Just for giggles, I switched one of my SG-II gauges to show horsepower today. And I did giggle. What I thought was a "hard" start from a light to 45mph required a whopping 60hp. A more typical acceleration in snarled traffic was in the 30-35hp range. I'll have to play with this on the highway to see where power demand peaks. I bet I'll still think this engine is absurdly overpowered. Anybody else played this game? Want to? I'm curious what others come up with in their daily drivers.
Try cruising up a relatively steep, long hill on an Interstate at typical Interstate traffic speeds of today, against a headwind. That circumstance is about the highest power requirement anybody can reasonably claim to "need," short of towing a heavy trailer up the same hill, or making the mistake of pulling in front of fast traffic that's too close behind you.
I'll check mine next time I drive , probably Monday. I might use as much as 30-35 HP when getting on the expressway.
I spend almost no time over 25 hp in the Prius. Same for the CR-V, only because it rarely sees the highway.
D'oh ! Me too. I'm afraid I will see as much as 40 HP when I am getting on the expressway. If I am awake enough at 6:15 when I do that tomorrow I will check.
0-55 at 50% tps ( harder than I usually accelerate) peaked at 167hp 55 Steady with ac on - 40's HP Idle settled at 9 hp
I found I need 40 HP to get onto the expressway safely , but if I'm careful I can drive everywhere else with no more than 30 HP. I think I may need to leave HPR displayed on the gauge for a while. I took LOD off to show HPR.
Emma (2001 Jetta 2.0 4spd auto gasser) rarely gets above 30 hp. HOWEVER, last week her CEL flashed a few times, indicating a misfire. After consulting with my VW guru, he suggested she may have slurped some water from condensation overnight from an empty tank. He told me to drive her WOT and try to replicate the misfire (I was cruising up a steep 1.5 mile hill with my kiddos at 16TPS, about 40 mph when the flashing occurred). So I drove Emma unlike I have ever driven her before. I took her for a 20-mile adventure, racing up hills and taking her RPMs close to 6000. She ran like a champ, easily reaching 100 mph and handled great. Our adventure culminated in our return to the aforementioned 1.5 mile steep uphill, where I drove her at 95 TPS, hit 90 MPH and HPR hit 108. Her max horsepower is 115. The misfire did not return and all her systems are go. While many laugh at our hypermiling ways, the fact that my 13 year old 167k mile car can perform like this is a testament to the benefits of maintenance and deliberate, active driving. Oh, and surprisingly, what with the crazy-long glides after hitting such high speeds, Emma still averaged over 31 MPG on the trip!
