485HP and 420Torque?

[Precision]

Hi all,

Today I went to visit a friend and as I was crossing the street, I kept hearing a loud roaring engine coming straight at me. I turned to look and it was a dark gray Ferrari 550 Maranello, one sexy italian beast. I am a big fan of ferraris and lamborghinis and the ferrari 550 is one of my favorites.

Now the specs of the car is 485HP and 420lb torque, naturally aspirated. Now I have never driven a car this powerful before( my current car is 200HP) lol and I wanted to know if anyone here has driven a car this powerful where the HP is 485 or more, and the torque is 420 or more???

How does it feel to drive a car this fast? Does it get a bit hard to control the car? I heard from people say that since ferraris and lamborghinis have excellent drive handling, that driving them won't have a smooth feeling compared to driving a economical car like a honda or acura. I currently have an Acura TSX and I love my car, good gas mileage, has everything I need if not more, and the driving is smooth. On the contrary, driving a Ferrari 550 won't be as smooth as driving my car.

Another car I really love is the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, which has 640HP and 490lb torque. Way more powerful than the Ferrari 550. For me, I would already be happy with the 485HP and 420lb torque than the Ferrari Maranello has.

Precision

[roushstage2]

Re: 485HP and 420Torque?

I have been in some pretty fast cars, some with HP numbers about even, maybe a bit more. Even mine being a RWD with some power takes a certain amount of control. I would drive one like an old lady for a while. If you drive a car like that, take it EASY until you get a really good feel for it. If the ground is wet and you don't know the car, don't drive it. It will be smooth, but not in the sense that your current car is. A complete 180. It will put you in your seat and can easily show you who's boss if you don't pay attention to what you are doing and what is going on when driving it. RWD+HP+TQ= Lots of fun, but you have to make sure you know what you are doing with it.

[TH0001]

Re: 485HP and 420Torque?

I have had the pleasure of driving several Ferrari 550's so here is my experience with them..

Worst designed handbrake in existence, you will see what I mean. It is on the sill between the driver seat and driver's door. You can not reach your hand down to grab it unless the door is open!!! The only thing that won't make driving a 550 as smooth as a regular car is the light fly wheel engine which makes the clutch pick up a little different and gated shifter, but other then that it is just a car.

Also the 550 has a good amount of weight to it, so traction is not really a problem. You can plant the throttle in first gear and it will hook up pretty well.

On the other hand I have driven 900 horsepower twin turbo 427 Corvette with a full race clutch and that can get a little hairy on the street.

[03mach1]

Re: 485HP and 420Torque?

I have driven some very powerful cars before, I am not lieing but I have driven a dodge viper and Shelby GT500. Those were some very scary cars at first. The viper in firstgear with all that raw power when you punch it all you hear is the wind not the motor sounds weird but that is what you hear when punch and get the car going. It has so much tourq that you can just cruise along and leave it in 6th gear and even going up steep hills going 40MPH it pulls up hill still in top gear. It was a convertible also which may explain why the wind was louder than the motor. The vipers only downside is do no get stuck in traffic because that huge V-10 runs hot and all that heat comes into the cock pit while the top is down. The GT500 I could break traction in the 1st-3rd gear it is that powerful. Now my mustang has no traction control and I can get the tires to spin very very easily. I have gotton my mustang sideways before and I was not even expecting it. The tires i have are very hard compound and with the littlest amount of dirt on them I can break them loose with out even trying.

[premier.mobile1]

Re: 485HP and 420Torque?

Only car I've ever driven with that much power was a 360 Sprint. 700+ HP and 600+ FtLbs TQ yet weighs a mere 1350 Lbs. Oh, and did I mention that it is an open wheel, winged dirt track car. Still, CRAZY power!

I also commute daily on a Suzuki Hayabusa, 170+ RWHP, 100+ FtLbs TQ, weighing in at a wopping 480 Lbs. Does that count (power to weight ratio)?

[Mr Mustang]

Re: 485HP and 420Torque?

^oh yeah, busas are crazy fast

hp and tq are fun, but you have to be really careful. We've got a 53 F100 pickup, with a 460cu.in. motor, it'll break traction in 4th, cruising along at 50, with no problem.

what gets really fun is when you can hook up the power, like our racecar, 750 hp close to the same on tq, it'll lift the front tires off the ground, and do the 1/8th in under 6 seconds at 100mph

[Sal329]

Re: 485HP and 420Torque?

My DD from 01-05 was a 2000 Mustang GT I put in a Cobra motor and some work and was at 315 rwhp and 311 rwtq through an auto. So that is closer to 380 at the engine it was a blast to drive but not fun in snow. I did get to drive the new BMW M5 with 500 hp that thing is a blast, also got to drive in 2008 BMW 335 CI that put down 422 rwhp.