BigMonkey73

If you upgraded your HP incrementally, did you cross a number where you were like "hell yah!" ?

I've upgraded my base and have 520 RWHP now. Car is definitely fun, but I'm wondering just how much more HP I'd need for it to really blow my mind when doing rolling start pulls.

From a complete stop, I can get butterflies consistently..but not if I'm already going 30 or 40MPH.

I'd love to hear your stories and what you had to do to get to reach that oh wow HP level.

sevinn

All the big hp builds out there make me think it's never ending.

dennis50nj

Try a lower gear at 30mph

Z0HS1CK

I felt my friends 550ish rwhp (can't remember his exact dyno number) in his C6 412 stroker.

It pulled HARD. 1st and 2nd gear were useless really. But 3rd and 4th gears were his favorite gears. The sound it generates and the torque you get, you get tunnel vision instantly. I know riding in a fast car and driving a fast car is 2 different experiences obviously. I never drove that car and maybe it wouldn't really be that dramatic if i did, but riding passenger was definitely fun and slightly scary.

I'd imagine if it was my personal car, 600rwhp would be perfect. Anything more in these cars and it's really not worth it unless you're doing it for bragging rights. Hell even 500rwhp in these cars is just fine. But i think 600rwhp will keep you scared and satisfied for a while.

grady

591 at the wheels in mine. It's a slow pig. You get used to the power the first day. At the point of breaking parts beyond your cash or time tolerance would be the point I can see as being too much.

MitchyBobby

Too much is never enough

Dano523

My vet is TM de-holbbled, and has the throttle re-mapped with a tune to put the vet back into more real time drive by cable instead.

So my threshold point would be when the throttle is not longer usable for pushing hard out of a corner (touching the throttle just has the back end braking loose and coming around), and instead would have to go back in to either hobble the motor with the TM again, or desensitize the throttle mapping instead.

So the question real comes to do if you are just looking for arm chair Dyne number, or if you have re-tuned the car correctly so you not fighting the GM tuning to be able to use all the power at will from the start instead.

Bluntly, even a base vet tuned back to it raw state is a lot more power than most guys can use to begin with, and would spend most of the time driving the car with the TC and AH activations light up in the DCI instead.

So before you start adding power with bolt-ons, figure out what GM did to hold the base HP power back from reaching the ground as will and correct that first. Hence 600rwhp is a great number, but not when the ECM is only given you 300hp or less most of the time instead.

And let me put it this way, at 50% gas pedal down, your throttle body vain is only open about 15% and slow getting open to that point as well. Worst, if you take a look at the TM numbers of what is allowed at any given time, the amount of torque allow to reach the tires is way down as well; making the throttle body vain open even slower as well. So yes, on a dyno, the motor will finally get to max RWHP, but its a ECM ramp up thing to get to that final number, instead of the motor allowing all the power to be a instant hit to the wheels/ground instead.

C6-13thPilotCar

721 at wheels and no road has traction.

bobeast

Its a lot like drugs (or so I've heard). You build up a tolerance until you need more and more to be happy.

BigBlue

See that's no fun to me. I've driven some ridiculously powered cars and when you start sliding sideways in 6th gear from the power it just gets down right scary. I like something that I can grab traction if not in 1st then at least in 2nd. Then I can enjoy the pull and feeling from all the power actually making it to the ground. When I was younger I used to want a 700+ monster. Then I realized that driving on ice and always having to be on your absolute best game and thinking on how to apply the pedal isn't that much fun. So really where I'm at power wise is quite nice. 400 at the wheels and it's nice and simple to drive.














With that being said, a cam and long tubes are in my future because let's face it, we are men and there is never such a thing as to much.

napp e roots

^^^^ This

Im at 384 rwhp I'm usually at 4k rpms or slightly above when rolling and she Flys when I mash the gas

Next I want headers and cam hopefully to be around 450 then I think I'll be done
A lot of power but not too much I have traction problems everywhere

t&t moyer

A tricky answer to an equally tricky subject lol. For me 500-550rwhp would be dandy in the C6 platform. But that's just me.......

It turns quickly into a "bottomless pit" if you're not careful

Brandon619

For my little LS2 anything close to 500 rwhp would be perfect. I've owned high horse power cars and they become a novelty after awhile.

HOXXOH

Once you pass the point where you have so much power that you can't get traction, then the fun is gone. There is no HP number where that point is reached.

Premiumspeed

550-600 RWHP is about right.

I've driven a supercharged Cobra with 680 RWHP. It was a lot of fun to drive, but it was a bit of a chore to keep it under control. Extrememly violent at WOT. Traction is pretty much impossible.

My friend has a 09 Z06 with 560 RWHP on motor. It has the perfect balance of smooth driving with an insane screamer at WOT. With drag radials this car flys from a roll. Once it gains traction you are pinned in your seat until you let off the gas.

C U IN REARVEIW

I'm at 585whp and although you do get used to the power relatively quickly. ....anymore power would be pointless unless i went with drag radials. ....and i don't want too due to the fact they handle so poorly.

M M Alexander

I could not have said that better myself -

xBoostx

550 whp and up is starting to get interesting but at 520 you may want to upgrade your diff gear, let's say you have 2.73 gears now moving up to 3.43 will make a word of difference and really wake her up and yes drag radials.

For me is 600 and still be sure footed using Nitto nto5r D/R just got to stay off the rain and never go on the expressway when wet or above 35 mph or risk loosing your car.

lebvette

I wanted 550....got 551/501 torque. Sounds great, runs great. Traction is a problem, tho.

EvanZR1

I'm at 600RW and have had the rears break loose when hammering it in 4th. 1st is useless at anything over 1/2 throttle, 2nd is better but can still break them loose at will, and 3rd still typically has traction issues. Now I'm looking at doing a ZR1 gear ratio in the trans to try and get something that will help with putting power down a little better. I've got a fried with a C6Z06 that has about 530RWHP, and honestly I think his car is about perfect. It puts the power down well, and he's beaten many cars with more HP because of this. I love my car, and wouldn't back off the HP that I have now, but if I had it to do over again, I'd probably shoot for 500-550RW level for a street car.