Do you really need that much Hp in RP?

[redorange]

The sensible answer would be no. But if everyone was sensible, they'd all be driving Getz and Starlet-sized cars. It's a free country, though. Not everyone will have the same tastes. Most buy cars to get from point A to point B. Others buy expensive cars to let others know of their status. Still others buy cars for performance. I don't know where to draw the line at how much hp is enough. There's too many variables to consider.

Personally, I'm one of those who likes spacious midsize sedans with V6's and a minimum of 200 hp. That or a comfortable V6 van with all the passenger amenities. But, I'm also one of those who thinks that I probably won't need a car if my wife and I move to the Philippines (at least for a few years) simply because there's an abundance of public transportation. If we need to go to Manila or something, just get a taxi. That's what we did when we worked out my wife's petition paperwork many years ago.

OT: PI is simply jargon from American GI's (including Pinoys in DoD) who used PI as a term for the Philippines. I've seen that as a navy brat. I've also seen PI used for Philippines on many paperwork. I like RP, though.

Which is why I said going more than 65mph.

OT
Anyways try driving a Crown Vic on the freeway and watch all the cars slow down behind you even if it is a rental. We have an unmarked Crown Vic with the police lights hidden inside and everybody slows down behind us all the time thinking we are CHP. Of course there was one idiot who threw something at it on the freeway and did he get a surprise when the lights were suddenly turned on and he was asked to pull over. CHP was called and he was given a ticket. Lucky he wasn't charged with assault on a fed. officer and destruction of fed. property, I believe both are felonies.

[oldblue]

you'd be surprised how the Veracruz is being sold in a small island like Cebu

[oliver1013]

Kaya dapat dito sa RP 2 or 3 cars per household, isang econo for everyday use isang hindi econo for fun and weekend get aways tsaka isang butaw pang color coding

[clem]

When talking about horse power, I think we should also consider torque, and not just at the crank, but also through out the transmission, and also through the ring gear, then we should factor in the weight of the vehicle, loaded, empty etc. then the road up hill, flat, or down hill, and rpm at what part of the power band is the horse power produced and the torque,
I would also factor in how far it is driven under specific conditions,
If driving a midsize car in manila I would probably want low to mid rpm torque primarily,
In my opinion a car can be great at doing one thing only, for example a rail car built for drag racing can not take turns very well. Define the purpose then define the car.

[topgun]

Which is why I said going more than 65mph.

OT
Anyways try driving a Crown Vic on the freeway and watch all the cars slow down behind you even if it is a rental. We have an unmarked Crown Vic with the police lights hidden inside and everybody slows down behind us all the time thinking we are CHP. Of course there was one idiot who threw something at it on the freeway and did he get a surprise when the lights were suddenly turned on and he was asked to pull over. CHP was called and he was given a ticket. Lucky he wasn't charged with assault on a fed. officer and destruction of fed. property, I believe both are felonies.

what is a crown vic???? are you a fireman, postman or something?? heheheh

[Blackraven]

you'd be surprised how the Veracruz is being sold in a small island like Cebu

Oh shikes. Nakalimutan ko pala na may Hyundai dealer sa Cebu. Aside from Cebu, meron din sila sa La Union, Bacolod, Iloilo at pati na rin sa Southern Mindanao

Pero sabi daw ng SA ko, there are only two units ngayon na meron sa Pinas: one in Manila Bay (eto yung galing sa Motor Show) at sa National Headquarters (yung dating Peugeot Makati). Sa June pa raw yung arrival ng volume batches ng Veracruz Diesel.

But anyhow, I think that for wealthy probinsiyanos, I don't think that they would buy this for the speed....simply because that it is not the only thing that the car offers.

For them, it's about the features. They are the type of buyers that savor Murano-like interior, high-performance sound system (better than Sta. Fe), all the safety feature goodies, the leather seats and the cold airconditioning.

So siguro, it doesn't matter if you buy a Veracruz then just travel at top speed of 80 km/h daily. Nothing wrong with that IMHO.

Pero if you use a Lancer Evo just for city driving, well that's a..............

Like the Lancer Evolution 9 RS na nakikita ko every school day (hatid-sunod from Makati-San Juan and vice-versa).

[blitzmage_89]

its obvious that JC Jeremy Clarkson still hasn't seen the sh** roads of the Philippines. For a city peep , a 100HP corolla will do. For those who travel along the highways a lot might want to get a Land Cruiser or sumthing like that. Still IMHO motto "Third world countries need and only needs third world cars" :D

[niky]

100 hp? Too much!

When I was young... err... younger, I used to go "hooning" around in a Sentra FE. 90 whole ponies on that one, from a 1.3 liter engine.

I could hit over 100 mph with that one... and I went head-to-head with Civic SiRs (four-door 160hp Si, for you yanks), V6 Galants, and whatnot. Of course, I always got my ass kicked on the straights, but not by that much... why? Simply because not many people are foolish enough to hold 160 km/h plus speeds on our roads.

