How much hp is too much?

I don't know anyone with 4 digit HP numbers... 1000+ HP on the street is pretty useless, It's more about bragging rights than anything. I hope your buddies are planning big braking power and some suspension/chassis work as well...

I just want 400 HP to the ground and still be able to drive my car on a 5 - 7 hour trip to visit my family :D

Two points:
1. With 400 hp and 3.73 gears my Mustang is rather loud. I went through 6 or 7 different exhaust setups looking to reduce the noise level. Even with Dynomax super turbos it still is louder than I'd want it to be at highway speeds. 5-7 hour trip may get on my nerves.
2. If I drive it that long, I'm definitely going to stop at gas stations more than once.
 
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I have a few friends with 700+ rwhp 03 04 cobras and gt500's and all i can say is its fun to a point. I have 291 rwhp in my notch and when we street race i hold my own til they get traction so that is what i think of that.
 
Will you feel foolish with a 1000hp engine under your hood when a 400 hp car in the next lane wins the race time and again because you can not make your ride hook up?

If you have the money to build a 1000 horse car, you have the money to make it hook. 1000hp is far from too much to hook

Outlaw cars make anywhere from 1200-1800hp and they hook like hell.
Top fuel dragsters make 8000hp and they hook
and everything in between. Sure you throw 1000hp in a stock car (assuming it will even hold together, which it wont) and throw a 300hp motor in the same car. The 300hp car (IMO) will win everytime. You cant just build a motor and forget about everything else. 1000hp is very managable power if done correctly. Turbo cars are a great example. You can make 800-900hp and have no problems taking a trip to walmart with the lady. People do it every day. If you have the check book to support it, it can be and has been done. These guys with pipe dreams of driving their 1000hp cars to autozone car meets are, for the most part, doing just that. Dreaming. And if they arent smart enough to realize theres more to it than that, then they have no business behind the wheel of something like that anyways. As for track prep, most guys at tracks that suck arent putting down that kind of power. I know thats a generalization, but for the most part its true. Another point being, if youve put all the blood and sweat into a 1000hp car, take the time to take it somewhere worth racing at. If your track is a glorified parking lot then id be willing to drive the extra distance to go somewhere with a properly prepped track and not risk wasting good tires or putting my race car into a wall (or guard rail for most of those tracks) Id hate to see the race techs at a crappy track inspecting someones 1000hp car anyways. Point being, theres no such thing as excessive power, but there plenty of inadequate drivers.
 
If you have the money to build a 1000 horse car, you have the money to make it hook. 1000hp is far from too much to hook

Outlaw cars make anywhere from 1200-1800hp and they hook like hell.
Top fuel dragsters make 8000hp and they hook
and everything in between. Sure you throw 1000hp in a stock car (assuming it will even hold together, which it wont) and throw a 300hp motor in the same car. The 300hp car (IMO) will win everytime. You cant just build a motor and forget about everything else. 1000hp is very managable power if done correctly. Turbo cars are a great example. You can make 800-900hp and have no problems taking a trip to walmart with the lady. People do it every day. If you have the check book to support it, it can be and has been done. These guys with pipe dreams of driving their 1000hp cars to autozone car meets are, for the most part, doing just that. Dreaming. And if they arent smart enough to realize theres more to it than that, then they have no business behind the wheel of something like that anyways. As for track prep, most guys at tracks that suck arent putting down that kind of power. I know thats a generalization, but for the most part its true. Another point being, if youve put all the blood and sweat into a 1000hp car, take the time to take it somewhere worth racing at. If your track is a glorified parking lot then id be willing to drive the extra distance to go somewhere with a properly prepped track and not risk wasting good tires or putting my race car into a wall (or guard rail for most of those tracks) Id hate to see the race techs at a crappy track inspecting someones 1000hp car anyways. Point being, theres no such thing as excessive power, but there plenty of inadequate drivers.
cliffnotes?
 
