Chapter 7. Balance of Power, Torque, Weight

I wonder what a good balance of power, torque and weight is? 

The Morgan 3 Wheeler I owned and revered had only 82 horsepower and 102 lb-ft of torque and I still had to try to keep it from spinning rear tires at intersections. It weighed only 1200 pounds and the amount of power and torque was just about right for it. I could enjoy it without breaking speed laws most of the time. It was always a thrilling drive. 

In comparison, more powerful cars like the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio with 505 horses and 450 torques and offered no thrills when driven at speed limits. Quadrifoglio was actually very thrilling but only well beyond posted speed limits. So, in my humble opinion, exceeding speed limits is almost necessary to enjoy a car with such high capabilities and Giulia Quadrifoglio is not even remotely close to being among the most powerful cars these days. Ergo, most sports cars today are completely pointless if the primary use case is to drive on public roads and not exceed speed limits most of the time.

I think that for a driver's car for public roads being close to 1:1:12 proportion can be a pretty good recipe for driving thrills i.e. 

  • 1 part horsepower 
  • 1 part torque (ft-lb) 
  • 12 parts weight

Even more important than the proportions, I feel are the upper and lower limits of power, torque and weight. I definitely think 

  • More than 450 horsepower is too much and just right is closer to 350 hp
  • More than 400 ft-lb of trque is too much and just right is closer to 300 ft-lb
  • More than 3500 lbs of wet weight is too much and ideal is around 2500 lbs

Reflecting back about the power/torque/weight specs of some of my prior enjoyable road cars:


ND Miata's 181 horses were really 150 at 6000 feet elevations, where I live, and it definitely felt under powered. Still enjoyable but definitely lacked power. The other cars like Mini JCW felt felt much more enjoyable being so close to the recipe. 

Boxster GTS 4.0 already has a very good proportion of power, torque and weight. No wonder it feels so enjoyable. At 6000 feet of elevation, it has 322 hp and ~250 ft-lb of torque and 3190 lbs (stock).

It could perhaps shed a little bit of weight especially rotational mass and perhaps gain a little bit of torque and it would be about as close to a perfect driver's car for the road as I can ever hope for.

A ~2900 lbs Boxster with ~290 horsepower and ~270 lb-ft torque at 9000 ft, which happens to be my average driving elevation, is my goal for the ultimate Boxster R. 

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