And come the corners? Momentum's the name of the game. 800 kgs of car with a modified suspension and sticky tires (plus the great weight balance that comes from having much less engine than anyone else) made that buzz-bomb a joy to drive up in the mountains.

But even in everyday use and overtaking, I always had more than enough power. Sure, 0-100 km/h times were between 13-15 secounds, but... how many times do you actually peel to 100 km/h in even ten seconds? Floor it in a puny 1.3 or 1.5 and your passengers will complain.

Heck, in my 2.0, I rarely ever use more than 1/4 throttle in traffic situations.

But maybe that has something to do with the darn loud muffler I've stuck on it... :hysterical:

Anything that can get to 100 km/h in 20 seconds or less is fast enough for civilian use. And if that's not enough to overtake the guy in front of you, then you and he are going fast enough. :hihihi:

In terms of "hooning", though, you can never have enough... things only start to get interesting at about 200 hp in a compact...

[mbeige]

It all depends, as with most subjective questions. Do you do a lot of city driving? Then HP won't matter much. Do you do a lot of long haul drives with lots of overtaking? Then HP will matter. Do you do dragtimes? Take your car to the track? Beat your own time going up Baguio? Then you'll definitely need much more HP than your stock sporty car would put out.

But you also must know that increased HP will require increased fuel consumption. So if you just want transportation, the most efficient car would work. But if you don't mind spending much on fuel, then by all means, get that 6+ cylinder engined car you've always wanted.

As with others that have mentioned it, 150ish HP is adequate for decent, everyday driving with passing and highway runs in the Philippines, and would also be fuel efficient enough for those who are conscious about it - all this with a compact car of course. The larger the car, the more HP you'll need. But if you're doing a lot of highway driving, a good, fast turbodiesel engined car works WONDERS especially with that amount of torque for passing slowpokes.

[Horsepower]

I like the Veracruz because of its engine power.. the mere imagination of driving it past 220kmh excites me. hehehhee.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I always had a preference for a roomy car especially when I'm the one sitting at the back seat. So, only a Camry or Sonata-sized car will do. 200 hp for such car is a definite must, especially with a full compliment of passengers.

That's based from my experience while I was in RP and riding with 3 friends in a souped up Celeste. Well, it felt souped up with just the driver. It didn't feel so souped up with us 4 in it. That wasn't too bad if our driver was a clear-thinking one. But one day, the moron decided to overtake a car (at Quirino Ave near the Sucat Road junction) with a Saulog bus going the opposite way and bearing down on us really fast. Our driver pushed the gas, but, it was barely enough. The Saulog bus slammed it brakes and we managed to squeak by (less than a meter between us). But, we thought we were going to die that day. When we found out we were still in one piece, we proceeded to beat up our driver even though he was our longtime friend. We stopped beating him up only because he was still driving the car. Of course, we cooled off soon after and even joked afterwards.....(Naaaa! He screamed like a giii-irl!).

[baker123]

hmmmm if RP in general. i would have to say 150hp on the wheels is adequate enough. for province people like me. take as much hp and torque as the car can give it. hehehehe

only on city with huge traffic (ex metro manila) do we not use hp and tq much. but beyond that. torque very imprtant for those family weekend trips out of the city. for us in the province. for its load carrying capability. and for those compacts with big hp (inthe phils) like the SiR. we can strecth those 160hp legs here. thats why im putting turbo on mine

another example would be the new crv with its k20/k24 engine. in manila they could get could probably use the k05 of that most of the time. here in the province. we can defintely use the whole k24 of it. so its mostly were you live here in the phils.

[redorange]

what is a crown vic???? are you a fireman, postman or something?? heheheh

OT
A Crown Vic is the Ford Crown Victoria which is the choice for most police agencies. It's hard to tell if the white Crown Vic is a police car because alot of the cars now do not have lights on the roof but inside or in the grill hidden from view. It helps the cars get faster top speed and hide from speeders not having lights on the roof. As for the second question, I check people in at club fed.


BTT
Well when I drove my wife's Toyota Corolla GLI in Manila the power it had was more than enough for city driving. But if I was to use it at NLEX for a long trip I would want something with more power since we regulary got passed by trucks.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Just wondering what the highest official speed limits are in the Philippines and where. That would help somewhat in determining how much hp is really enough and if it's really a speed enforcement issue rather than needing more hp.

OT
Next time we're in CA, I'll take some pictures if the CHP comes along. It's funny how a cop car has the freeway to himself and a wall of traffic trailing back maybe 2-3 hundred feet behind just waiting for him to get off an exit.

[Camgen6]

65 mph? The cops must be nearby. If the cops aren't there, it's more like 75 mph on the slow lane and +85 mph on the fast lanes. Then, when a CHP car comes along, everyone stays behind the cop. No one dares pass. Many times, I've yelled, "You bunch of hypocrites!" .

