Quote:
Originally Posted by 396ssrat
Why the heel are they making engines with more than 300hp if all you want to do is turn? Just make them lighter and you can turn all you want. My entire point was that the Corvette should come with 800+ hp. At the least as an option. GM is restricted to DOT regulations thus the tires they sell the car with however, the end user can put on whatever he chooses. The AWD comparison is just silly.
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There is a much more complicated answer to the question of why not just stop at 300BHP and take away weight. Things that sell are things like bigger numbers and more space, after all in the US the city car is out sold by the sub compact which is out sold by the compact all the way to the mid sized sedan (seems to be the sweet spot). The same thing is true with CUVs where all the way up to the mid sized region sales go up, so in a market where people buy size and bigger numbers (higher HP ratings) are more desirable then lower ones its hard to sell a lot of Miata's and GT86 let alone something like a Lotus Elise which weigh as little as 1,900 pounds.
Dodge probably sells more 4,500 pound 707BHP Hellcats then Lotus sells 2,000 pound Elise. This is why BMW naming scheme puts the cheaper cars at lower numbers and the more expensive cars at higher numbers. In other words the BMW 2 series cost less then the BMW 7 series and why the BMW 320 cost less then the BMW 340.
With that added space for more of your stuff comes more weight, and going from 300BHP and 800BHP suddenly your entire driveline has to get beefed up along with bigger/wider wheels and tires and brakes to slow everything down. That is how you go from a 2,200 pound 150BHP Miata to a 3,500 pound 460BHP Corvette and so on.