I'm with you brother! 600 rwhp has been my goal since before I picked up the car. Now I just have to earn enough money to build it!

 

I'm planning on around 600 for everyday driving but less at the track, as I don't want to install a roll bar, I have to keep it over 11.50.

Earl

 

Evan Smith from MM & FF got a GT 500 to go 12.25 @ 115 on street tires. The only suspension work I have on my are Steeda rear springs. I can hit 1.7xx 60' times with just flashing the stock converter.

 

To paraphrase the Late Honorable Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart's comment on obscenity - "I'll know it when I have it."

Martin

 

Also, I think the quest for horsepower is kind of a relative thing. When I was younger, and driving around in a '96 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD (stock 210hp, modded to about 260hp), I would have killed for 400hp. I just didn't have the resources to buy a turbo and intercooler upgrade.

Now, here I am with 500+ hp and still wanting more. It's like a drug...

 

I hear ya... I'm looking at built short blocks and I haven't even had the blower on the car a year yet..... This is really addicting.

 

Interesting thread here, I've had this conversation many times with different folks. Most recently with a friend who I'd helped build a Factory Five Cobra a few years ago. This car had a 340hp-ish 5.0 which made that car more fun than you can believe, but still completely manageable. Now, I realize there's no comparison with a 2,000lb Cobra kit and a production Mustang, but the idea of "how much is enough" means different things to different people. The guys who drive Lotus Exiges with their thumping supercharged 240hp 1.8s that get to 60 in four seconds probably think they have enough power. I guess it's more about power-to-weight ratios, yeah?
Like someone already said, you're really limited by traction. That goes double in the Cobra with its light rear end, but for any car a stupid excess of power is totally unusable if you're always spinning the wheels. Yeah, it's fun to be able to light up the tires on demand but that kind of stuff ends up costing you. When I lurk on Corvette forums, the guys with the Z06 cars brag about tweaking their 505hp engines well over 600hp for essentially street driving. This seems ridiculous to me, as if a 4 second 0-60 time or 190mph top end isn't fast enough. After a while it just comes down to bragging rights and being able to tell people you have a X-hundred horsepower Vette/Mustang/Viper/etc.

 

This is a fun thread. A couple of weeks ago, someone on this forum wondered aloud about dropping a 428 into the current Mustang. I'm a firm believer in the "It's my car, I'll do what I want to it" doctrine. On the track, I say go for however much power you can handle. On the street, I don't think much more than 350 hp is needed (and that would be for a heavy 'vert).

 

I would say 400hp is plenty, what's needed is less fat, as the more basic number is the power to weight ratio, not some said amount of power. An the many additional benefits of a lighter car are well known, whether relating to overall performance -- not just simple acceleration -- or economy.

400 some hp in a 3200 lb Stang would give you the power to weight ratio of the corpulent, thirsty and plodding GT500. In addition to equal or better acceleration, you'd reap the added benefits of much better handling and agility, even with the Stang's current rudimentary suspension, brakes that won't turn red when the light does, and won't drain you of a C-note every few hundred miles.

But turn the focus a bit less from being a mega-motor blunderbuss and rather, better flesh out the thinner areas of the Stang's performance envelope with a better suspension, brakes and controls and you will end up with a much more enjoyable ride, regardless of the hard numbers. Indeed, ever tightening EPA and CAFE regs, combined with gas approaching $4 a jug will likely force such a rebalancing of the approach to performance. The end result could be a car that accelerates like the current GT500, but far excel it in all other performance measures and be much more of a hoot to drive than that 2 ton leviathan.

 

If a 2.3L evo can do 1000awhp... then i think the 4.6 V8 should not stop for anything less then 2000rwhp.

 

I thought when I bought my car that the 260rwhp it was putting out was scary enough. Now I'm blown pushing 440 on a conservative tune. All I gotta do is get used to this power level, forge the internals and go crazy! Haha, its never enough.

Its about how deep are your pockets.

 

Rhumb,

you bring up an excellent point about the power/weight ratio. However, in this particular scenario I was thinking specifically of the Mustang GT. Certainly, overall lightening of the vehicle would have a better overall impact on all facets of performance than simply pumping up horsepower levels. Every system in the car would be less taxed, and handling would be significantly improved.

