How much power is enough?

[bdeutsch]

Maybe the question needs to be changed a bit.

Of late, Lamborghini and Ferrari have essentially said enough is enough...i.e., the HP wars (maybe not said in exactly this way, but idea is there). Suspect that primarily due to increasing demands for increased corporate MPG ratings, they have concluded that the topic is perhaps best resolved via weight reduction (those familiar with Colin Chapman's philosophy @ Lotus can perhaps smile at this). Of course, downside of approach is that HP is relatively cheap to produce as compared to real weight reduction via use of carbon fiber and other exotic, albeit incredibly expensive, material.

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by bdeutsch

Maybe the question needs to be changed a bit.

Of late, Lamborghini and Ferrari have essentially said enough is enough...i.e., the HP wars (maybe not said in exactly this way, but idea is there). Suspect that primarily due to increasing demands for increased corporate MPG ratings, they have concluded that the topic is perhaps best resolved via weight reduction (those familiar with Colin Chapman's philosophy @ Lotus can perhaps smile at this). Of course, downside of approach is that HP is relatively cheap to produce as compared to real weight reduction via use of carbon fiber and other exotic, albeit incredibly expensive, material.

There’s no doubt that weights of particularly the more expensive cars have headed north in recent years.
Compare a Ferrari 599 with 610BHP pulling 3725lb with a Kirkham with an aluminium 427 producing 500+ BHP at 2150lb
The red car has a p/w ratio of 360BHP/ton and the silver car has a p/w ration of 510+BHP/ton.
That’s a huge difference, and a lot of Kirkhams have a bit more than 500BHP.
A sobering thought is that a lot of the tyres fitted to Cobra replicas are S or H rated
Cheers,
Glen