The new pony war champ

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

For some reason this thread reminds me of a conversation with the wife over paying wads of extra money for high thread count sheets for the bed. They're coming out with crazy numbers that either aren't accurate or aren't worth the effort.

Give me a really well engineered sports car with half the HP of the top motors and I'll be happy as a clam.

Sheets on the bed? you're getting too fancy RN.


On the issue of power, Juan Pablo Montoya did an interview discussing his personal car collection not too long ago. He's had all manner of Porsche, Ferrari, GTR (b-day gift from wife), etc. He says the HP is getting out of hand and now avoids these cars on the street. For a guy who has driven all manner of car to the limit, and has plenty of experience in taming such beasts, it really makes you wonder. When he drove for McLaren we had a friend in common who told he said that the V12 whatever Mercedes engine was simply "not safe" for the lead-footed public.
Being that he does most of his personal driving around Miami, I can see the concern.

[Pdwight]

I think we all wish for more HP from time to time, I think if I had a 981 S it would just about be all I would ever need...heck my 01S hos more power than I ever really use..once I had it to 145 ( and that was no big effort)...once and will never do so again unless I am trying to out run a tornado ( our State Animal here in AL)

The 981 S is just over 300HP , probably 290ish to the wheels but mostly the non concern of the IMS "Feature" porsche gave us would be mind settling.

My car will corner better than anything I have ever owned including my E36, it spends most of its life at 3K RPM on the road doing 60 MPH

[The Radium King]

with the new camaro, the mustang boss 302, the new vette, etc., your car has to be able to turn to win the pony wars these days. which is good for racing, but takes some of our excuses away - we used to be able to say 'yeah the boxster is underpowered but the mid-engine configuration, suspension, brakes, yada yada, make it faster in the corners ...". no longer; these cars turn as good as us and have more power. about all you can try and do now is outlast them.

[RandallNeighbour]

Radium, "outlast them" means be a better driver in my book. I regularly see Miatas lapping Turbos at the track because they're just so much better in the corners.

I aspire to be a Miata driver one day... even if I'm not driving a Miata.

[The Radium King]

well, the gtr is a beast on the track ... for five laps until the differentials start to overheat. these pony cars are still heavy and can overdrive their brakes relatively easily in stock form. a well set-up boxster seems to handle heat pretty good; i'm still turning when the faster cars are going home with heat-related ailments (the worst is the jap tuner cars constantly blowing turbos and coolant hoses and greasing up the track). funny that these road tests that you read in the magazines never really torture test the cars for 40 laps - you might see different results in say a z-28 / porsche comparison if they did. I mean, is that dodge still going to be making 700 hp after 40 minutes at redline?

[Nine8Six]

Pure American Energy this is. Majestic



powerful stuff man.... not much else to say

[JayG]

If I was going to have an American Muscle Car, it would be a Challenger.\
When the Big 3 did the redo a few years back of the 70's cars, only Dodge kept it true to form. The Camaro looks like Godzilla stepped on it and squashed it, The Mustang is pretty good, but Dodge hit it out of the park, at least styling wise. Put a 70's Challenger next to a new one and they look almost the same. The new one is updated slightly, but very true to form.

As far as 700 HP, well it will be really fact in a straight line, but our Boxsters will run circles around it on curves, even with a 3rd of the HP. Hell, the 0-60 time isn't that impressive considering the HP and Torque. A new 911 turbo is faster with a lot less HP

[Pdwight]

Back in the middle 70's I had two Dodge Chargers, one was a cherry 318 Engine that was just a decent car...the4 other was a 440 Magnum with a 6 Pack....used gas like it only cost 32 cents a gallon......hey it did ;-)

But they were not that great of cars, the interiors left a lot to be desired, both mine seem to start rusting almost as soon as they had 5 thousand miles on them. Differential problems ...more out of the 318 than the 440 Mag.

Most people do not remember what it was like to dispose of a car when it hit 85K because it was worn out.