Does this happen to lots of guys?

While driving to work today I realized I've NEVER owned a car that can top 155-horsepower (and even then I'm stretching it)... Do I lack testicular fortitude?

Here's the highlights (many cars omitted for various reasons, all power ratings from wikipedia of all places)

My first car (free) 1986 Cadillac Cimarron = 130hp

1985 RX-7 12A = 100hp

1986 RX-7 13b= 146hp

1966 Impala (250 I-6) = 155hp (but seriously, this engine is almost 50 years old!)

I think the only time I MAY have topped 155-horsepower was a 350 build I did for my 1977 Chevrolet Scottsdale. I threw on a set of Edelbrock aluminum heads, cam, intake, and performer carb on her. But even then I only owned the truck for like 5 minutes before I had to sell it.

Is there some sort of invisible horsepower wall I'm subconsciously afraid to cross? Is there help for me?

Power corrupts.

You need more LSx. The 5.3 is 270-290hp stock.....

Depending on which engine spec you use for my 'rolla I may not have even broken into the triple digits.

scardeal wrote: Power corrupts.

Keiichi Tsuchiya says it makes you a bad driver

The most powerful car I've ever owned (I'm 60) is probably my MINI CooperS. I did have a company car for a decade and the most powerful of those was a Dodge Magnum Hemi. I've never owned a V8.

On second thought, my Astro is 210 HP I think. That would make it the most powerful.

The length of your hootus isn't proportional to the HP of your car anyway, so don't sweat it !

DeadSkunk wrote: The length of your hootus isn't proportional to the HP of your car anyway, so don't sweat it !

Oh my. This will be a shock.

Look at power-to-weight instead of outright power.

I've had more than my share of cars, so I've had lots with power, but ~300ish seems to be my limit though.

Out of 20 cars I own now the lowest horsepower is the Elantra at 150, I found that amusing

There are worse things. I, for example, have to admit that the fastest (at least in a straight line) and most powerful vehicle I've ever owned is my Honda Odyssey.

The fastest car I have ever owned is my POS 96 Sunfire, 120hp/140 ft lbs IIRC with a 5 speed. Half the cars I have had did not have 3 digit power ratings! Fastest cornering car I have ever drove was a 09 Civic 5 speed, in a straight line would be my Dad's 2000 GMC 5.3 powered luxo truck. The fastest straight line vehicle I have rode in was a Coyote 5.0 powered F-150 luxo truck. Most terrifying is my dads sandrail project, some sort of type 1 dual port port motor(maybe 80 hp) and 1200 lbs, with swing axles. Needs the battery moved up front or something, it will wheelie with little effort..

Factory ratings of 99(88 Accord) and 150(DOHC neons) myself. Most I have driven is 244(V6 Accord)

I've got one car (out of five) with less than 150hp. It was cheap and fun to drive. Then again, 300hp and 300 ft/lbs of torque in a 2000 lb car wins the fun to drive contest in the fleet.

I daily drive a car with 90 hp... and since I get into enough trouble with that lowly amount, that's probably a good thing. The Cummins and my GT6 aren't really any faster. The E30 is, but I when I drive that car, I do tend to be a prick.

The fastest car I've driven was my g/f's old '97 M3. However, in that case general fear of it not being my car kept me in check behind the wheel.

At 42, I still don't think I could ride a motorcycle. The world doesn't need me on something that can go that fast, that easily.

Most powerful and fastest in a straight line I've driven is a 330hp Infiniti G37.

Scariest is my old hand-me-down Daewoo Cielo. POS wouldn't stop worth a damn. Or turn, or go, but the lack of stopping was the scariest part.

Fastest cornering is either my 'rolla or loaner karts.

62, 90, 138, 285 and ??? Bike, Accent (aka turd), Elantra (aka Porky) and the Truck with the vette (aka Barbie) coming in with the question marks. Now,those are all stock power ratings and none of them are still stock.

Hey what's the lightest and heaviest you've driven?

Lightest would be my cousin's little dirtbike, maybe 200-250lbs. Or for four-wheeled vehicles, it would probably be the loaner karts again, maybe 300lbs. Not counting Power Wheels that are <100lbs

Heaviest would be a backhoe around 14,000lbs, or for a regular road vehicle it would be between my dad's X-trail at 3600lbs or a convertible 4runner I test drove that's around the same.

I've owned cars up to 325hp so far, and the most fun to drive car on the street was the '99 Miata. But then the higher-hp cars have all been big ones, like the LS400, '66 Bonneville, etc.

Now, on the track, the race prepped LS400 was amazing. Keiichi Tsuchiya is almost certainly right in that I was a worse driver in the LS400 than I was in the little underpowered Civic, but I was a hell of a lot faster around the track. So take your pick, good driver or fast driver. Fast is fun sometimes too. It's a hell of a lot of fun to pass the "good" drivers on the outside of a turn, or even blast past them on the straight. It's just fun passing cars.

Lightest car driven would be my CRX HF - 1700 or so pounds - and heaviest would be a fully loaded 24' box truck, 25,000 pound GVRW that I'm sure was exceeded, over mountains. Yuck.

230, 230. Both trucks, one 318 one 360.

Would have owned a car with 90 but it got killed by a tree before I could buy it from my mom.

I think my top one is in the low 200's. Don't know if my RX-8 or hopped up old econoline has more (the 302 is rated 185hp stock, though). The van easily has more torque, but it my slowest car i've ever owned. it's also the heaviest over 5,400. R3 is just over 3k, car before that was an old jetta, i think it was 2,700lbs, 115hp. I don't desire more power than the RX8 has. My brother had a 2003 mustang cobra that he has gotten up to around 500hp, it just seemed unbalanced.

My highest rated car I have ever owned is my Civic at 125hp. Most of the vehicles I have owned are rated at under 100 (Midgets, Spitfire, 300TD, Yugo and CT3).

I have topped out at around 160hp (hopped up Corvair), but my gf has an MS3 (270 ish hp), the power is fun. Interestingly enough the two cars have almost exactly the same gearing and get almost exactly the same gas mileage (22ish / 28 ish). Corvair is about 2600lbs, MS3 is around 3200.

I have driven a 400ish HP Dodge Neon SRT.... that was silly. Kind of like an MS3 on crack with serious traction issues!

the Aurora at 250hp and the Supra at 245hp where the most powerful I owned.

On the flip side,

I've also owned an 86 Mustang = 88hp, an 87 MR2 115hp?, and a 76 MGB 60hp?

GameboyRMH wrote: Depending on which engine spec you use for my 'rolla I may not have even broken into the triple digits.

man, I left out a LOT of cars because they didn't make it out of the double digits

Most of my cars have been under 150hp, the most powerful were the WRX and 5.0 Mustang. Next up is the turbo Miata, I have no idea how much power it is making but probably between 150 and 200.