I have a friend with a 1000+hp turbo ls2 SS camaro and it hooks. In 3rd gear. he likes to roll race starting at 75mph.... I keep telling him I'm gonna get him in the 1/8th. Hence the SS eater screen name!
 
Perhaps the correct question is, "How much horsepower before you :taco: out?" Hmmmmmmmmm?

I have a friend with a 1000+hp turbo ls2 SS camaro and it hooks. In 3rd gear. he likes to roll race starting at 75mph.... I keep telling him I'm gonna get him in the 1/8th. Hence the SS eater screen name!

Haha weird, I thought your name was Scott Seater or something like that. You should ask a mod to get your screenname changed to include a space so it makes more sense. "SS Eater" is much more clear. :nice:
 
I built a 1200hp engine, and it's running fine. The problem is that my shop was horrible and I ended up with a car that had a lot of problems. I spent the free time I had over a year fixing minor issues instead of finishing the drive-train. The car made a best of 762rwhp on pump gas. I haven't maxed out the turbo yet on race gas. The power I do have doesn't currently hook until 4th gear at best, and I have spun the tires in that gear on dry pavement at over 100mph. So, I think it's the extreme side. However, I'm happy that I built the motor and I'm happy that I still have a long way to go. Overall, I just enjoy incrimentally improving my car. I think with a good auto keeping it hooked will be MUCH easier. Plus, I'll finally be able to put down all of hte power that the engine is capable of.
 
If you have the money to build a 1000 horse car, you have the money to make it hook. 1000hp is far from too much to hook

Outlaw cars make anywhere from 1200-1800hp and they hook like hell.
Top fuel dragsters make 8000hp and they hook
and everything in between. Sure you throw 1000hp in a stock car (assuming it will even hold together, which it wont) and throw a 300hp motor in the same car. The 300hp car (IMO) will win everytime. You cant just build a motor and forget about everything else. 1000hp is very managable power if done correctly. Turbo cars are a great example. You can make 800-900hp and have no problems taking a trip to walmart with the lady. People do it every day. If you have the check book to support it, it can be and has been done. These guys with pipe dreams of driving their 1000hp cars to autozone car meets are, for the most part, doing just that. Dreaming. And if they arent smart enough to realize theres more to it than that, then they have no business behind the wheel of something like that anyways. As for track prep, most guys at tracks that suck arent putting down that kind of power. I know thats a generalization, but for the most part its true. Another point being, if youve put all the blood and sweat into a 1000hp car, take the time to take it somewhere worth racing at. If your track is a glorified parking lot then id be willing to drive the extra distance to go somewhere with a properly prepped track and not risk wasting good tires or putting my race car into a wall (or guard rail for most of those tracks) Id hate to see the race techs at a crappy track inspecting someones 1000hp car anyways. Point being, theres no such thing as excessive power, but there plenty of inadequate drivers.

