.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

BangShift Question Of The Day: How Do You Personally Define “Big Power”?


BangShift Question Of The Day: How Do You Personally Define “Big Power”?

So a couple of weeks ago I served as the host for the 2017 Diesel Power Magazine Challenge. This unique event pitted 10 of the nation’s toughest and most wild diesel pickups against each other in a series of challenges. The pulled the pulling sled, drag raced, drag raced while pulling a 10,000lb trailer, and spun the dyno rollers to measure their sheer brute strength.

The numbers that some of these trucks were truly astonishing. Horsepower numbers clearing 1200 with torque numbers clearing 2,000 on a pretty gnarly Mustang MD-1100 dyno. Heading to Bandimere over a mile above sea level these rigs were cranking off runs that would destroy muscle cars while weighing 8,000 lbs!  Be still my beating heart! The massive compound turbos, multiple stages of nitrous, and transmission strong enough to be used in a bulldozer were all part of a very impressive program in my eyes. Oh, the laps was also made on friggin’ mud tires with the trucks in 4WD.

So this whole scene has got me thinking about what “big power” is. As neat as it was to see that astronomical dyno number it was even cooler to see all that power put to use on the strip and really hustle the truck to an ET none of us really saw coming. That thing is more than a dyno queen! These guys make what I consider to be “big power” and it seems even bigger to me because it is “real” power, not the thousands produced by a nitro burning engine, but stuff built with their own two hands in home garages or small shops. I can relate to it and that’s probably why I am even more jarred by what I saw.

So, now you know where this question came from. Time to tell us what your personal definition of “big power” is. Enough roast the tires in fourth? Enough to tug a massive trailer over a big grade? Enough to run a Pro Mod into the 5-second zone? What’s something that you’ve seen in person that made your jaw slacken a bit?

BangShift Question Of The Day: How Do You Personally Define “Big Power”?

 


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

8 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: How Do You Personally Define “Big Power”?

  1. Gump

    Anything with four digit power numbers. Before the “turbo all the things!” days I felt like 600 and above was impressive. That is still good to me, but it seems by todays standards if you arent going over 1000 then you may as well drive a prius.

  2. DanStokes

    For me it starts around the point that you’ve doubled the HP with which it left the factory. So for example (sticking with the Diesel theme) my Dodge/Cummins makes a LOT more HP than the Mercedes in Mutt the Race Truck but Mutt went from 126 flywheel (factory rating) to 223 rear wheel – more than double (remember the power loss in the flywheel-to-wheel conversion). And more to come with the big turbo that’s waiting to go on it. So while I love Truck the Big Dodge, Mutt really lights my fire more in the HP department.

    Guess I’m saying that for me it depends on where you start to assess where you ended up.

    Dan

  3. Brendan M

    Big power is relative.

    My 50cc bike is north of 10hp. In stock form it was half that.

    From behind my handlebars, that’s big power.

  4. Marc H

    Exactly, it’s all relative.
    Naturally aspirated power for me separates the men from the boys.
    Any doorknob can spend money and throw on a blower.
    The guys out in Stock and SS are impressive as hell to me.

Comments are closed.