BASTARD

iTrader: (4)

I was wondering what people thought was too much power for a "Daily Driver". And what I mean by that is... How does it drive in stop and go traffic, do you have to fill up every time you see a gas pump. Do you have to push this button, tap that gadget, and hold the gas pedal to the floor to get it to start? Do you have to buy special 120 octane fuel? Do you have to pre mix your fuel? These are all things that would make your car NOT a daily driver.

Wargasm

There is no such thing as too much power.

phlanigan

Power has nothing to do with whether your car makes a good daily driver. It is the associated quirks that come with the mods that compromise daily use in traffic.

BTW, this really doesn't belong in this section.

Beast From The East

My glib response is "yeah, what 'gasm said", but it really depends on the individual. My car in its current state (similar setup to 'gasm) now has all kinds of braces and stiffeners that make the car have a lot of NVH compared to stock. The new KAAZ lsd make all kinds of crunching noises on low speed turns. But, I needed all this stuff to harness the 400 rwhp and also to provide some measure of durability - I could have kept the stock Torsion lsd, but it would have been worn out by racing. I'm still using it as a daily driver .... and tolerate the noise (in some ways I LIKE the noise). Other folks would find it intolerable.

It really depends on the money you have. a 575 M Ferrari has the same power as our cars and rides like a dream .... but it costs a quarter million bucks. I could slap together a 10K beater car with 500 hp that would be very unpleasant.

Basically I don't think your poll has an answer.

Beast

BASTARD

iTrader: (4)

These quirks are related to mods...These mods are for more power... trying to increase performance. So what you are saying is that power is directly related to drivability???

setzep

Depends on the car

BASTARD

iTrader: (4)

You guys are confusing "daily driver" with "weekend warrior". My Toyota pickup with 199k, 4cyl, 4spd, base model ,2wd daily driver will do 110MPH(on flat ground and about 20 miles of straight road). I'll be lucky if it has 100hp. My point is...you dont need a lot of horespower in your daily driver and any body who says Ferrari, McLaren or Porsche ($120,000 plus) is dreaming. 99.9% of those cars never see more then one or two days a week at best. They are not "Daily Drivers". Can you can sincerely tell me that you can drive your 450hp plus car 20 miles round trip to and from work everyday 365 days a year in stop and go traffic and then drive it on vacation 8 hours away and not have any problems breaking down or not having to find special fuel…etc etc. How many miles or years have you put on your 400 plus horsepower car without a break down. Oh One more thing...HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE REALLY DRIVEN A 400plus horsepower car before????

SPOautos

I was making over 400rwhp and trapping 125mph on 93 octane and I drove it everyday to work and back for about a year. Put something like 10K-12K miles on it. Then I tore it apart to redo it all again. Anyway, the point is the car was very driveable, no special braces or diffs, it drove just like stock except much faster. And I did actually take a 8hr trip in it and got around 18mpg. I also was running a nice quiet exhaust so it was very liveable

I think when you get over 500rwhp is when you really start getting it to unfriendly for most people to really enjoy as a daily driver with traffic, ect.

Actually now that I think about it for it to be a daily driver you need to be running 93octane and I dont know ANYONE making 500rwhp on 93octane....BUT I'm going ot try and do it....I'll let you know if it makes a decent daily lol

Syonyk

Well, I wouldn't want a daily driver with less than about 150 hp, if it matters. :-) Merging into city highway traffic takes a certain amount of power to do reasonably.

I suppose the biggest thing to me would be reliability and smoothness in normal driving. A peripheral port, as I understand it, is completely useless below 2000 RPM. That would be annoying.

If I had a car that was making 350+ hp, idled smoothly, and wasn't so touchy as to be unusable, I'd probably use it as a daily driver.

However, another point is traffic. If I had a nice 350+ hp car, I wouldn't drive it in a big city. Too big of a chance of damage (either accident or vandalism). I'd drive a generic piece of crap.

-=Russ=-

LETHAL RX7

iTrader: (1)

Just because a car is "high performance" doesnt mean its not reliable. The more work done to the car..i would think means more new parts....more reliable. I know i own a brand new 93 rx7 Sure a car can be daily driven with c16 in the tank..theres no reason it cant other than affording it. The biggest element of daily driver in my opinion is in the clutch. I just put and exedy twin plate in and its great for ANY driving. So its all what you can afford. i wouldnt have any problem driving my car across the country. i built it i know whats there and i know its 100%. my car is driven very regularly on the street at 20 psi (t78) etc etc. my thoughts

pp13bnos

iTrader: (1)

For me.....400rwhp is a little much for daily driving. With the stock sized Faulkens on the back, the car would'nt even accelerate in 1st gear. As soon as you mashed the gas pedal, it would just spin the rear tires. This is a little much for me. On low boost, or 350ish rwhp it'll still spin the tires, but the car is accelerating. 350rwhp with the tires I have now is perfect for me.

Kudos to the people who run crazy hp like Xcessive (Ralph Friend), pluto, reactive racing etc. on the street. Ralph was telling me his wastegate spring is 22psi!!

