Future kit builder

[john]

No, not a kill joy Mel. Wise words from all.
If I understood the matter correctly ( tho I wasn't there) Bob was quicker at the sprint venue than Neil with his 500+BHP.
I am firmly in the camp of building a reasonably powerful car, standard for whatever engine you choose, in a well sorted and setup chassis.
I'm afraid I've listened to too many "bragging rights"conversations at Motor Clubs, shows, in the pub and at Motorsports events where the amount of money spent and power claimed can be almost universally found to be inversely proportional to the results and demonstrable talent of the spenders. Not always, but mostly!

[mariner]

No, not a kill joy Mel. Wise words from all.
If I understood the matter correctly ( tho I wasn't there) Bob was quicker at the sprint venue than Neil with his 500+BHP.
I am firmly in the camp of building a reasonably powerful car, standard for whatever engine you choose, in a well sorted and setup chassis.
I'm afraid I've listened to too many "bragging rights"conversations at Motor Clubs, shows, in the pub and at Motorsports events where the amount of money spent and power claimed can be almost universally found to be inversely proportional to the results and demonstrable talent of the spenders. Not always, but mostly!

Hi John
It was actually Neil who was the quickest on the day by a couple of seconds.
My 280'ish bhp not able to keep up with his max speed down the short straights.
Neil was always 10 to 15 mph faster.
Rgds Bob

[john]

Oh OK Bob. I got the wrong end if the stick then!
It doesn't change my mind on how much carp there is talked about power though.

[strat24v]

Spend the dough on brakes and dampers.

[Normb666]

Well this has turned into quite the massive thread hijack, hasn't it...

I'm a bit confused here with peeps saying "XXXbhp" is more than enough, and yet there was Neil with over 500bhp in his car and no-one's said how mad or dangerous it was (so I'm guessing it wasn't!).
As Mel and others have said, you build your own car and that's all there is to it. The thing is, a 200bhp 2.5 Alfa-powered effort is always going to be loads of fun, in a wring-its-neck Mazda-MX5 type way. But a mega-power monster will also be a hoot as well (provided you're circumspect about when and where you hoof it). I have a theory that what people say they want changes in proportion to the depth of their wallet at the time...if you suddenly come into funds, that lower-powered option will soon get upgraded to something a bit more eye-opening!

I firmly believe you can never have too much power, you just need some self-control (or, as in my case, cowardice!) And just cos you can go fast doesn't mean you always have to - the throttle goes both ways!

[LPH_UK]

I agree that different levels of power are 'fun' at different levels. My take on the 2 Lotus cars I've had:

Lotus 340R, weight 680kg 200 hp. Really fun to drive. Was very fast but you could get towards it's limits on the road and have fun without feeling like you would be arrested and the key thrown away if you were caught, or that you were going to die. OK on track but felt a little under-powered somewhere like Donington which is quite a fast-flowing track.

Lotus Elise with SC Honda conversion, weight 820kg 380 hp. FAST and I mean really, really fast. 3 secs to 60, less than 8 secs to 100mph. Insane mid-range acceleration. Could very easily hit three figures on the road before you knew it, easy to drive slowly but felt like it was going to kill you without giving it a lot of respect when hoofing it. Felt great on track, just endless POWER.......

[Fingers]

Well this has turned into quite the massive thread hijack, hasn't it...

I'm a bit confused here with peeps saying "XXXbhp" is more than enough, and yet there was Neil with over 500bhp in his car and no-one's said how mad or dangerous it was (so I'm guessing it wasn't!).
As Mel and others have said, you build your own car and that's all there is to it. The thing is, a 200bhp 2.5 Alfa-powered effort is always going to be loads of fun, in a wring-its-neck Mazda-MX5 type way. But a mega-power monster will also be a hoot as well (provided you're circumspect about when and where you hoof it). I have a theory that what people say they want changes in proportion to the depth of their wallet at the time...if you suddenly come into funds, that lower-powered option will soon get upgraded to something a bit more eye-opening!

I firmly believe you can never have too much power, you just need some self-control (or, as in my case, cowardice!) And just cos you can go fast doesn't mean you always have to - the throttle goes both ways!

Well said.

My car has been built to a fairly strict budget, if I had the money when I was sourcing an engine I may have gone for a GTA, but I'm pleased I've gone with the 2.5, they're a lot more plentiful here. I've already got a spare in the garage which cost me very little. And 156's are still dropping in price here.

[red5]

I firmly believe you can never have too much power, you just need some self-control (or, as in my case, cowardice!) And just cos you can go fast doesn't mean you always have to - the throttle goes both ways!

Im with you on that one Norm.

If I was starting my build today, I'd definitely be looking at going down the Toyota route.
My car has a 3.0 Alfa, probably around 230bhp, while it is not slow, compared to a lot of modern everyday fast road cars, it certainly wouldn't be described as fast.
Id say on a track, a well driven modern hot hatch would easily keep up with my car (definitely with me at the wheel of the LB!).

But it's certainly not all about how fast the car is, it's down to how it makes you feel when you drive it, driving a Stratos replica, in whatever form, is an experience far different to any hot hatch or big bhp German mileage eater.

As has already been said, its all down to personal choice and probably ultimately budget.

[Normb666]

Further thoughts and deffo my last word on this (in case y'all fall asleep!), in the vein of a little perspective.

Nick's right about modern hot hatches and the like, but they're getting bigger and heavier all the time with all the kit that gets tacked onto them. So forget those, and forget your supercars too, cos if you want to see something REALLY fast, that's really cheap for what you get....look at motorbikes.

I'm lucky enough to have a small stable of said beasties, from an '81 Laverda Jota (fastest bike in the world in its day with a whole 90bhp - less than a cooking 600 today) through a Ducati 916 and an MV Agusta F4 1000S (with new ECU, mapped so it runs properly and with 156 rear wheel HP), and a 2017 Kawasaki ZZR1400 with 200bhp (or 210 with ram effect).
Now there's no way you can use all that power all the time - in fact you can only use it fully very rarely, unless you particularly like prison food or you've had enough of this world. But what's great about them all is the overtaking grunt they have...queues hardly exist, cos you're never in them for any prolonged period. With the ZZR particularly, even two-up, I don't even have to change down most of the time. Have to say I've never troubled the red line... acceleration figures are 0-60 in 2.5secs (only that slow because it tries to "loop" off the line), 0-100 in 5, 0-124 in 10....all that for £15K. And we're discussing whether 300, 400bhp is too much in a Stratos? Give over!

Just one final observation: anyone wondering what's "safe" or "sensible", please take a step back right now, and ask yourself exactly what it is you're glueing together in the garage?

Yeah, it's a lookalike of that Mad Stratos thing Think "safe" and "sensible" just left the party