Do you prefer usable bhp or more bhp than you need?
Discussion
I'm currently finding my F82 M4(430bhp) a touch frustrating on the road...and I find myself overtaking stuff and then quickly running out of road or either catching the next car up quickly and I'm back on the brakes. Whereas when I had my Mini Cooper S(192bhp) I never had that problem, and I could pretty much use all of the performance for most of the time.
So it comes back to the argument of either having usable performance or more performance than you need? So which do you prefer and why?
So it comes back to the argument of either having usable performance or more performance than you need? So which do you prefer and why?
cerb4.5lee said:
I'm currently finding my F82 M4(430bhp) a touch frustrating on the road...and I find myself overtaking stuff and then quickly running out of road or either catching the next car up quickly and I'm back on the brakes. Whereas when I had my Mini Cooper S(192bhp) I never had that problem, and I could pretty much use all of the performance for most of the time.
So it comes back to the argument of either having usable performance or more performance than you need? So which do you prefer and why?
Just enough torque to break traction is enoughSo it comes back to the argument of either having usable performance or more performance than you need? So which do you prefer and why?
LordHaveMurci said:
njw1 said:
Every day a journey said:
maybe try not driving like a knob?
What makes you think the op is driving like a knob?
It is a genuine question and I'm just interested in how others feel about it that's all.
I don't often drive like a knob anymore, but I've certainly been guilty of it in the past though for sure.
I do think the OP has a very valid point, only he's realised it after buying the 400bhp+ car...
What I want to be driving is something that has all of the sounds, performance and sensations of something out of the late 1950s - mid 1980s in which more than a tonne was heavy and more than 100bhp was a lot! Lacking in refinement, majoring in noise, full of feel and feedback, hugely skilled to drive well and incredibly involving.
What I'm left with (especially if it needs to carry 4 people on occasion) is something that weighs the best part of 2 tonnes, with c.300bhp, an automatic gearbox (as no manuals are available) and could be driven by a grandmother with her eyes closed. "Progress" has a lot to answer for !
What I want to be driving is something that has all of the sounds, performance and sensations of something out of the late 1950s - mid 1980s in which more than a tonne was heavy and more than 100bhp was a lot! Lacking in refinement, majoring in noise, full of feel and feedback, hugely skilled to drive well and incredibly involving.
What I'm left with (especially if it needs to carry 4 people on occasion) is something that weighs the best part of 2 tonnes, with c.300bhp, an automatic gearbox (as no manuals are available) and could be driven by a grandmother with her eyes closed. "Progress" has a lot to answer for !
i think i prefer more than i can use in day to day driving, because, if i do need to overtake and some knobber decides to speed up while i'm overtaking, i don't want to be caught short.
also, just occasionally, you're exiting a motorway tollpoint or coming out of a 50mph average speed section, and then 400bhp suddenly makes a lot of sense...
also, just occasionally, you're exiting a motorway tollpoint or coming out of a 50mph average speed section, and then 400bhp suddenly makes a lot of sense...
cerb4.5lee said:
I'm currently finding my F82 M4(430bhp) a touch frustrating on the road...and I find myself overtaking stuff and then quickly running out of road or either catching the next car up quickly and I'm back on the brakes. Whereas when I had my Mini Cooper S(192bhp) I never had that problem, and I could pretty much use all of the performance for most of the time.
So it comes back to the argument of either having usable performance or more performance than you need? So which do you prefer and why?
I prefer usable performance to be honest. Enjoyment for me comes from being able to use 10/10ths of the cars available performance, so anything with several hundred horsepower which will propel me into ban territory very quickly is really not particularly enjoyable. If you’re only ever using 4 or 5/10ths to keep things sensible, what’s the point in all that additional power, except for bragging rights?So it comes back to the argument of either having usable performance or more performance than you need? So which do you prefer and why?
Its not the power so much but the package and its appropriateness for where and how you are driving it.
I found myself wanting another big Merc/BMW with 500 plus bhp but they just aren't really suitable for my usage, which is largely local and sometimes fairly rural, with a lot of the bigger stuff its geared (both literally and figuratively) to sustained, very high speed, in peerless comfort which is marvelous but just not something I use a lot.
One of the key things is performance above 100 mph, how they accelerate from say 100 to 150 or more mph, and as an advantage that's as useful to me as having space for 70 passengers, its got performance in ranges most of us will never use, and if we do we are really risking our licenses seeing as we don't have an autobahn handy. I know it has a bearing at lower speeds but they don't come into their own outside high speed cruising.
