Thread: Streetable Horsepower

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I was reading Steve32's Post about the Cars he has built, and was intrigued about a Car he built with 1500 horsepower but didn't drive it much-that leads me to this question:

What is the upper limit to "streetable" horsepower? I know there are a lot of variables there (Vehicle Weight, Induction (Injected or Carb'd), cu. in. displacement, etc., etc., and the new Vette is supposed to be offered at 600 h.p. and so on-I'm shooting for 600 h.p. in my build, and it seems pretty tame compared to some of the stuff out there-what are your experiences?

I have a friend with a Pro charged 505 c.i.d Nova, and it was dyno'd @ 1380 h.p.-it's mostly a Strip Car (8.90's on 10.5" Tires-still trying to get traction), he will take it to a cruise-in once in a blue moon-not really streetable.

Everyone will have their own opinion here-quite frankly, I've had some pretty fast street cars in my time (and a few strip cars), but nothing approaching 1000 h.p. on the street-so, what is everyone's opinion-is the upper limit 5, 6, 700 Horsepower on the street?

Now wait, let's not get into the debate that Hot Rod Magazine did with it's fastest Street Car Series-to me those really aren't every day streetable. Heck, some of them are tube framed wonders, just short of Pro Stock-I'm talking about a car you could get into on Saturday morning, get your Coffee (and/or Doughnuts-mmmm, I love Doughnuts ), drive to the Cruise (or wherever) and not have to shut it down because it gets too hot, or constantly foul plugs and the like-

For me, 500 has always been about the limit for the street....and even at that level it's a rare experience that you can actually get it all hooked up.

With street cars normally being around 3000-3500 pounds, I usually build for torque to be at the 450 level at the wheels, run the suspension "loose" to get the best weight transfer possible, and lay off the deep gears so the tires have a chance to stay hooked. I've found that 450 ft. lbs. of torque at the wheels in a 3200 pound car with a gear ratio in the 3.50-3.73 range will allow the car to work on the street. Guess it would also depend on whether you are shooting for driveability or outlandish!!!!!!!

There's a couple of pro street camaro's around here with HP from 800 to 1200. They go to local car shows (they do look nice) but only during the summer and it has to be warm and not wet. Limited use vehicles. I would never own one if I was afraid to drive it.

There are alot of combo's too, you could have a fairly built (500hp) engine and add alot of nos and bump it up over 1000 easy but it doesn't mean your using it all the time with that setup. That would be streetable hugh HP wouldn't it?

A 3-400HP engine with a reasonable cam and realistic carburation will be responsive and that's what you want. I seen too many guys get carried away and end up with stumbling horseturd cars on the street because they applied strip logic to a street machine. Creating usable torque means it has to come in down low not at 4,800 RPM. By the time your monster mutha starts breathing you're at the next light. It's like constantly running a 1/4 miler car set up to make max power at 1,000 feet but you never run more than an 1/8 mile = 660 feet.

Throttle response comes from a close to standard Corvette 350 cam and a 600CFM carb. Know what? A 500CFM 2 barrel street carb will produce superior airflow characteristics over many 4 bbls especially 850 CFM and double pumpers with even more.

My horsepower addiction has led me from being able to run a 1850lb car with500 hp on pump gas to get out of control on building the new high maintanance 900 hp bbc that will only run on 110 race gas or E85 (which is 30 miles away). If I could do it over, i would have never sold that small block back to my buddy. It was a perfect 9 second pump gas street car.

Originally Posted by bcrector

My horsepower addiction has led me from being able to run a 1850lb car with500 hp on pump gas to get out of control on building the new high maintanance 900 hp bbc that will only run on 110 race gas or E85 (which is 30 miles away). If I could do it over, i would have never sold that small block back to my buddy. It was a perfect 9 second pump gas street car.

Sounds like perfectly normal behavior to me........