Cobra power, how much is enough?

[bobcowan]

Originally Posted by PHC1

how much is enough to keep the car fun to drive and feel you have neither over-powered or under-powered the car with the choice of engine?

This question comes up a lot. I always give the same answer:

There's no such thing as too much power, only not enough control.

That sounds like a pat answer, but it's not. 650hp in a car with good tires, a good driver, and a well sorted chassis is a real joy to drive. Safe, smooth, and fun. OTOH, 350hp in a car with old hard tires and a poor suspension can be real nightmare to handle. It's a night and day difference.

Another aspect is not so much how much Hp you have, but how you get it. You can get 650hp from a turbocharged 2.2l 4cyl. But it may not be much fun to drive around town in. But that much power from a well built stroker SB is smooth and easy on pump gas.

You can use the advertised numbers to compare engines from the same builder. But looking at HP numbers doesn't really tell you a lot. To start with, most numbers are somewhat inflated to make the seller look better. Second, you're more interested in area under the curve, rather than peak HP.

As for the 289 vs. 427 debate - who cares? Not many people are going to use parts and technology from 1965 to build their performance engines. Why would you?