was quite good fun on a dead straight empty road, but such a handful on the twisty stuff that i drove like a granny for about 60 miles. I had far more fun on the drive home in my Alfa with less than half the power and FWD.

I’m toying with the idea of getting a Giulia QV - but the reality is that my GT 3.2, with a paltry 240 HP is barely exploited on the roads, and I don’t think the solution is doubling the power.

[Dog Star]

numtumfutunch said:

Currently in a 2016 BMW 335d Wagon and TBH it has finally made me realise that barges and wafting are where its at

Dont get me wrong its utterly phenomenal and stamping on the loud pedal is still addictive however after 5 seconds or less you're in licence losing territory and Im just too chicken to go there in the current climate and culture of enforcement

Its the safest car I have ever had with respect to overtaking but as above I am completely paranoid about bagging 3-6 points from a covert camera whilst doing so

My next car will probably be a big Volvo estate with a banging stereo and I cant wait

Cheers

This is exactly my approach to cars and power; these days I'lll choose something with adequate power and all the comfy bits and toys. Going for a B road blast these days is a very risky business and there are overtakes that I'd do years ago that I simply won't risk now - don't forget the dashcam brigade too. Everyone seems to have one so a good proportion of your overtakes are probably being recorded.

At least on a bike you can have a nice ride without going too mental but not get stuck in a queue of slow cars as nipping past doesn't seem to attract the ire that doing the same thing in a car would.

[Welshbeef]

Djtemeka said:

WestyCarl said:

Yup, 600bhp/tonne with no safety aids .

Pah! My bike has 200bhp and weighs just south of 250kg so 800bhp/ton.
No traction or abs. Nothing but it’s still docile though.
Heavy front end keeps the front tyre down.. mostly

Add in a drier let’s say your a 100kg Guy for arguements sake you’d then have a “mere” 571bhp

[liner33]

Welshbeef said:

Ok so let’s say it produced 500bhp at 900rpm ie idle is that level of power too much or you’d say no 1,000bhp at idle wouldn’t be an issue. It would as it would be undrivable

No car is going to make 1000hp at idle thats nonsense, there are plenty that are driven that make 1000hp at 900rpm though

[Vocht]

I guess nothing is way too powerful with enough experience. However even for the average enthusiast cars like the Caterham 620R and Atom 3.5R are arguably too powerful.

[seiben]

rxe said:

I drove a mate’s Impreza about a decade ago and it sticks in my mind. He’d had it modified, big exhaust, the whole 9 yards. Figures beginning with 4 were mentioned and shown on dyno charts - he believed it anyway. I got to have a go in it, and was looking forward to having a bit of fun in one of the iconic cars of the time.

What a disappointment. The throttle was binary and very non linear. You either had power or nothing, with very little consistency as to when you got power. Every time you went round a corner, it tried to kill you. The worst thing was it tried to kill you inconsistently. The back would squirm and break out in random directions when you put the power down. It was quite good fun on a dead straight empty road, but such a handful on the twisty stuff that i drove like a granny for about 60 miles. I had far more fun on the drive home in my Alfa with less than half the power and FWD.

I’m toying with the idea of getting a Giulia QV - but the reality is that my GT 3.2, with a paltry 240 HP is barely exploited on the roads, and I don’t think the solution is doubling the power.

A friend of mine had something very similar - a WRX that had had various work which took it to around 400bhp. It was my first experience of launch control (that was fun!) but was a royal pig to have any fun with through a flowing back-road - it would come on boost so violently that if you were mid-corner it would just lift the nose and understeer. Not much fun.

By contrast my current E39 M5, with similar power, hooks up beautifully in the dry and never feels 'over-powered.' It'll spin up in the wet, of course, but it's a lovely playful thing in the dry with DSC switched off and handles the power well. Although I can't say I've ever got out and thought "hmm, this needs more power"

[anonymous-user]

I suppose it comes down to chassis setup, and power to weight, rather than outright power. In road cars I've not experienced anything that felt overpowered, but they all had thoroughly sorted chassis'.

Some race cars have felt a little more unsettled. The old Fiat Topolino altered struggled a tad. Around 2500bhp, just over 900kg and no front wing; it became quite lively above 190mph and tended to lift the front wheels (so steering became something of a challenge). You can never have too much power, it just needs the rest of the equation to be setup for it