HP increases in production cars compared to racers of a few years ago

[Rollo]

I own some Ford shares (not many) and I admire Ford for what it's done over the past few years. So I'd really like to buy a Ford vehicle at some point. If they'd just put a hot 4 or 6 cylinder turbo (300hp +) in a good, sporty, SMALLER, daily driver car (like the Focus or whatever), make it AWD (which I HAVE to have at this point) and sell it for less than $35 grand... maybe we could talk.

Such a car exists... and it's the Ford Focus.
http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/NewFocusRS
Ford Focus RS - 305bhp - £27,895 which equates to 42,132.52 USD. Mind you, there's probably more tax paid on the car in the UK there would be in the US.
Ford has been promising the Focus RS to the USA for some time...

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/04/06/r...-next-gen-for/
Could the North American market finally get the Ford Focus RS? According to the latest reports, it could happen. But not until after the next-generation model debuts in a couple of years.

Aw well.

[Daniel]

It's not though

[Daniel]

not awd even....

[markabilly]

Which is part of the problem in the car market. As people buy cars that make them "look like manly man" rather than that what suits their needs best.

good point eki....er I mean mark....

[wedge]

Saw an ad here on the website about the new Mustang, 5.0 liter car, with 412 HP and 400 lbs of torque.............and 26 mpg

and some here, might say, well so what??



In 1967, the Cosworth ford 3.0 liter v-8, was setting the standard for HP and the V-12 Westlake -eagle was challenging it, with the V-8 sprewing forth a rumored 410 to 425 HP over the maybe 390 HP of the v-12...

along with less than 300lbs of torque. This was enough to dominate the f1 world, and destroy all real competition as the westalke died from lack of reliability and ferrari could never beat it....

and that was with full racing exhausat--no muffler, no pollution controls, no catalytic converter, lousy gas mileage (remember Clark ran out at Monza) and at a price that was about 25k 1967 american dollars (which would be what???a 100k now????)....a rebuild after a few miles, like maybe 1500 miles???

So I am no expert on current cars, and I am sure folks like Easy can point to better engines, of lesser capacity, even doing bettter than these Mustang figures, but still, it suddenly dawned on me that there has been an amazing increase in performance in production engines in the last few years....

and pretty much taken for granted by everyone.....

I still wish I had a lotus type 49.....

Rip Van Winkle

[edv]

I thought this thread was going to be about Hewlitt-Packard!?!

M'billy...doesn't matter about the bhp or mpg....It's STILL a Ford.

Fails
On
Race
Day

[markabilly]

FIX OR REPAIR DAILY
FOUND ON ROAD DEAD

Never heard of a rip van winkle car...

[Jag_Warrior]

not awd even....

Not AWD? Well, that would be a problem. As a daily, year around driver, it has to be AWD. I wouldn't mind a Focus RS (is that the Cosworth Edition that I've heard of?), but it has to meet that criteria: AWD. Otherwise I'll look at another WRX or possibly an Evo. For the money, both are very hard to beat.

[donKey jote]

Not AWD? Well, that would be a problem. As a daily, year around driver, it has to be AWD. I wouldn't mind a Focus RS (is that the Cosworth Edition that I've heard of?), but it has to meet that criteria: AWD. Otherwise I'll look at another WRX or possibly an Evo. For the money, both are very hard to beat.

it´s only FWD but is more fun than usual thanks to some fancy limited-slip diff or other... however it won´t beat the year around traction from AWD if that´s what you´re after

[Mark in Oshawa]

Which is part of the problem in the car market. As people buy cars that make them "look like manly man" rather than that what suits their needs best.

Well in North America, with fuel being cheaper, you can afford to drive pickups, v8's and the like. At least that is what people are thinking. Personally, i have driven nothing but 4 cylinders most of my life and I find the price of filling up a 15 gallon tank with a v6 rather more than I like.

After driving 425 to 475 HP big rigs for 14 years, the novelty of what I drive isn't quite the same. I would love to have a fast car or a high performance car, but failing that, a car is just a tool that gets me to where I need to go....and I am pretty good with whatever Is economical and comfortable. A vehicle that fits my 6'2" frame is my main priority......