Hellcat totaled right after purchase

[Jay Hilliard]

https://autos.yahoo.com/news/2015-do...083512851.html

I cannot imagine the feeling this guy must have.

[coolwelder62]

I saw this. I hope his Insurance was up to date.

[LS3torque]

Didn't GM give free driving school tuition to people who bought the new Corvette one year or two? It might have helped this guy...another sad day in muscle car history.

[intocarss]

More $$ then brains

[GregWeld]

To this date - when I read on here some of the staggering HP/TQ numbers that people either want to, or are, putting into their cars I shudder. I just hope they have ANY clue how much power some of these numbers are.

I hear people tell others - oh it's a 600hp 350... and you know damn good and well it's nowhere near that - and that it's never been dyno'd. It's more like 400Hp and puts 320 to the wheels.... you just hope they never get behind the wheel of an honest 600+ hp car!! OMG!

[Che70velle]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

To this date - when I read on here some of the staggering HP/TQ numbers that people either want to, or are, putting into their cars I shudder. I just hope they have ANY clue how much power some of these numbers are.

I hear people tell others - oh it's a 600hp 350... and you know damn good and well it's nowhere near that - and that it's never been dyno'd. It's more like 400Hp and puts 320 to the wheels.... you just hope they never get behind the wheel of an honest 600+ hp car!! OMG!

Greg, I've felt the same way for a long, long time. There was a period of time for me, when I spent a lot of time over on LS1Tech, and some of those guys and gals over there would put together extreme high end twin turbo builds that would easily reach 4 digits on a dyno, and I always said to my self "man I hope that guy has REAL experience behind the wheel of a high horsepower vehicle, cause this can get real bad, real quick!"
I had a close family friend die in a new mustang gt in 1991, because the thing got away from him. Those cars had like what, 275ish HP? I'm definitely not advocating that auto manufacturers begin to go the other way performance wise, but cars and trucks of this nature are downright dangerous in the wrong hands. Thankfully, automakers build these vehicles much safer than ever before.

[WSSix]

More like 225hp, Scott. Both you and Greg have excellent points. The LS motors are amazing. It's getting boring seeing the high horsepower builds because they are so very easy to achieve. Obviously, this is my opinion. The flip side of that affordability and ease in which they make power is people with them don't necessarily know what they are getting themselves into. I've built and driven a couple 600 hp LSx motors, so mid 500 at the wheels. The cars are rocket ships. They are boring to drive on the street because you can't safely use the power. I had more fun driving stone stock C6 Z06s and other mid 400hp cars that pulled everywhere. Still had plenty of power to get into trouble and push the limits of street driving though.

Bob Johnson, owner/builder of GForce Cuda and Battle Axe and many others, once commented that the reason he went for a big inch engines over forced induction, even if he made less power, was because the sound and looks of the engine were apart of the build, too. I couldn't agree more. That's the biggest reason I'm sticking to a simple 383 that should sit at about 500hp/tq which will put me into the 400s at the wheels. I can't afford the horsepower wars, the power I will be making will be plenty as I'm really just a street car, and a cammed small block sounds better to me than an LS. I see no reason to take a different route with my motor choice. I'd really like to see more people take this approach and go for a complete package on the car instead of relying on the horsepower as the biggest attraction of the car.

Of course, the bigger question or concern I wonder about is what will be the response to these rather accessible, high powered cars by the government or insurance agencies. Will we see laws or rates penalizing or limiting power because people aren't being smart with the power they have?

[68Cuda]

Yep, seen it through the years. It used to be the guys going from 6 cyl cars or stock small blocks to big blocks and four speeds. Sometimes the cars made it as much as a week. People not used to the power and not careful enough. Just recently here in town, guy took a '69 with an LS2 and swapped it out for an LSA.

Luckily for him he only spent one night in the hospital and no one else was in the car at the time.

Pictured below, the car before the swap, the crate engine, after the transplant, and then what it looked like after he drove it for a short period of time.

[Che70velle]

Oh snap! How recent was this?

[Vegas69]

I must be getting old but my thoughts were along the line of Greg's. At some point the public just doesn't belong in a car with X amount of horsepower. It's one thing to go out and kill yourself, it's another when you bring innocent bystanders into the picture.

I raced and put many miles under my belt with 666hp. You blink and you are in trouble. It just wasn't usable with a conscious on the street. That was one of the reasons I raced my car so much. I just couldn't utilize the car at the level I desired.