Do we really need 300kw/500nm+ for a daily driver?

Do we really need 300kw/500nm+ for a daily driver?
yes, i do need a V8. i live rural, so i get stuck behind a lot of slow farmers, who never seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. they're worse than L platers, because Learners go slow enough to overtake easily.

besides. i've worked hard to buy this darn thing. i've earned the privilege of driving it!

I was just having a chat with a mate about this recently. On suburban/city roads and freeways, anything over 300kws will probably never be completely used when driving a vehicle within all the road laws.

For me, I think a bolt on only 6L was plenty of power. I now have a cam in that 6L with well over 300kw. Will I use all the power locally? Hell no. Do I need it? Nope.

Its nothing more than a good talking point in my opinion.

But is it fun? Fark yes!

living in canberra 330rwkws is great. most of the roads are 80km/h and 2 lanes but when i drive up to sydney its not fun with all the traffic. if i lived in sydney the senator would be a weekend car. theres never really too much traffic in canberra and all the open roads around the place.

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Originally Posted by NickS

Inter-state and country roads is where 300kW+ and 500nm+ is a MUST ... I can drive a V6 Commy hire car around the city and it's plenty, more than enough. However when I have a V6 hire car on 80 / 90 / 100 km/h roads that's where you really notice the serious lack of grunt. You put your foot down in an ecotec at 100km/h and nothing happens, overtaking is downright scary ... 6ltrs plus and overtaking is a piece of cake!

Daily driving around town ... don't "need" big engines. Open road driving ... I'd refuse to drive without a very healthy V8!

:yup:

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Ecotec has enough grunt for passing, not scary at all for me. I'd consider modern Australian sixes such as Ford’s six and turbo four have enough. On country roads I’m conservative, generally waiting for passing lane or enough time to pass while keeping reasonable pace.

Years ago friend and I did Melb to Surfers and back. We drove JD Camira 1.6 5-spd manual. That had enough. That was a different time, 150Kw would of been considered allot and lighter cars. Go to the 60’s the Mini was quickly little car.

If I did mostly country driving I’d more inclined to have a V8. Plenty of grunt on tap for when you need it. Something like a SS or Caprice would be a great car for travelling country roads

If you come from a car with allot of power a six probably feels under powered compared to what you are used to. 300+ Kw cars are in the minority. All depends what you are used to how powerful a car feels.

it's all about the torques or else you'd think 190kw 3.0L SIDI was on par with a 165/185KW 5.0

Imagine playing trumps ....... Holden VE Omega call 190kw's trumps VS SS ....... :doh:

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Originally Posted by Swordie

Ecotec has enough grunt for passing, not scary at all for me. I'd consider modern Australian sixes such as Ford’s six and turbo four have enough. On country roads I’m conservative, generally waiting for passing lane or enough time to pass while keeping reasonable pace.

Years ago friend and I did Melb to Surfers and back. We drove JD Camira 1.6 5-spd manual. That had enough. That was a different time, 150Kw would of been considered allot and lighter cars. Go to the 60’s the Mini was quickly little car.

If I did mostly country driving I’d more inclined to have a V8. Plenty of grunt on tap for when you need it. Something like a SS or Caprice would be a great car for travelling country roads

If you come from a car with allot of power a six probably feels under powered compared to what you are used to. 300+ Kw cars are in the minority. All depends what you are used to how powerful a car feels.

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+1, I can relate to that.
Years ago...MANY years ago, a mate & I went to Qld in his, what was then, a fairly good car...an EH 179 S/W.....it was plenty fast enough....we sat on around 70/75 MPH most of the way.....no big deal, plenty of people did, it was a pretty normal cruising speed......can't do it now though, in cars that are 4 times more powerful, and a lot safer......not that I'd want to drive to Qld in an EH now!
Cheers, Pickles.

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Originally Posted by Swordie

Ecotec has enough grunt for passing, not scary at all for me. I'd consider modern Australian sixes such as Ford’s six and turbo four have enough. On country roads I’m conservative, generally waiting for passing lane or enough time to pass while keeping reasonable pace.

Years ago friend and I did Melb to Surfers and back. We drove JD Camira 1.6 5-spd manual. That had enough. That was a different time, 150Kw would of been considered allot and lighter cars. Go to the 60’s the Mini was quickly little car.

If I did mostly country driving I’d more inclined to have a V8. Plenty of grunt on tap for when you need it. Something like a SS or Caprice would be a great car for travelling country roads

If you come from a car with allot of power a six probably feels under powered compared to what you are used to. 300+ Kw cars are in the minority. All depends what you are used to how powerful a car feels.