You made some very fair points. Clearly a car has to go through comprehensive preparation to support a 1K hp engine. The hard question that some people in my neighborhood need to face is what to prepare their cars for. Problem is that there is a popular dream of a car that can be street driven at any time with all creature comforts which can be taken to a drag racing event on a weekend and win. Then next week it would be taken to a standing mile competition and win it too. The weekend after that this car should go to an autocross event and shine there as well. This dream continues to live because there are quite a few cars in town which are somewhat capable of this multitasking. They are highly tuned super expensive Porsches, TT Lambos, GTRs and the like. They show good results in several disciplines while maintaining high level of luxury.
At this time I want to address another point you made in your post. That is availability of race tracks. Motorsports in my country have not had a long history. Drag racing has been around for about 10 years. 10 years ago everything was started from scratch. There were no tracks which would be suitable for competitions, there was no knowledge or experience. Over time people learned to build fast cars and race them, but the situation with tracks hasn’t improved much. I live in Moscow. Property prices in town and its and near surroundings are close to the level of N.Y. city. It would cost millions of dollars to build a new track anywhere near us. It is difficult to justify the investment because the summer season is short. A track could be used only 4 months a year at best. Maintenance would be very high. Building a track far from the city would hardly be viable either. Anyway the reality is such that local racers don’t have many options to choose from. Very few tracks within a 100 miles from Moscow and NONE of them are properly prepped with VHT. It’s not from the lack of funds, but due to their versatile nature. The best track we have is also used for standing mile competitions. Many cars that take part in them are not built or aren’t fitted with tires designed to be used on VHT coated tracks. Therefore the tracks remain unprepped, just high quality asphalt and nothing else. Please check out pictures from one of the popular race events we have here: Moscow Unlim 500+ (Autumn 2010) - Events - . As you can see, the cars are not exactly big suckers. Due to nature of local tracks, most successful racers use 4WD vehicles. They obviously hook better on the given surface.
I started this post because my friends who drive Mustangs also participate in the same events despite the obvious disadvantage. They are looking to get the same power level as the competition and I am concerned whether or not this is the right path to go. They build Mustangs trying to chase two very different objectives: be good at a ¼ mile and at a standing mile. I’m not sure that is achievable at all with a Mustang. My own Mustang is used for quarter mile competitions only. I have a clear idea where I want to go and how to get there, but this discussion is not about me. I read posts about guys with 1K hp Mustangs unable to hook until the 4th gear and I want my friends to be informed about potential embarrassment they may end up with if they go in the wrong direction. I’m trying to learn from you guys, because you have WAY, WAY more experience in racing Mustangs.
 
You nay sayers about high HP are forgetting that the throttle isn't an on/off switch....you don't have to use 1000hp the instant you come off the line. What it takes is car control, a dialed in chassis and the right tires. There's no reason a 400hp car is absolutely going to beat a 1000hp car out of the hole just because he "can hook easier". Don't blame HP for not hooking, blame the driver.
 
You nay sayers about high HP are forgetting that the throttle isn't an on/off switch....you don't have to use 1000hp the instant you come off the line. What it takes is car control, a dialed in chassis and the right tires. There's no reason a 400hp car is absolutely going to beat a 1000hp car out of the hole just because he "can hook easier". Don't blame HP for not hooking, blame the driver.

The throttle isn’t a switch, but I have seen turbo cars with big single turbos where power came in as if it was released by a toggle switch. First you have nothing at all and then you get a Godzilla kick in the butt. Those were cars that received their turbos through build it yourself kits and tuned by local talents.
There again, I’m not saying that a high HP can not be tuned to run smoothly, but many real world cars aren’t.
 
Outlaw cars make around 3500 to 4000 HP these days... even the outlaw drag radial cars are making that much, trapping 190 mph in the eight mile.

Proline racing is dominating that whole scene what it comes down to is power management, and getting the chassis right. Which are both obvious things to anyone building a motor of this caliber.

A 300 hp car isnt going to hang with a 1000hp car even if there was a 75mph tailwind somhow miraculously only in the 300hp cars lane...
 
If you have the money to build a 1000 horse car, you have the money to make it hook. 1000hp is far from too much to hook

Outlaw cars make anywhere from 1200-1800hp and they hook like hell.
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im not going to get into all the rest but a true outlaw car makes just shy of 4000hp. a super street outlaw car makes between 1500-2000
 
Outlaw cars make around 3500 to 4000 HP these days... even the outlaw drag radial cars are making that much, trapping 190 mph in the eight mile.

Proline racing is dominating that whole scene what it comes down to is power management, and getting the chassis right. Which are both obvious things to anyone building a motor of this caliber.

A 300 hp car isnt going to hang with a 1000hp car even if there was a 75mph tailwind somhow miraculously only in the 300hp cars lane...

glad some one else is paying attention

but wolfe and fiscus are in the low 180's in the 1/8 right now. lynch is just over a 190 in the 1/8

also the power management comes down a lot to the davis traction control set up they are running these days also