With the advent of 500-plus HP Mercedes and BMW sedans, a new 400 HP C6 (and maybe a 450-500 Z06 likely) on the way, a 500 HP Viper, and a 500 HP Ford GT coming soon, and at least a remote chance of 1000 HP Cadillac sometime making an appearance, how much HP is required before you even get to high-perf? Heck, an itty-bitty S2000 4 banger (2 little liters and no turbo) gets 240 HP! We have 980 HP Bugattis, 550 HP Lamborghininis, etc. The 325 HP rating on my '98 SS seems like an economy car number. What do you think constitiutes a high-perf horsepower number today?

 

i voted for 400hp but realy as long as you can run in the 13's and around 5 second 0-60 then i consider that hi perf. also i hope nobody votes for the 1 or 1.5 per liter, because i doubt my could even move with only 5.7hp.

 

IMO for new performance cars it has to be at least 350 or around that to be any kind of contender.

 

I wonder when the different manafactuers will set a limit on how much hp a car can have in the states. If you give everyone 300+ hp, there are going to be a lot of people getting hurt.

 

I voted 350hp min, but a lot of other things come into play obviosuly... (like weight, etc...)

But... times are changing... it's getting to be where you need to have 400+ just to begin to stand out in the crowd.

Pretty amazing performance times, and us with no Camaro or Firebird.

 

To me reading the poll it asked what was enough power to be Hi-performance. To me High performance is more than standard performance. Ie the Z06 and Cobra vs reg C5 or GT/Mach 1. So 400 was my answer. Just performance all ya need is 300-350 hp for cars in the 3200-3800 lb range to be quick.
But to be high-performance and to go over the top 400 or more now is a must.
To be exotic or ultra-performance 500hp is now the benchmark.

 

as much HP as they can squeeze in


Well, I'd like to so see lighter cars, like the Z06.. with 400+ HP and good aero's, top speeds of the cars are well beyond sane levels.. so lets start lightening cars for better acceleration and mpg..


Design the areo's for mad downforce (at some expense of drag).. then throw big HP #'s to overcome that...

 

I voted 350 HP as being high performance because think about it, how many cars today really have 350 or more HP? There's only 1 factory Mustang that does and it took until this year to get there. Anything Japanese that's available here? Nope. German? Well unless you want to pay an insane amount of money for an M3, no. Someone come up with a definitive listing of cars made now and available here with 350+ HP. I still think that list is pretty short.

 

I just wonder how much higher they can go and still be streetable and pass emissions.

 

I voted 400hp..thats enough for me

 

I'd say 300hp minimum for an entry/mid level performance car. These are the affordable performance cars.

400+hp for the time being is reserved for only the exotics, semi-exotics, and the 2003 Cobra's.

 

First Rule of HP.

Enough.... is Never Enough!
And
TOO Much...is Just Right!

Thx,
Claude

 

when ur on the brink of not being able to drive her on the clearest and dryest of days.......then u know u have enough

 

Yea! Like he said!