Underpowered?

[Hilflos]

The first few months I had my SS, I thought it was plenty fast. The next few, fast enough. It's the most powerful car I've owned to date. Now, I'm looking forward to bolt ons, and know I'll eventually move on to a cam.

It's like anything else, you get used to it, and I set my agenda for mods in away that would take advantage of that. Suspension was first, and now that's nearing completion, I have grown accustomed to the power and am wanting more, pretty much as planned.

I think Gonif has it right, 470 to 500 at the wheels would be the sweet spot, and what my eventual goal for the car is.

[Billy10mm]

1.5 years and 15K miles. My 1LE is bone stock, my daily driver, and I still find it plenty powerful and very exciting. I'm admittedly NOT a horsepower junkie though, this thing easily has twice the HP and torque of any vehicle I've owned before it. It borders on being too much power for the track for me, as I'm used to momentum vehicles and do not have much experience with large slip angles, so that part scares me a bit. Thankfully, this car puts power down well and is very communicative at the limit.

[sengli]

Honestly, my problem was I had a C6 Z06 before the 1LE. I was not thrilled with the 1LE's stock power. Its O.K, but not totally thrilling. It handles, and brakes great. I actually test drove several of of the new stingrays, and found it to be un-comfortable to sit in for any length of time. Its smaller inside than the camaro's are. And for the money they want for those, it just didnt fly with me. So I bought a ZL1.

[Electric]

I believe a big part of it feeling "underpowered" is the delayed throttle responses. It feels slow when you driving it at a normal pace around town. Just got a Vmax throttle body, and to me, it has pretty much transformed the car. Now it feels fast at all times, not just when I'm at a wide open throttle.

[1leNPP]

I had a 2011 5.0 mustang before my 2013 1LE . The 5.0 would pull all the way to the rev limiter no let up and I miss that .Now I live in Calif. and there every hard on smog controls . So what I ended up doing was putting in just a K&N filter in the air box , shorty tube header that are 50 states CARB legal and a LS9 cam . The LS9 is only a 15 HP change but what it dose do is make the motor pull all the way to the rev limiter were as the LS3 cam stop pulling at about 5,800 rpm . The other thing is the LS9 cam should be able to pass smog . I had this combo in the car for 38,000 miles now and realy like the way it works just enough pull all the way to rev limiter to keep me happy .

Now before drag racing guys with the ,my car make a 1,000,000 hp and you should have put this cam in your car BS starts. I done 10 motor form the ground up I have try 20 cam shaft in these engines I know exactly how I want my DD car motor to work . The LS9 cam did exactly what I wanted it to do and lets leave at that .

[maraging]

My head just exploded.

[WHAMMO]

It is not underpowered because if it is, 95% of all cars are. A car that does the 1/4 in the high 12s@110mph is pretty good. BUT, in a perfect world, 100lbs less and 50hp more.

So with all boltons the car is very potent. As fast as a stock Stingray, or freaking close.

For me, a 'fast car' on the street is over 500hp, like 550-650++. My 1LE is around 480hp and feels nice and I had a 700hp+ Camaro before (another level I'd say though).

[Punk_rider]

THe 1LE destroys 99% of the cars you might see within a day.
Underpowered? Well, maybe for red light to red light pushing ... but once you push the car really hard, on nice twisty roads, the car has way enough power to ... kill you.

Once you start to complain about the car not being that fast, I feel it's the very moment you're starting to be dangerous because too used to the power and not focused enough on your driving

Even Nascar or F1 drivers do not drive 800hp daily drivers ...

[Hilflos]

Well not all of them anyhow;
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2008/12/0...e-on-the-road/

I think you make a pretty good point though Punk_rider. The cars we drive, straight out of the showroom, have sufficient power to kill us in an instant if we screw up, or something goes catastrophically wrong. Speaking for myself, it's part of the reason I'm not shooting for more than five hundred wheel horse power, if that much.

Then again, I don't see anyone advocating approaching driving these cars, or treating these cars with anything less than respect. We drive high performance vehicles, and like anything else that has the potential to be dangerous, familiarity can lead to discounting that danger. That they're dangerous is part of why they provide a thrill though. So, as long as it's approached with an appropriate degree of respect, a bit more power doesn't represent exponentially more danger.

As a group, we're also, I would think, more likely than the average person to go to high performance driving events, courses, and classes, simply to experience these cars t something approaching their limit. I've gone to a couple of these sorts of things in much more average cars than the one I'm currently in.

[GONIF]

Originally Posted by Punk_rider

THe 1LE destroys 99% of the cars you might see within a day.
Underpowered? Well, maybe for red light to red light pushing ... but once you push the car really hard, on nice twisty roads, the car has way enough power to ... kill you.

Once you start to complain about the car not being that fast, I feel it's the very moment you're starting to be dangerous because too used to the power and not focused enough on your driving

Even Nascar or F1 drivers do not drive 800hp daily drivers ...

FYI...............http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...yjnCGey1bvtsMA

[GONIF]

And ......http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...UOShDWlcb3sZPg

[LT1Zob]

You take these cars to a track (circut not drag) and you turn off all nannies, you will gain a newfound respect for its power if you're anything like 90% of people who own these. The other 10%, who know how to handle this car without any assists, have the right to complain about the need for more hp. Fortunatly, most of us are weekend warriors. I've had the pleasure of talking one on one with some developers and test drivers of the 1LE. Pound for pound, price and all, I feel they underpromised and overdelived with the 1LE. No offense, but I feel that it's only a SS in name, having driven various SS's without 1LE packages. Best $3,500 performance package on the market from any factory.

[Electric]

Try telling Miata and BRZ owners that Camaro is underpowered! When was the last time you saw a car that can out-accelerate yours, randomly on the street?

It has plenty of power to enjoy it in every way possible, and plenty of power to outran most other sports cars under $80k. How in the world is that underpowered???

Off course I want as much power as I can get, but I think being able to buy a band new well rounded 400+HP car for under $40k is amazing.

[Punk_rider]

Originally Posted by GONIF

FYI...............http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...yjnCGey1bvtsMA

They own these cars, do they daily drive it? Is a Mc laren their "general purpose" vehicle? Do these guys bring their kids school or go for family afternoon shopping in these cars? I don't say I know they don't, but I do feel they do not.

At least, these guys have the skills. It's checked, it's proven.

C'mon, we're talking here about 430hp! I'm pretty sure there are good drivers here, but I also feel there are many people on forums who see them better than they actually are.

I don't want to offense anyone, nor play the guy who is wiser or smarter than others.

But if power is fun, it also kills. And you get used to everything. I've driven Ferraris. When you first step into the gas pedal, you think "wow"! after like 2 hours of driving, you're not that impressed anymore. You get used to everything and I'm pretty sure daily driving a Mc Laren would make people think "maybe it's a little underpowered" ...

+ a good car is a set up. Adding power might break the set up and decrease the car's quality. More is not always better.

though I understand the "underpowered" feeling, I also think we'd feel the car underpowered if we were daily driving it with 50 more hp.

The power war is getting ridiculous. where will it end? 2000hp cars in year 2050?

I also know a lot of american racing culture is into straight line. Unfortunately, on normal roads, you also have turns!