Should You Increase Your Car's Horsepower If You Plan To Take More Road Trips?
Road trips are a time-honored tradition, from the family road trip to the solitary drive in the middle of nowhere, stopping at isolated towns, as a way to relax. No matter what type of road trip you plan to go on, you want your car to perform as you need it to.
That often means taking a good look at the engine and the power it can produce. Horsepower is what allows your car to travel at a good speed and for a prolonged amount of time. It's the power behind the actual driving, and if you've taken road trips before and felt your car was struggling with all the driving, you may decide you want more horsepower. You can add something like a supercharger, and that will help in most cases. But there are times when you need to be careful making your choice.
Slower, Meandering Trips
If you tend to take slower, more meandering trips—going the speed limit, stopping often, driving only a few hours a day—added horsepower may not be what you need if you felt your car was struggling. If the problem was hills, more torque might be a better thing to look at. If the problem was just driving in general and feeling like your car wasn't happy, then you need a mechanic to take a look at it. Speed-limit driving for only a few hours a day on a trip is not usually that stressful.
Zipping Across the State on a Deserted Highway
But a lot of road trips involve heading to relatively deserted regions and trying to get between very desolate points. In those cases, you'd want more power. Speed limits along many of those roads are increasing (but not always, so pay attention to those signs), and more horsepower will let you zip through West Texas on I-10 or U.S. 6 through Nevada with more confidence. And given how isolated some of these places can be, you will want that confidence. U.S. 6 through eastern Nevada, for example, is astoundingly desolate. Beautiful, but very few services for a long stretch. You want power that will let you travel that road quickly.
Long, Long Trips
Also, if you tend to drive for long stretches, more horsepower would help even if you tend to go the speed limit. If your road trips consist of seeing places that are eight or nine hours apart, for example, but you don't want to break up those distances into two-day drives, you'd want more horsepower so that your car would have an easier time maintaining speed for that long.
Whipple superchargers and other power boosts for your engine may give you the power you are looking for. You can discuss this with your mechanic and driving groups to find the best supercharger for your car.
