[rick1827]

XLR-V Horsepower

There has been a lot of talk on the XLR Forum about the XLR-V series and it's potential Horsepower. In all these conversations it seem that people feel that the 400 to 425 potential horsepower rating is not going to be competitive with the BMW-M series and MB-AMG line. While it is true that those two lines have more horsepower, that is not the whole story. One thing that is just as important is weight. Look at it this way, a corvette Z06 has 405 Horsepower (same platform as XLR) and a Dodge Viper has over 500 Horsepower. Yet, the Viper is only quicker in hands of a proffesional driver and even then by just the slightest amount. As Car and Driver said, you would never know the difference. Even using proffesional drivers (as C&D did) it was so small a difference that you could not tell by eye. So, because of the extremely heavy weight of the BMW and MB it is entirely possible that a 410HP XLR will be quicker or at least as quick.

 

[rick1827]

The SL in reguards to MB use to stand for Superlight (or so I am told). Anyway, going by MB specs that is no longer accurate. The cars have become very heavy. A MB-SL600 or AMG version is most likely to weigh 1000 to 1500 pounds MORE than a SLR-V series assuming Cadillac uses the same engineering as Chevy did on the Z06. It would only make sense that they would considering all the time Chevy spent developing it. No sense re-inventing the wheel. I also saw a feature on Speed channel that said for subtracting every 100LBS of weight is equal to adding 15 horsepower. I don't know if that is true, but it makes sense.

 

[rick1827]

I agree. The horsepower talk is mostly bragging rights, Although the car must meet certian performance levels to be comparible. Like I said earlier, the Z06 is as fast as anything you will find yet it is no where near the Horsepower King. While Chevy offers a 405 HP Z06, 90% of the Corvettes sold are the standard 350HP model. I have owned two of them and cannot be more pleased with them.

 

[rick1827]

True enough. I just received my XLR 2 days ago (black on black). After driving it for a while I truely enjoy the car and am glad I bought it. However, I sold my 2000 triple black vette convertible and don't understand why cadillac decided to use the northstar engine. While the engine in the vete is not nearly as sophisticated, it has better power, better torque, sounds better and is a lot cheaper. Oh, yeah, as a bonus my vette got 27 MPG at the same time. (less when pushing it hard on country roads). I really wished Cadillac would have kept the engine. Plus, there are already a ton of after market parts available. If they had, you could order a aftermarket Super Charger and be cranking out 550HP today. Had one on the vette and it was great!! OH well. Overall, I bought the Caddy because I wanted something that I could drive more often. The vette was a toy for Saturday afternoons. I am very please with the car.