i'd like to know your opinions on horsepower for a camaro on the street.
how much is too much for a daily driver? (or as close to as one)
i'm going to build a 383 and im fluxuating between 425-500 desired horsepower.

i mean i have a lumina that i can drive as well, but i'd like to drive the camaro as much as possible. maybe if i got a triumph i'd add even more power to the camaro and not worry about it being my daily driver.

are there any of you guys that have high horsepower cars that are your daily driver or are driven often, few times a week?

and last, is there anything else to take into account besides gas mileage?

 

I Have a 12 second daily driver...well I just drive it on the weekends.....The cam range is one of your biggest factors...For a street driver I wouldn't go out and get a monster cam needing a 4000rpm stall, get something that works, but still will be manageable on street...like a 2500-3000rpm stall with a cam matching that range....of course there is a millions different opinions/factors/and ways to built it.....main thing....make it your own. but look at my signature below...I drive mine around and it runs great...use the A/C in the summer, and still get okay mileage, and is A blast to drive!!

also....you'll horsepower range is about right for a fast streetable car, but that will be at motor...if you want that at the wheels might be tougher. Just my opinion though.

 

im looking at those trick flow top end kits mostly. idr of the top of my head but they have like, 400, 445, 465, 490, 500 horsepower

 

One of the biggest deciding factors of streetability is what your deffinition of streetability is. What may be unnacceptable to you may be fine to someone else. Generally speaking its not so much a hp number but the range of RPMs that the motor is designed to perform in. For a street car you want that range to be in the realitivly low range. In my oppinion I would say no more than 2000-6000. Now i get what your sayin about how much hp is too much with respect to a given displacement. For example to get 425 streetable hp out of a 305 may not be such a streetable combo where as 425 from a 454 can be very streetable. Now for downsides to "high hp" motors is unfortunetly not limited to poor gas mileage. You can run into issues with low vacuum not allowing you to run the power brakes. Throttle responce is reduced as you shift the power band further up into the RPMs. Gas may be an issue if your running high compression. Low end torque willl suffer as you shift the power band to the higher RPM. Also dont forget about the added stress on the driveline. There are other hidden driveability issues as well that kinda very by application. For example the lack of a heat cross over in many heads/ intakes can make driveability on cold starts and running while the cars cold decrease. The reason is the exhaust cross over helps warm up the intake. Theres the cooling system to attend to. More performance = more heat and if not dealt with can cause overheating. High stall speeds can cause the trans to not lock up on highway cruseing again generating heat that must be dealt with. Highway driveing if you use a steep rear end which is required by big cams can also make you scream away at 65 mph. Theres alot of things commonly over looked in high hp motors so you see alot of people seeking 500 hp 350s but it only works that way in magaziens (excluding power adders). Personally i usally recomend building a high torque motor because in a street car thats what youll be best able to use. Also i hear time and time again "that feels like 400 hp" because there is a common missconceptions about what HP "feels" like as hp is just a measure of the amount of work that can be done its not a physical thing where as torque is an actual measure of force. One of my favorite examples are the old 400/455 firebirds. They only produced what low mid 200 hp but drive one and youll be quite supprised as it leaves a trail of smoke and crushes you into the seat. Youde never guess that it only produced 200-300 hp. Now for a drag race this is where hp really matters but street cars that see the track maby once a year if that isnt worth the sacrafice in my oppinion.

 

thanks a lot this is pretty much what i was looking for.
and im sure with each of those problems you mentioned there are solutions to them. well now again i might settle on the kit that makes 465 HP and 450 ft-lbs or torque or the one that makes 445 HP and 405 ft-lbs of torque.

and as for a converter im thinking about the B&M Tork master 2000. 1,900-2100 RPM stall. i'd be putting in 3.73 gears in the rear. i'll look into that transgo kit for the trans.

does this seem streetable?

i suppose my definition of streetable is im able to drive it all the time without worrying about something breaking. i can drive it easy, just cruising around town and the highway, as well as beat the crap out of it somewhat often

 

Well to some problems there are solutions and to some there are not. For example the throttle responce will just be one of thoes nature of the beast problems because as runner volumes increase to flow more to support high end hp low end air velocities decrease. On the other hand things like increased motor temps can be dealt with if the cooling system is revamped. Do you have any links to these kits to see them online? I say this because alot of is it streetable depends on the parts that go into it and i think the stall speed might be a bit low. So well really need to know the cam specs ect to make any kind of educated guess. Also we need to know what RPMs thoes peek numbers occure at if it produced 450 torque at 6k rpms thats not so good where as if it was down at 2000 that would be much better in terms of driveability.

 

theres this one

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku


andd this one

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...0&autoview=sku

 

also build your motor first...the match your stall speed, transmission, tire height, and rear end to match....don't build it backwards...

 

The 460 hp kit is quite a bit better for a street car. The 445 one has a huge cam and when you look at the dyno results you see the low end torque is pretty lacking for a 383 and its building hp till the very end of the graph probably even more if they ran it further but when you take into account the rev limit it does you no good anyways. The other kit on the other hand has much better low end torque and peeks out at about 6k meaning youll get to use everything you make. Is it the best kit or does a better combo exsist who knows. As far as compareing thoes two goes though the 460 hp kit is much better.

 

oh ok sweet thanks. and yeah as far as those kits, they have a fair amount.

and 91interceptor, i know, i just like to see all my options and possibilities before i commit to something.

and where,how did you get the police package?

 

I found it sitting on a car lot years ago....I already had a '88 iroc, and just wanted to drive the car.....noticed some wierd things about it...roll bar...145 mph speedo in an RS, and also it was a crap load faster than my Iroc...Checked the RPO codes....seen it was a interceptor and traded staight across for it...the interceptor was taken very very good care of....the officer who used to drive it retired and then bought the car from the state troopers....then years later took it down on consignment to that little crappy car lot I got it from....and the rest is history....I pretty much spend every dime I have extra on the thing, and have slowly been building it for years...it's starting to get close to the pictures in my head>>LOL very lucky find...

but on your car...I've seen some people put gears and a stall in there car long before they even build the motor...and seen the combo not work when it's done...just wanted to put that out there and make sure to match everything well....but it sounds like your on the right track to me...and rolling thunder seems to know his stuff well, so you should be alright!! Just make it fun!!!

 

sweet deal! thats really awesome. anything else look different about it? push bar? was it a pursuit car? what color was it?
man i sound like a kid in a candy store lol

but yeah i know what you mean, i plan to do all of that at once. i have the gears and posi sitting in my room and an aluminum driveshaft in my basement.

 

It has a whole ton of stuff not on normall camaros...roll bar..hole for spot light...but outside looks like an RS....used to be black with white roof...but now all black cherry with white stripes...used to be a idaho state police pursuit car...it's pretty sweet.

It's exciting building your car though.....should be fun...I just got a '86 305 iroc for the old lady today...so starting that project for her.

 

If you can drive the car in bumper to bumper trafic without it stalling, overheating or doing unintentional burnouts. Then you can call it a daily driver otherwise tow it to the drag strip.