Jun, funny how you mentioned this. Just this morning we had our annual Safety brief, one of the topics is about safe driving and our guess speaker is a CHP officer. He said that normally he drives on the freeway at 75mph on his bike, and he really hates it if you pass him by, I think he has a point here, how can you pass a cop doing 75mph on a 65mph speed zone? But I'm with you here Jun, I too hate it when everybody slows down just because there's a CHP up ahead. And he continue on by saying that he (speaking for himself and not the CHP as a whole) won't even pull you over unless you went over 85mph on his radar gun and that he may give you a ticket or just a warning.

[mbeige]

Eh, I was once in the fast lane doing 85mph at 11pm going to a friend's house. Out of nowhere comes this Crown Vic in the carpool lane doing probably 100mph and just whizzed by, didn't even pull me over and just completely ignored me.

I sometimes see unmarked police cars here too, dead giveaway yung pagiging Crown Victoria nila, and/or yung amber park lights in between the headlights, or the silhouette of the light bar on the roof if so equipped. Another dead give away is the spotlight on the driver A pillar.

One of these days I'd like to at least own a former police car with the whole police package save for the light bar and shot gun hehe (they can sell those to private citizens right? I mean after X years of service...?) and just drive on the freeway so everybody slows down and nobody would dare go in front of me or pass me

[niky]

Just wondering what the highest official speed limits are in the Philippines and where. That would help somewhat in determining how much hp is really enough and if it's really a speed enforcement issue rather than needing more hp.

OT
Next time we're in CA, I'll take some pictures if the CHP comes along. It's funny how a cop car has the freeway to himself and a wall of traffic trailing back maybe 2-3 hundred feet behind just waiting for him to get off an exit.

80 km/h. No kidding.

On the highways, though, it's officially 100 km/h, but they'll let you off if you're doing under 120 km/h on the North Expressway, simply to make room for speedometer error.

On the South Expressway, it depends on what the officers had for lunch. They sometimes catch people for doing 105... often catches people by surprise, because according to their speedometers, they're still doing 95-100 km/h. It also caught my cousin by surprise when he was caught for doing 50 km/h in that alley between Skyway Toll Plazas. They put a 40 km/h restriction on that road (which nobody follows), while on the rest of the Skyway, minimum speed (unenforced) is supposedly 80 km/h. Thus, he was speeding up to merge on the Skyway and they nabbed him... the bastards.

Of course, those are official speed limits... what people actually drive at is another thing entirely... ...overtaking and obstacle avoidance become pretty scary when you're driving beside an 18-wheeler burning rubber at over 100 km/h on a road that looks like a rally stage.

[clem]

In my opinion a former police car will generally have more hard and extreme miles on it, in just about every sort of driving condition, when compared to a ordinary similar car, secondly the miles shown on the odometer would not reflect the true usage and hours, some of the police cars run all day to keep the battery charged, as they need to keep the police radio on, and a comfortable temperature in side for the occupants, if I wanted a car that people might think is a police car,

I would buy the same make and model that was more pampered from the private sector, then add some of the finishing touches to complete the look, yes I can relate to why some one might want the police car look, as rudeness and recklessness on the roads seems common place, and you might have some added degree of safety with out people cutting in front at the last few seconds etc.

in some ways I think the police encourage speeding by allowing people to ordinarily drive a little over the speed limit, thus creating the psychological effect that a little over the speed limit is somehow actually the limit, then when you go a bit beyond this point you are quite a bit over the actual limit, and getting caught at a higher speed means paying a higher fine, so they stop fewer people but make up for it with higher fines at a higher speeds, a police car is some thing that I find some what of an enigma as in some ways it’s cool but in other ways it’s not.

[randyrivera]

Noticed the RP insted of PI. I guess that's the "PC" term to call Pinas....

actually hehe, the PC term for Pinas is PH ... OT lang. now back to the topic.

I drive a 145hp car, just enough for my daily trips Sta. Rosa-Alabang-Sta. Rosa. Just enough to cruise 120-140kph sa SSH. Mas matipid sa hiway. Good thing, di ako apektado ng metro traffic.

[mbeige]

In my opinion a former police car will generally have more hard and extreme miles on it, in just about every sort of driving condition, when compared to a ordinary similar car, secondly the miles shown on the odometer would not reflect the true usage and hours, some of the police cars run all day to keep the battery charged, as they need to keep the police radio on, and a comfortable temperature in side for the occupants, if I wanted a car that people might think is a police car,

I would buy the same make and model that was more pampered from the private sector, then add some of the finishing touches to complete the look, yes I can relate to why some one might want the police car look, as rudeness and recklessness on the roads seems common place, and you might have some added degree of safety with out people cutting in front at the last few seconds etc.

in some ways I think the police encourage speeding by allowing people to ordinarily drive a little over the speed limit, thus creating the psychological effect that a little over the speed limit is somehow actually the limit, then when you go a bit beyond this point you are quite a bit over the actual limit, and getting caught at a higher speed means paying a higher fine, so they stop fewer people but make up for it with higher fines at a higher speeds, a police car is some thing that I find some what of an enigma as in some ways it’s cool but in other ways it’s not.

I meant not just the looks but the equipment as well. Higher capacity cooling system, suspension upgrades, reinforcement of the chassis, etc...