A NASCAR car is almost identical to its normal road car counterpart, but rest assured, they are miles apart. From tires to the engine, every component on a stock car is specially designed to withstand the din and bustle of running at blazing fast speeds on high-banked ovals. So it goes with saying that in a sport that demands speed more than anything else, the horsepower that the engines produce would be a lot more than a generic street car.
According to reports, the normal threshold for crossovers is around 200 HP, for midsize cars it is about 170 HP, while small SUVs can shoot up to a 240HP mark. Safe to say, standard vehicles produce an average horsepower of anything between the 170-200 range. Keeping those numbers in mind, one might wonder how much higher can the horsepower of a NASCAR car be. Well, here is the answer.
How much horsepower does a NASCAR car have?
The power output in these cars is as unrestricted as the nature of racing in NASCAR. The naturally aspirated EFI V8 engines enable these cars to run past each other at the blink of an eye.
A NASCAR race car is known to squeeze out power equivalent to a staggering 750 HP. That kind of power helps these cars to accelerate from a stand-still position to top speed in a matter of just a few seconds. The remarkably high-power engines along with expert aerodynamic management go hand in hand to put up a show on the track that the fans go crazy for.
Fastest Speed in the history of NASCAR
NASCAR needs speed. Drivers live for it and the fans die for it. However, since its inception, NASCAR has brought restrictions to the top-speed limit because although speed thrills, it does cause accidents as well. On that note, let's take a look at the man who, to this day, holds the record of the fastest driver in NASCAR.
It is none other than Bill Elliott, the father of former Cup Series champion Chase Elliott. In the 1987 Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” pushed the limits of his Coors Ford Thunderbird and hit a speed of 212 miles per hour. However, if that alone sounds impressive, there is indeed a lot more to know.
That speed came out of a bestial car that weighed 3,700 pounds, excluding the driver and fuel (about 400 pounds heavier than the cars that NASCAR fields today) and had a horsepower of 625, which is considerably less than what the NextGen car produces today.
FAQs on How Much Horsepower Does A NASCAR Car Have?
Currently, an F1 car can throttle up to an HP of 1000.
The NextGen cars produce an RPM of 9200-9400.
The top-speed for NASCAR is just to the north of 199.46 mph.
The engines for the Chevrolets are made by ECR Engines, Hendrick Motorsports. For the Fords it is Roush-Yates Engines and for the Toyotas the engine department is handled by Toyota Racing Development.
The faster an engine throttles, the higher is the combustion per second. This increases the frequency of the tailpipe noise and that is essentially what produces the noise.
