BHP - What Difference does it make ?

[markt4]

Hiya,

I was wondering - i was reading the thread about the integra with 250 odd bhp and was wondering what difference does the amount of HP make ?

I have a caddilac Cien with 970 BHP - is this good or could the performance be imroved with a lower BHP ?

What differences performance wise does the BHP make

Cheers guys

Markt4

 

[Greycap]

Erm... so you're asking what's the importance of the horsepower figures?

In short, more bhp = more power = more acceleration and speed, with the downside of traction and other handling problems.

Performance can sometimes be even improved by lowering the bhp figure (very overpowered cars only) as the car may become easier to drive and the power can be transferred to the road in a more efficient way but generally the best performance is achieved by using the highest possible power.

- R -

 

[markt4]

Erm... so you're asking what's the importance of the horsepower figures?

In short, more bhp = more power = more acceleration and speed, with the downside of traction and other handling problems.

Performance can sometimes be even improved by lowering the bhp figure (very overpowered cars only) as the car may become easier to drive and the power can be transferred to the road in a more efficient way but generally the best performance is achieved by using the highest possible power.

- R -

Ok mate cheers - so is it good that most of my cars have 500+ BHP ?

 

[slider-s15]

yes as long as they have the tires to match.

power to weight is genarlly the most important thing for a competitive car.
(thats how much power for the weight it has to carry) this can be checked from one of the scroll down menu's (i use the one which defaults on power so it dosn't rearange them) the lower the better.

power to weight is usually the most important. (2.5 ish and under is usually competitive)

 

[G.T]

Ok mate cheers - so is it good that most of my cars have 500+ BHP ?

Not always. As Greycap said, it depends on how much grip the car will have afterwards.

For example, Front Wheel Drive cars like the Honda Integra will be almost uncontrolable with 500bhp (and you'll find it probably can't be modded up to that power anyway, because of that reason), as it will constantly have wheel spin by not being able to put the power down to the road. A Nissan Skyline R34, though, will be able to handle the amount of power easily with it being 4 Wheel Drive and being able to handle the power anyway, with the right modifications, like better tyres, gearbox etc.

It's trail and error, really. Some cars take power easily, some become a mess. Experiementation or looking around this GT4 forum with modifications people have done (particularly here) is the only way to know what will happen. Tuning and experiementation is one big thing in GT4 alone.

 

[markt4]

Thanks Guys

much appreciated

 

[GT Pro]

If you have any other auto-technical questions (which I'm sure you do), just go to Wikipedia.com, It's a big help.

Nevertheless, an alternative to high power figures has always been what Colin Chapman strived for; ultra-lightweight sports cars, In which no loss in performance in the car is comprimised.

Try a fully modified Nissan BNR32 or BNCR33, and then try a fully modified Lotus Elise, and see which you prefer.

 

[SUROKIA]

Bcnr33

 

[Alfaholic]

The question has been answered well, but here are two practical examples I can relate:

My Alfa 147GTA with max power (about 420bhp) is about two seconds per lap faster around Tsukuba on N2s to what it is standard. It's very difficult to drive and there is hardly a single point on the circuit where I can use full throttle, so some of the power is wasted. My Focus RS has also been maxxed but handles the power a little better. So much for FWD.

I also started a project with an Alfa Giulia GTA (the RWD one) to find the effects of various mods. It lapped faster with max engine upgrades (around 250bhp from about 120 stock) but again had more power than it could handle on N2 tyres. Performance gain was about 2 secs per lap for an expenditure of somewhere near 100000 credits. Chief problem is wheelspin of inside wheel without a slippy diff.

So, power gave a better lap but worse cornering. I would say I was slower in the corners because I had to manage the throttle whereas on standard bhp I could floor it at the apex.

To put this in perspective: I gained 1.5 seconds per lap by leaving everything standard and then installing a racing clutch and flywheel, and (I think) carbon fibre propshaft / driveshafts or whatever it was. So no engine changes, no lightening, no tyre changes, no gearbox cahnges, no brake changes. Total expenditure for this gain was under 20000 credits and all the time gained was due to higher speeds on the straights because the gear changes were faster, and improved braking times because, I guess, for some reason engine braking was more effective. The car was certainly much better on the brakes.

So more BHP = faster laps because of straight line performance, but it's usually not the cheapest way.