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Currently i drive and E63 AMG as my daily driver and VE SSV camed both cars have over 300rwk. I recently went to New Zeland and hired a 2012 sv6 which has 210 kw and 350nm. On the country roads i did 2000kms in 7 days and did a lot of overtaking. The Sv6 had enough power for normal curising sure, but when it came to overtaking it was a slug and slow off the mark, it was very fustrating to overtake and i had to time it to be make sure i didnt kill myself ...lol V8 for over taking all the way :)

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Originally Posted by gmeup

Currently i drive and E63 AMG as my daily driver and VE SSV camed both cars have over 300rwk. I recently went to New Zeland and hired a 2012 sv6 which has 210 kw and 350nm. On the country roads i did 2000kms in 7 days and did a lot of overtaking. The Sv6 had enough power for normal curising sure, but when it came to overtaking it was a slug and slow off the mark, it was very fustrating to overtake and i had to time it to be make sure i didnt kill myself ...lol V8 for over taking all the way :)

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Im with you on the power needed to overtake, the problem you get, is your sitting behind someone doing 90km/h in a 100km/h zone you hit the loud pedal to overtake....what speed do you usually hit when you pull back in?.....This is the worry for me :) and we all know murphys law, when we overtake the boys in blue pop out of no where!!

Sometimes, too much power is not good especially when you can start walking 25km/h and over, well especially here in the Nanny state!!

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Originally Posted by WM HSV Grange

Im with you on the power needed to overtake, the problem you get, is your sitting behind someone doing 90km/h in a 100km/h zone you hit the loud pedal to overtake....what speed do you usually hit when you pull back in?.....This is the worry for me :) and we all know murphys law, when we overtake the boys in blue pop out of no where!!

Sometimes, too much power is not good especially when you can start walking 25km/h and over, well especially here in the Nanny state!!

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I couldnt agree more. A while ago I was behind 4 trucks on hume highway, the rear one started dropping rocks and rubbish all over road and into front off ss.
When I got a chance to pass i had shits and opened her up in fourth, by time i passed all four of them I was at top of fourth. All I needed was boys in blue to pop up and it woulda been goodbye vy...

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Originally Posted by vy2ttr

I couldnt agree more. A while ago I was behind 4 trucks on hume highway, the rear one started dropping rocks and rubbish all over road and into front off ss.
When I got a chance to pass i had shits and opened her up in fourth, by time i passed all four of them I was at top of fourth. All I needed was boys in blue to pop up and it woulda been goodbye vy...

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If they could ever catch u ;)

I drove a couple of lads back from the upper Hunter one day in the ole Clubby. Travelling in lane one of two dual lane (overtaking road), one lane the other way. We were doing the speed limit and cruised up behind a truck in lane one, and a 4WD travelling behind in lane one. I moved to lane two (at the speed limit) to overtake both 4WD and Truck. When I approached 4WD 'she' decided this was the time to pull out to overtake truck. I was forced into oncoming traffic. Right floot planted, redsled kicked back to 2nd, hell broke loose, and I narrowly avoided a head on killing myself and (at least) three others. If I was in a 4 or 6 banger, I (and others) would be a statistic. Enough reason for me, and my family. 300kw and 500nm saved my life.

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Originally Posted by HSVREDSLED

I drove a couple of lads back from the upper Hunter one day in the ole Clubby. Travelling in lane one of two dual lane (overtaking road), one lane the other way. We were doing the speed limit and cruised up behind a truck in lane one, and a 4WD travelling behind in lane one. I moved to lane two (at the speed limit) to overtake both 4WD and Truck. When I approached 4WD 'she' decided this was the time to pull out to overtake truck. I was forced into oncoming traffic. Right floot planted, redsled kicked back to 2nd, hell broke loose, and I narrowly avoided a head on killing myself and (at least) three others. If I was in a 4 or 6 banger, I (and others) would be a statistic. Enough reason for me, and my family. 300kw and 500nm saved my life.

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Agree....Like I said, on Country roads....yep, gotta have the BIG engine,.....but.....around the city.....I don't need it.
I'm going up into the Mallee next week, & on to Berri, then down to Adelaide.....I'm really gonna enjoy those country roads...puts a smile on my face (& wifey's) just thinking about it.
Cheers, Pickles.

Heading through here are you? Just watch out between mildura and renmark as they tend to patrol that road a bit!

Do we "need" this sort of grunt?
Absolutely not.
People just want it. As they are entitled to...as long as they behave.
A common theme to justifying the "need" for it is the "safety" aspect of spending less time on the wrong side of the road overtaking. The reality is more like it enables impatient or particularly confident drivers to take on options that inherently have more risk attached. Whilst true that you might spend less time on the wrong side of the road, one could (correctly) argue that the thought process behind making that riskier decision to begin with is flawed. Seriously, what's the rush?
Perhaps a chill pill in this rushed world is a much better option than "needing" powerful cars to take advantage of small gaps in traffic hey...

You only live once. And when the cash flow is there why the hell not.. I've been driving V8s since my Ps. 7 v8 cars since 1998... Plenty more to come...