CJ

BTW Russ, a Peripheral motor usually idles around 2k rpms! So yes...it would be pretty much useless below that.

Syonyk

Yup! :-) It would certainly be streetable, but I'd not use it as a daily driver.

Plus, the burble of a solid 750 RPM idle is just... sexy :-)

-=Russ=-

SPOautos

Sounds like you needed to get some Nitto drag radials man lol.

If you make 400+ you need to keep drag radials on it all the time but they ride great and are quiet too. They will last around 10-12K miles which is about a years for me. I dont mine replacing my rear tires once a year.

Stephen

fi addict

400hp IMHO is too much but its 400whp @say5-6k rpm's
you dont need to drive to reline all the time
200hp is a very fun drive and if that is achieved at 2-4000 rpm id is fine in traffic

we all know where we make the power so even 500hp @8k w/ a gentle foot can be ok.

fd3s_rx7

iTrader: (13)

Was just going to say the same thing...

DrPJM1

Whatever the horsepower you need to be smooth with the throttle. Throttle control is paramount no matter what type of driving/racing yo do.

Maxthe7man

400+ rwhp N/A small blocks, not very fun to live with, low vacuum, shitty gas mileage etc etc. A decent big block can run in the 400-500 hp range with a moderate cam, still run a liveable carb, and a dual plane intake, get not bad mileage, and have a decent idle below a 950 or so..
I love turbo motors for that very reason, keep it liveable , but with a big kick just a foot plant away.. My car with partial bridge had a pretty wicked idle but not near as a tiring as a 300 deg mechanical lifter cam in a 350... And with a large turbo, you can control the spool with your foot, feel like getting some mileage, or just cruising, just putter around like and N/A, when you need the power, plant it and spool it...You have to learn to drive a big tubo's car though, you can still blow people off with smaller turbos' you just have to know which gear to pick at what speed that will put you past your boost threshold..
With the Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde personality of a small motored car with a large turbo, its perfect for big hp on the street.... Even large motors make a car tiring after awhile, if they are built past a level...
I just finished a car with a zz572 crate motor, even though its all GM built parts, in a GM motor, that car is not nearly as streetable as probably faster cars with smaller motors and large turbos, yeah its got 620 hp, but an engine with that much shear size and that much cam shakes the car continuously and beats up on the chassis all the time, not to mention the pencil sized streams of fuel running down the venturis at idle, it gets pretty much 0 mpg, and you'd have to be hardcore to drive that thing daily, if GM would have optimized the parts better in that motor, it would have made more power with less cam, there is no porting, no polishing, no attention to detail but I digress..
So really I guess it depends on the car and the motor..
500 rwhp N/A small block.. No thanks
400-500 rwhp BB, it'd be ok
small motor with large turbo..me likey...
large motor with turbo, I would probably like that to..
Max

Twinturbo522

theres no such thing as too much horsepower.. the more power the more preventative maintenance you will need to do!!!!!!!!thats all.....

Syonyk

Question for those with high HP daily drivers (say, 300+ RWHP): How often do you actually get on the throttle hard enough to see that kind of power? I'd imagine there's not much opportunity do that on public streets - merging onto the highway in, what, 6-8 seconds?

-=Russ=-

DrPJM1

not on the throttle hard enough? Check my sig

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

Are you guys kidding?

A Corvette Z06, a Porshe Turbo, Mustang Cobra, would be perfect daily drivers.
A/C, power steering, ABS, traction control, sound deadening, good stereo,
make these cars VERY livable on a daily basis. All can easily have over 400hp

My little FB has over 400 rwhp, also has A/C and power steering, a decent
radio, and can be driven like grandma all day.

I keep it at 12psi most of the time (315ish rwhp) for better fuel economy.
It even has a 6 point cage, with swing outs, to make ingress/egress easier.

If I had to, I could drive it every day without a problem.

That being said, my real daily driver is a modded Harley 4-door pickup, putting
down over 400rwhp/500rwtq.

RX-Heven

iTrader: (1)

You only have enough power when you can leave two black marks from the exit of one turn to the braking point of the next on the longest straight.

Shinobi-X

I agree. I don't think hp by itself is the limiting factor on a daily driver. You can just as easily spin/lose control of a stock FD if you have a heavy right foot.

In no way will I imply that the 7 gets good mpg, but that along with reliability and a car you wouldn't mind getting a ding here and there qualifies as a true daily driver IMO. As far as hp needs go, I've pretty much settled on the minimum hp being 160+ with anything above 300ish being not as practical but basically designated for performance wants. Anything a good deal below 160 though, just gets annoying when trying to pass or even accelerate on some hills with passengers.

wwilliam54

i love my 90hp dailey driver
its slow and ugly
but its really cheap to drive and fix
easy to work on, and good on gas

i would never want to drive project car everyday

edit: i forgot to add, it was super cheap to buy, so if it gets totaled, no loss

RotaryWeaponSE7EN

iTrader: (6)

BDoty311's AE makes 408 rwhp and its his daily.