Ultimately, as has been stated before, the bottom line is, what do you want to do with the car?

For a car that sees drag strip duty regularly, certainly more horsepower is desirable, assuming that power can be effectively transferred to the pavement. Obviously, optimal handling is not of paramount concern in this scenario. Even then, once you exceed a certain level of performance, you will be required to install a roll cage. How many are willing to do that on his/her daily driver? I'm not. My car regularly transports my 4yo son to and fro.

Conversely, for a road race/autocross vehicle, handling becomes more important than massive power levels. I myself will probably go this route and try to build a well balanced car, rather than a pure horsepower monster.

 

Yeah, I guess a subtext of this question is, "For what?"

Certainly if you're focusing narrowly on drag racing, pretty much the sky's the limit, horsepower-wise, in order to get the current Stang down the strip post haste, though, as you mention once you get below a certain time (12 seconds?), other concerns start appearing. And any grossly overpowered car does have a certain goofy, cartoonish appeal too.

But I think for a general purpose road car of the Stang's heft, too much beyond 400 hp starts to represent greatly diminishing returns for fuel and money burned, especially given the Stang's somewhat rudimentary suspension and brakes, and thus, its ability to effectively use 400+ hp in all but the most limited and ideal of circumstances.

A light (compared to the GT500 mill) 400-some HP 5.0 engine would, I think, be fully sufficient for general road use and any further development time and coin would be far more wisely and effectively invested in addressing the weaker points of the Stang's performance envelope to make for a far more fun, enjoyable and safe car to drive than simplemindedly stacking on ever more power alone.

While any real dieting will have to wait for the next-platform Mustang, the current one could certainly benefit from an IRS, better brakes and just a lot of fine tuning to give the car a level of coordination and control equal to its power. I suspect we might get at best two out of three there though.

 

430 is enough for me...As long as I can beat these vettes around here i'm happy

 

Have you taken out any Vettes? I assume you're talking about C6s ?

 

It's all going to depend on what you plan for the car. Do you want to build a track car? Then the sky's the limit on HP. A daily driver you occasionally take to the track will yield a different answer. Strictly a daily driver? Yet another... BUT, if you don't put money in how that power is actually transferred through the chassis and suspension to the tires, it's all effort wasted just increasing HP alone... regardless where you drive it.

 

i thought the stock 300 was good... for a few weeks. then i got used to it.

now after mods and Im around 300 at the wheels.... I would say right around the 400 mark would be perfect for a daily driver. you would get used to it after a while, but over 400 hp is plenty, and it would get away from you pretty easily

 

Guess what? You will always get used to the power. One great way to make your car feel fast is to limit how often you get on it. If you drive for a half hour and only get on it once, that one time will feel fast. However, if you get on it ten times in a half hour, you will just get used to it and it won’t feel as quick.

To the post about low end power for the street, I couldn’t agree more. With most local speed limits averaging 35-40 mph, it doesn’t take much to break the law. At least with low end power you can have a lot fun off the line and at low speeds. I owned a turbocharged car a while back. It was very quick, but only when I would wind out the gear to redline. Who wants to do that just to feel a little pull on the street? Not me.

 

I think that the level of horsepower that someone will be satisfied at differs from person to person, based on their prior driving experience. If you've been driving a Honda Civic all your life and switch to a Mustang GT, you're probably going to be happy with the stock horsepower level for quite a while. Now, if you've been driving a Z06, that's another story.

For me, I am almost 100% satisfied with the power my car is making right now with just a CAI and tune. I'll probably end up doing the rest of the N/A bolt-ons and shoot for around 305-315 RWHP, and hope that that will satisfy me. For a daily driver, I really don't think you could be dissatisfied with that amount of power.

 

Once I got my car, I was happy what it put out, as I'm not one for taking it to the track. But, after the mod bug got bigger, and I finally went with a programmer, I thought the increase was good. Now, after a custom dyno from CR at Tillman, with my longtubes, and having 302rwhp (350 flywheel), I'm totally content! I think my max limit would be to close in on 400 n/a flywheel hp. Maybe cams in a few years. Something that makes the car sing at WOT!!!