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I can already sense the gnashing of teeth, so before you beat your chests in frustration, bear with me a bit...

Let's consider this from a few angles:

The daily driver-
For almost five years now, I've been driving a 2009 Civic Sedan. Not the Si, the plain model with an automatic transmission. The 1.8L engine makes 140 hp at 6,300 RPMs. If I don't have any passengers or cargo and I mash it, I can barely get it to 60mph in under 10 seconds. That's an eternity compared to what most cars on the road these days are capable of. But here's the thing- I rarely break 4k RPMs, and I can only think of one time in the last several months that I got close to the top of that power curve at 6,300. You're probably imagining a guy that rolls around going with the flow while thinking about anything but driving. That isn't me. I'm not an angry driver, but I do tend to be assertive. When a light turns green at an intersection, I'm almost always the quickest off the line (without racing), and on the highway, I'm usually one of the fastest vehicles on the road. I casually glide by everyone else, and I'm doing it while rarely putting down more than 80 hp.

The hauler-
My first love was a 1985 Ford F-150. It was a long bed with a 302 and an auto. Wiki says it made 190 hp and 285 ft-lb of torque, but by the time I got behind the wheel of her, she was almost 20 years old and well abused. It wasn't in good shape, and sometimes I was just happy to make it wherever I was going. You can load a lot of crap into an 8 foot bed, and I did. Many times. The suspension was actually in decent shape, but I still overloaded it a few times. And yet, no matter how much weight I had loaded, I rarely had to run the engine hard to pull it. On the exception of busy interchanges and uphill on ramps, I didn't need to run up the RPMs to get my load moving. The majority of the time I spent running that old V8 hard had less to do with me trying to get something done and more to do with the fact that I was a teenager hooning and old truck.

The fun car-
Driving isn't all about business. This year, I bought the first car I've ever bought strictly for the joy of driving. I chose the Mazda Miata, and I dug up a decent 1994 example on Craigslist. This summer has brought me the best weather I ever remember, and I've been out driving in it quite a bit. I've put almost 3k miles on it, and I haven't used it for a single commute. All of that is driving for the sake of driving, and I've had a lot of fun. My car made 131 hp when it was new, and it's not. It could probably also benefit from a fresh coil pack and a timing adjustment. Unlike the Civic, I've had this old Miata up in the higher RPM range quite a bit. It revs nicely, and I like the added responsiveness when going through curves at questionable speeds. I've taken this car to the limits of its traction. I've taken it to the limit of my own testicular fortitude. There hasn't been a single time when I thought it could use more power. The limit holding me back is almost always somewhere else.

I can think of one area where power is as crucial as the hype around it, and it's the drag strip and other long straights without limits on speed. It's the reason kickass cars like the new Dodge Hellcat exist, and I respect that. But I am starting to find myself baffled by the emphasis on power that runs everywhere else in the market. Why the hell are appliances like the Camry and the Altima sold with 270 hp engines? Why do internet parrots banter on about the old GM Vortec 5300s and Ford Modular 5.4s as "underpowered?" What couldn't they move that wouldn't have called for a diesel with HD suspension anyways? And why are buying $25k econoboxes that don't send any power to the rear wheels?

Outside of the drag strip, the horsepower wars have little purpose. Manufacturers are working to make their vehicles more and more powerful to get the biggest numbers for a year or two instead of focusing on the things that would make their cars better in actual use.

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http://youtu.be/_vpkuElwpBk

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If you put one of these on your Honda, and paint it primer gray, it will go faster.

https://meta.discourse.org/uploads/meta_discourse/1885/42a57a3684325b55.jpg

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You're right OP.  

I have a vehicle with damn near as much HP as your honda, and I get along just fine

It's a hayabusa

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Torque.




Or something...



I didn't even read.

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A lot of things will affect how responsive and 'peppy' a vehicle is.  HP alone is, usually, meaningless.

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People actually do like power in their cars.  They just don't like to "floor it".

Sounds odd but it is true.  People want a car that can accelerate hard with little throttle because people still believe flooring it is "bad" for the engine.  A 270hp engine at 10% throttle moves a hell of a lot faster than a 100hp engine at 10% throttle.

I need to ask for 50-60% of my Miata in order to keep up with a new Camry leaving a light at a normal pace.  To other people that seems underpowered.  In actuality, as long as I don't need more than 100% for a situation, nothing is underpowered at all.

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a friend took me for a ride in a pretty good cobra replica once. i have owned plenty of  sport bikes and i can tell you, this Cobra was FUCKING FAST! biggest rush ever. you should try it once. you might get it then.

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You're a strange bird.  This thread, and many others like it, especially as it relates to cars and guns, reinforces this thought.   Just because you can't think of any reason that 400+ HP in a daily driver can be a good thing, doesn't mean no one else can.

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Torque.
Or something...







I didn't even read.

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One of the locals has an Aluminum LS3 in his NB. He claims the car actually lost weight with the swap.

That combo (properly supported with brakes and tires) would change your mind for sure.

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LOL

My motorcycle has more HP than your cars

Quoted:
Torque.




Or something...



I didn't even read.

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LOL

My motorcycle has more HP than your cars

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I disagree. My slow car is a 2013 STi.

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If, for some reason, I had a spare LS engine and some Corvette parts lying about, I'd build a Factory Five GSM out of them and not bother with trying to shove them in a Miata.