Lol. Give me break. And who are you, the fun police?

Seriously though, of course insurance rates go up for owning a high power car and they will keep going up. And some ****heads sometimes try get lawsuits blaming everyone other than the drivers for accidents caused. But what's new? This kind of has been going on for a while already. And at some point as a result of these kinds of things, there will be a reverse in the trend towards big HP or at least a decline towards more 'socially acceptable HP numbers'... the HP wars come and go in cycles regardless of the motivating factors for them comming and going. But I didn't say anything to the contrary of that man.

I merely said that these new Cobras will not be common and they won't. And I still maintain that average joe doesn't buy these cars. Not everyone out there wants one or can afford to own one. Or else you'd see more on the roads.

 

OK Marcus...I guess you'll just continually fail to see the simple point I am trying to make: More and more cars are getting BIG HP numbers, hence more of them on the road. I never disagreed with you on the fact that the average Joe wouldn't be driving a '07 500HP Cobra.

Anyhow...what does the ability to purchase the car have to do with one's driving ability?


I'm not going to argue with you over this....fun police -- out!

 

All it takes is three or four high profile accidents in which innocents are killed for something like this to happen.

Say one guy in a 460hp cobra loses it and plows into a minivan killing a soccer mom and her kids.

Say a 550 Viper loses it and careens into a playground or a school bus or something.

Say a 500 hp Z06 loses it on I-95 and causes a gigantic pileup.

Now, big accidents happen with every kind of vehicle...even cheap, slow cars can go fast enough to cause big crashes...but doing them in sexy, fast vehicles leaves an impression on the public.

Maybe a lawmaker wants to make a name or career for his or herself. Hell, a plucky young State Attorney General positioning himself for a run at the Governor's office of some northeastern Liberal state like, say, New York (Elliot Spitzer anyone?) could file suit in court claiming liability of the auto makers.

How would that be any different than the states suing gun makers for making guns, citing irresponsibility for making X product or Y product? I'm not saying it is right, in fact I think it would be VERY VERY wrong, but is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? Yes.

The cars don't have to get common like Accord common, they just have to get more common than they are now, which they are going to be. You sell 5000 Z06s a year, 5000 Cobras a year 2500 Vipers a year, plus the 500hp trucks and all that and odds are you are going to have some big accidents hitting the news, and when that happens, lawmakers always pay attention.

Hell, just the proliferation of 400hp Vettes as a BASE model, a car that sees 25,000 units/year production, is concern enough that this could happen.

Everybody remembers the insurance commercial from a few years ago that showed F-bodies as some sort of killer car, blaming the car and not the kids for driving habits. That was perhaps a forshadowing of what I think is inevitable.

 

Hey Im just a regular Joe and I want a 500hp car hehe.

 

just a shame the camaro (if and when it comes back) will not compete factory wise

 

What's odd is that through the 90's Mustang's strategy was not to compete with F-body horsepower. As a result, we are told a lot of buyers, particularly women, were attracted to the GTs just because they thought the F-bod was too powerful.

Maybe all that was bs and that it was because ford really COULDN'T compete? Or they have totally reversed their strategy. Wonder if it could backfire and a little bit more modesty in Camaro HP could be a benefit?

 

good point...just for the sake of arguement, i think a (slightly) cheaper, but lighter, stiffer, and much better handling car could work well with less HP

 

Says who???

 

well, ok, i guess i shouldnt have made it a statement like that
i just think that it won't
the corvette always seems to take the part there and i just don't forsee a camaro breaking 450hp unless the corvette moves up quite a bunch

 

I agree. The sales of all these high HP cars/trucks, mostly for novelty, are going to become a great justification for the government to levy more taxes and insurance companies to use less grease.

 

Those Superduty transmissions are pure garbage. They better be talking about something other than what htey're using now.

 

Well, there goes the 500+ hp Cobra talk. And I would expect the car to hit mid 40's as it will probably come with a lot of non-racing items to be a high end sports car, and not a drag-racer.
A 465hp Cobra costing upwards of what a C6 would could be interesting if Camaro will still chase after it. I think Camaro should just dominate the low end of the Mustang, while the more upscale GTO, Buick or Caddy coupe could fight the SVT model.

 

Looks like I'll be getting a Mustang then

Modesty I can handle (I hate overly flashy cars), but comfort and convenience that sacrafice performance I don't like.

And yes, I have certainly noticed a jump in high hp cars, it seems like most cars are still below the 200 hp level but the ratio of ones over that is climbing rapidly. Nissan throws 3.5s as an option in almost all their cars, Dodge is "SRTing" everything ... I don't know if it will stop yet, though, it doesn't seem like people have really said "enough", in fact, most everyone seems to want to race down the streets of Chicago, whether it be someone in a Honda with your typical bs mods or a ultra-luxury cruiser. I don't think the goverment minds, it keeps the police departments well funded. Cops have no trouble finding tickets to write around here.

At least vehicles large increase in hp has been accompanied by improvements in handling & braking. It would be scary to think of what would happen with todays engines with yesterday's technology. A 400 hp LS2 in an otherwise stock early Corvette would be way too much for your average driver. Let him try to slow from triple digit speeds on some drum brakes and watch him plow right into traffic...

 

Cool!..cant wait to see the production car

 

Camaro z28/SS may not have 470 some hp and 500lb-ft of tq, but rest assured that whatever it'll be packing will match or beat out the rest of the mustang lineup (assuming 5th gen gets 390-400hp Ls2) and it won't cost near 40g's to do it. Personally, i can live with that as long as i can get that camaro for under 30g's.