I'm doing a project for physics class, and was hoping for some input from you guys. I'm trying to find a relative price it would cost to get to 400HP, 500Hp, 600HP and beyond to the wheels and reliably by going the NA, nitrous, turbo, or supercharger routes. If you could help me by posting your builds, what it contains, and the peak HP it made, along with the price, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

A&A super charger, 598 rwhp, $6,000 not counting cost of car.

You need to specify flywheel or rear wheel hp.

 

Also how long does the car need to last? You can get some pretty crazy power, for cheap, once....lol

 

Thanks for the tips, I just fixed it. Rwhp, reliably.

 

head machine work, cam and springs, intake, headers and exhaust, tune = $2200 all in

430 at the wheels
285 at the wheels bone stock

 

Yea, its funny how HP costing factors work out. You need to be careful with how much HP you aim for. You stated reliable so I wouldn't get too radical. You can make 430 as Darth stated for 2.2k. That's about $5.50 per hp. Pretty good really and should be reliable. Then if you want more, that $5.50 per 1hp starts going up fast.
The 598hp engine at 6k now cost you $10.03 per HP for that setup.

NA engines are more expensive to build power. Nitrous is your cheapest route, always has been. My NA 1000hp 565ci Dragster engine was 25k. I bumped it to 1250 hp with NOS for another grand. To get that extra 250hp NA would have been a 632ci at over 35k.

I know this may not be the answer to your exact question. 400 rwhp isn't too bad and isn't hard to achieve. And you can leave the rest of the car stock really. 600rwhp and now your needing rear end work, tranny work and other suspension upgrades. All of this factors into the cost of building that power.

Just like my S10. Right now it has a stock 6.0. But I know I am going to go for much more power in the next year. So I went ahead and built a 9" rear to handle the future power. I spent 1500.00 on just the rear and I had a lot of the parts already to build it. I will also have to have my trany built later for the new engine. That's going to run me a grand or so. I will have 4-5k just in the truck not including the engine. So for me to make the 600-900hp I am going to look for, I will spend 10k at least. Probably more like 15k. I also have not decided how to make the power yet. I like the turbo stuff but I don't know enough about it yet to try and build one.

So again, I would throw out your budget that you have in mind and then its easier for people to come up with solutions to your build. Otherwise you will see numbers all over the place. One guy might have spent 2k for 400hp but another guy might have figured out how to get 460hp for the same amount.

I hope this was useful. If not. Ehh.

 

See, I guess I look at the costs like this. I paid 2200 to get from 285 to 430, so I paid for 145 horsepower. the car already came with the first 285. So, $15.17 per HP increase

Taxman is right, it's not a linear equation, because of diminishing returns and other modifications required. Even at 430, my stock rear axle is hurting bad, and I have to baby it. Already locked up once, and I barely freed it up. If you want 500 RWHP, you'll spend 2600 on heads alone. You'll also need subframe connectors, etc,

I also put an LS2 in a S10, and by the time I did all the work to the frame and suspension to handle the power in addition to the LS2, it cost me $10k to make it safe and dependable, not just fast.

General rule, there's performance, price, and dependability - pick the two you want most and sacrifice the third one. I didn't list safety, because you should never compromise on safety, and you'll have to pay for the mods to make it safer.

good luck with your survey

 

car has a lot of effect on the supporting mods.

My 598hp required a new clutch and headers, roll cage, seats that was anther $4k
on top of the $6k

But since I am in a vette and run autocross my rear end is fine.
I don't need sub frame connectors, I don't have a sub frame.

I smoked a piston the other day, and I am looking at dropping another $7k for a 383 stroker.

I will be about 800hp but that's $18k for car, $6k for supercharger, $4k for supporting goodies
and $7k for the new long block. Now I can lower the cost per hp real easy.
I could probably add a 250 shot for another grand and break 1000hp.
how you want that hp has a large factor. I can not autocross with nitrous so why bother.

If I had started with a camaro I would be a lot less.
Or started with a bad engine in a beater.
Or even cheaper just start with an old s10.

 

Neat line... since I am running at 6ooo rpms for 30 minutes and not just 10 seconds I had to sacrifice price. Dependability is a must in road racing.

I could have gotten to the same hp for less money, and blown up a lot sooner.