Throw in four wheel drive, loads of refinement, an automatic gearbox and you have an amazing package but not one that dishes out thrills as easily as something smaller.
Think your M4 is a sweet spot between smaller stuff and uber barges but even so, possibly still several degrees of overkill.
I think its easy to think each car we buy should be faster and more powerful than the last, its an admission of defeat going to less but hten cant understand why it isnt as much fun as that Saxo VTR from twenty years ago.
I did this for ages thinking in terms of Top Trumps, you know you have gone a bit mental when you think "Hmm, thats only 470 bhp, best check out the tuning options" and then you wonder how someone manages to have fun in an old MK2 Escort, its only got 180 bhp ffs !
Its steeped in the realities of life, like having kids to cart about, plus also image and ego, the mega SUVs are a fantastic novelty but so far from a drivers car its unreal, maybe a different kind of enjoyment but given a nice road, would anyone really take an RR Sport SVR over an MX5.
Its like we sometimes need a detox from badges, bhp, performance figures, YouTube and PH, maybe ride a bicycle for a month and realise you can really enjoy well under 1 bhp.
I found myself wanting another big Merc/BMW with 500 plus bhp but they just aren't really suitable for my usage, which is largely local and sometimes fairly rural, with a lot of the bigger stuff its geared (both literally and figuratively) to sustained, very high speed, in peerless comfort which is marvelous but just not something I use a lot.
One of the key things is performance above 100 mph, how they accelerate from say 100 to 150 or more mph, and as an advantage that's as useful to me as having space for 70 passengers, its got performance in ranges most of us will never use, and if we do we are really risking our licenses seeing as we don't have an autobahn handy. I know it has a bearing at lower speeds but they don't come into their own outside high speed cruising.
Throw in four wheel drive, loads of refinement, an automatic gearbox and you have an amazing package but not one that dishes out thrills as easily as something smaller.
Think your M4 is a sweet spot between smaller stuff and uber barges but even so, possibly still several degrees of overkill.
I think its easy to think each car we buy should be faster and more powerful than the last, its an admission of defeat going to less but hten cant understand why it isnt as much fun as that Saxo VTR from twenty years ago.
I did this for ages thinking in terms of Top Trumps, you know you have gone a bit mental when you think "Hmm, thats only 470 bhp, best check out the tuning options" and then you wonder how someone manages to have fun in an old MK2 Escort, its only got 180 bhp ffs !
Its steeped in the realities of life, like having kids to cart about, plus also image and ego, the mega SUVs are a fantastic novelty but so far from a drivers car its unreal, maybe a different kind of enjoyment but given a nice road, would anyone really take an RR Sport SVR over an MX5.
Its like we sometimes need a detox from badges, bhp, performance figures, YouTube and PH, maybe ride a bicycle for a month and realise you can really enjoy well under 1 bhp.
Checking the specs of that era of M4, you're not far off 300bhp/tonne so that's going to fair shift when you have your foot planted. I think some modification of driving style is all that's required. With your Mini I guess you had to keep your toe in until you'd passed someone, but with the M4 you can do those same overtakes as a pull out, accelerate, hold speed, pull-in, decelerate a little manoeuvre.
If you are now picking off overtakes that you wouldn't have attempted in the Mini, that will be why you're encountering this frustration. Just be thankful that you can make progress when appropriate and safe, plus you've deweaponised one more class of "thou shall not pass" d
heads who floor it in the hope of keeping you on the wrong side long enough for you to have a head-on smash with some poor bugger coming the other way.
I feel that someone whose username indicates they previously owned a TVR with nearly 400bhp/tonne might already know all of this so I'll end with...
Worst... "I own an M4"... Post... EVVVAHHH!!!!
If you are now picking off overtakes that you wouldn't have attempted in the Mini, that will be why you're encountering this frustration. Just be thankful that you can make progress when appropriate and safe, plus you've deweaponised one more class of "thou shall not pass" d
heads who floor it in the hope of keeping you on the wrong side long enough for you to have a head-on smash with some poor bugger coming the other way. I feel that someone whose username indicates they previously owned a TVR with nearly 400bhp/tonne might already know all of this so I'll end with...
Worst... "I own an M4"... Post... EVVVAHHH!!!!
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff