How much horsepower can the average driver handle?

>nobody needs scary 400hp assault engines
>someone could kill with that kind of power
>only police and professionals should have 400hp vehicles
>you're obviously planning on breaking the law if you buy a car that has the potential for speeding on a highway
you sound like a cuck.

i have 240ish HP and i dont think its enough.
But thats based on my drag racing a lot during the summer

average driver needs 50hp and a small two seater car.
Family driver for seating 5-7 needs 60-70hp.

prove me wrong

I want to pass on the freeway.

You can buy 435 horsepower for $29k at a local ford dealer.
Haven't seen a new mustang wreck yet, but maybe no one is buying them yet.

Depends on how heavy their car is. In general, I disagree with you though.

More than you

Inb4
"I'd never buy a car over x kg, so I don't need more than x kw."

17.

Torks won't pull a family of 4 with a engine that makes 70hp

This guy gets it

>needs

Go back to liberal retard land and fucking stay there.

>kg
>kw
What?

The weight thing was more of a joke as in newer 5000 lb cars would need more power just to get them moving.

50-100hp injected, 100-200hp carburated

Nobody said you shouldn't be able to have 400hp, nothing wrong with that.

It's the mindset of "I need 400hp to feel safe on public roads" that's fucking stupid.

nigger, i would not trust the average soccer grandma with a Lexus RX Hellcat

That looks like jaguar's front end, bravo ferd

Lol you're joking right?

Maybe in eurofuckland. In North America where the average car has 300hp you're gonna die merging onto the highway and you'll have even the slowest cars right up your ass constantly. Those power levels are sketchy for a motorcycle let alone a car.

You're ignorant.
My maybe 50hp corolla will get on the freeway with a short ramp at 75mph.
My 50hp motorcycle will get on doing 100+mph

>mfw I can barely handle the 280hp of my mom's minivan

oh shit it's a post facelift R30 RS Turbo

>taking the bait

Also your argument is fucking retarded
>muh 300hp car

So what? Do you all drive at 150mph? are your on-ramp 20ft long? I guess not otherwise every truck would cause a massive pile-up while taking the highway. So the question is: do you need a car that can accelerate faster than an 18 wheeler? Plus usually low power cars have a short gearbox to compensate; my 20 years old miata can easily go to 110mph in a short time.

Honestly around 200 HP in an average sized car is the most that "normie" drivers need. In terms of acceleration, a 7 second 0-60 is completely acceptable for most drivers and they'll never need more than that.

This. I'm baffled by all of the mustang crash videos. I put my 2014 gt in 'sport mode' and break the tires loose left and right, but it still has the ability to take over if it gets too sideways and correct itself. I can't figure out why people would turn it all the way off and then proceed to think they know exactly what they're doing.

This. The 0-60 time is a much better way to generalize this than HP because weight. My vehicles are both around 7 seconds and it's not a struggle to drive them normally in traffic. I would guess the average 0-60 of cars sold over the last 5 years is around this time or faster.

why

You're extremely retarded if you actually believe having under 300hp is dangerous for highway driving. People have been driving under powered shitboxes onto the freeway for ages.

Anything with a sub 10 second 0-60 is acceptable for freeway driving. Is it less than ideal? Sure, but you just have to know your cars limits and keep out of situations it cant handle.

It's not exactly dangerous but kind of a dick move when you got your 120hp shitbox floored and a line of traffic behind you with 300hp cars waiting on you to accelerate. Sure it was fine back in the day but cars are getting more powerful by the year.

It's no always about the 0-60 times... Cars need to accelerate from 60 to pass from time to time. This is where your 60 hp is going to be "dangerous"

Youre not making sense senpai

GOD DAMN!

Nice fucking job Ford / Lincoln! This looks amazing. Very Jaguar-esque

It's better than last model's stupid mustache look.

It makes sense if you live in North America. Back to your twingo m8.

It's a lot better. Reminds me of the new 2017 Jaguar XF. Pic related.

He didn't say under 300hp is dangerous, he said 50hp is dangerous. You can't get out of situations, you're basically stuck in the right lane and even then, grandpa's 77 pinto is going to be trying to overtake you.

To give you an idea, a Crown Victoria gets about 8-9 second 0-60s, and it works just fine. Average minivans get a decent 7-8 seconds usually, and most SUVs get about 6-8 seconds themselves. I can't even think of anything I see on the road that can't get up to speed, but if you have a 50hp engine and are redlining to keep it over 70, you need to rethink your method of transportation.

>but it still has the ability to take over if it gets too sideways and correct itself.

>ability to take over... correct itself

LS1 Trans Am owner here. Have fun relying on driving aids to do a skid, mustang faggot

You're DUMB

Whatever less than the torque/HP limit to break traction.

hence why traction control has led to greater and greater horsepower.

>tfw your "fast" car does 0-130 MPH in the time your slow car does 0-60

The dangerous car is the slow one. Though 300+ hp can get you into some shit, very quickly

>feather throttle coming on interstate ramp
>doing 100mph without blinking

meanwhile in my civic
>WOT and bang gears
>33 mph

with effective traction control? no limit
without traction control? in a 3000 lb car? 200 hp

>lb

I don't understand, I had an old Hummer H1 and that fucker did 0-60 in like 16 seconds. Never had a problem.

what

I bet there was a 5 mile long conga line of cars behind you most the time though. Not cool.

I drive a slow 120hp shitbox which runs 0-60 slightly under 10 seconds and passing others on the freeway isn't an issue long. Nor am I ever holding anybody because of it...

Idk either, my Metro has an over 10 second 0-60 time and I can make it 70 by the bottom of the on ramp, but usually I have to slow down for someone else who is driving a car capable of more speed.

I say 200ish is a good numbe4.Depending on that weight of the car as well.

I have a 90 hp turbodiesel right now and for general normal driving it's perfectly fine. You just need such small engines in manual to make proper use of the torque curve.

Next is going to be a 135 hp petrol in a slightly heavier car so per ton I'll have the same torque as before, but at least it'll be comfy.

People who say you need upwards of 200 hp to accelerate onto a highway are massive morons by the way; either that or they happen to live in the only place on earth where highway ramps are only 100 feet long.

i need about that much to accelerate to highway speeds, but that's because my on-ramp is on a relatively steep banking curve.

Give a woman a 200hp shitbox and she'll manage to crash into a guard rail on the highway at 100mph.
Though the same is true of every boyracer out there, which I'm sure this thread is full of.

>either that or they happen to live in the only place on earth where highway ramps are only 100 feet long

Or they live somewhere where people drive fast as fuck and don't drive little clown cars. Sure 70hp is fine in a 1300lb geo metro but most modern cars are over 3000lbs so they actually need that 200hp. Some acceleration lanes are way shorter than 100ft.

Stop living in fucking monkey land then and move somewhere where the public engineering isn't pants on head retarded. Also highway speed isn't an argument, I live in Autobahn country and the right lane is never so fast that you can't merge onto it, and if someone is going fast in the right lane for a change (which means that the place is deserted) they will move into another lane for mergers.

The only correct answer in this thread.

My 117 horsepower Honda Fit does just fine on the highway. You just have to think ahead and also accept that you aren't going to win any races.

I could probably manage with the 99 horsepower 1.3L engine available for the Fit in other markets.

clearly you have never driven in america, then, where the "merge" lane is regularly used by fucking idiots who coast in them at 80, and where idiots in lifted trucks regularly use the shoulder between on-ramps and the freeway to pass.

you need a certain amount of power to protect yourself and get away from stupid. not much, but certainly more than 70hp in a heavy car with 16 airbags.

Or you could make it so that licenses aren't given out in vending machines, but I guess that would be communism.

I'd probably rather get crushed by a 16 year old in a lifted 3500 than live with euro levels of government control. That shits depressing.

> Euro levels of goverment control

When was the last time European police swatted a home and shot dogs because of disgruntled nerds calling in "drugs"?

they did until the late 90's...

making licenses harder to obtain wouldn't stop idiots from getting in mom's car and going for a joyride, or idiots from driving drunk, or idiots from doing shit they know is illegal/dangerous because it's more convenient

this issue isn't solved through education and regulation. it's solved through darwinism.

80hp per 1 ton
Nobody needs more than that

The us really needs to take after saudi arabia and australia with banning women drivers and hp limits for boiracers.
Also nuking people's lisences for a year+ every time they get caught with using their cellphone would be ideal.

Clearly your dwarfism isn't helping because American roads are still considerably more lethal per driven mile than our roads.

>behind you with 300hp cars waiting on you to accelerate

the fuck are you talking about, I've never seen a line of "badass 300hp" muscle cars waiting on the on-ramp because a toyota is trying to merge

I'd like to see tiered license system. Basically every normal person would need to pass a power control course for 250hp +. Three levels 300/600/900hp +

Maybe put an end to high-school trust funders from killing themselves and hurting others by not having the skill to handle serious cars and trucks, and stop frat bros from ruining good machines for the rest of us.

And a Lincoln Continental? I wonder how many years till we see them rolling thru the ghetto with collapsed suspension, ruined paint and five dinuds behind the wheel.

We already have much stricter tiers for GCWR here in Germany than in the US. I don't know if Americans constantly have giant things to haul around, but I never had an occasion where I would've exceeded the limit and where professional delivery wouldn't have been cheaper and easier anyway, and it's good to know that morons aren't allowed to operate vehicles and combinations beyond 7700 lbs on a basic license that teaches you nothing about heavy vehicles and heavy tows.

i wonder how this would affect insurance deductibles on certifiable shitboxes.

I would think rates would fall, no longer having to give a professional or experienced driver the same rates as a 16 year old girl driving a SRT Charger bought by daddy. And having reduced rates for elderly drivers who just want to float around in their old person barges.

And we could possibly do away with the soccer moms driving massive suv's while spaced out on antidepressants, since they would now be relegated to mid size/small cars and minivans.

>crossover explosion could lead to the revival of the minivan

get a job in the DoT, man. i'm counting on you to make my dreams a reality

Consider yourself lucky then. Traffic is routinely held up here by some douche in a jeep on 40's or people that refuse to accelerate properly.

300hp is pretty far from muscle car... it's not 1960. Most minivans and crossovers are 300hp+ because Linda needs to haul ass to Starbucks and Yoga.

Crossovers make me fear for the survival of serious well designed sedans, just look at how terrible and mushy the crossover market is. The only neat looking one was the Crosstour from Honda, but it was a piece of shit to drive, I took one out two years ago just for laughs and it was totally numb and had 1970s era body roll.

Just because some morons go absolutely apeshit in their 300 hp barges on the highway ramps doesn't mean that every lesser acceleration is inadequate. If you're at 60 by the time you merge, you're good.

>the us needs to take after saudi arabia and australia
probably the stupidest thing I've read all week.

> If you're at 60 by the time you merge, you're good.

Not if traffic is going 80+. Lesser acceleration is okay but annoying when crossovers are constantly riding up your ass. Trying to pass uphill also sucks with a slow car when the traffic in the right can easily out-accelerate you.

And in which lane would semi trucks be going 80 mph in, in your opinion?

in which country would semi trucks be the only traffic in the outside lanes, in your opinion?

Driving a vehicle is a rite in the western world, since we don't just grow opium and have relations with goats. Our aussie friends are different, and tend to be a little soft with European style regulations, be it cars or guns.

The only reason to go faster in the outside lane is if traffic is so thin that you're not held up, and if traffic is so thin it usually isn't an issue to make space for someone trying to merge onto the highway, but apparently basic principles of courtesy and easy traffic flow don't apply to the US.

It's funny because we're allowed more on our roads than Americans are, but it seems ensuring that drivers and vehicles are fit for it before letting them loose makes us "softer".

The right, middle or left or all 3 a lot of the time. Most trucks are driven by "steering wheel holders". Canada btw.

>basic principles of courtesy and easy traffic flow don't apply in the US

kind of like how the basic principles of not filling your borders with rapists and freeloaders don't seem to apply to the EU

we need to protect ourselves, m8, and thankfully our government hasn't taken the ability to do so away from us

Back in day you only need two horses to get around.

what went wrong

If you shoot as well as you manage to stick with the topic you'll kill yourself before your protect yourself.

>2014, 75hp corolla
>me and three passengers
>tiniest incline meant staying at 140kph was impossible without downshifting and even then it struggled
>10l/100km
sorry, but that's just retarded.

I agree that 50hp in cities for two people would be enough, but on motorways/autobahn you should at least have 100-150hp as having the engine struggle at high rpm will lead to higher consumption than just having a bit more power to begin with.

in my 94 C200 (140hp) I get 10l/100km as well, no struggle on inclines with four passengers (two of which were lardasses this time around). The C200 has older engine technology, weighs more and only has a four-speed automagic, yet has the same consumption as the corsa.

op asked how much horsepower the average driver can handle, not how much the average driver needed

y'all came in here with your " 'mericans r cucks, real cars only need 70hp" rhetoric with little to no understanding of how poorly the average american drives and how shitty our interstates, freeways, highways, and turnpikes are designed/maintained

come on down to the colonies one day and you'll see what i mean. you'll be grateful that whatever rental car you're driving has twice the output of whatever sad little shitbox you're driving at home

>esque
Its a fuckin copy paste

I heard if you don't get the fuck out of a German cop's way when they have lights and sirens running, no matter where you are in Germany, it can basically be arrest worthy.

>Claiming Americans are going off topic
>When everyone is failing to understand the OP post
>How much horsepower can the average driver handle?
Nowhere does it say how does the average driver need. Why are you spewing shit?

about tree fiddy

fuck, you beat me