1999 Mercury Cougar 3L Turbo

A fwd car can handle a lot of power nowadays compared to a few years ago when it was thought anything approaching 200bhp was silly now we have them running 300bhp without any major issue (yes I have driven one first hand so it os personal experience) yes it tugs a bit but even driving aggressively IF suspension geometry is altered and if it is drivable ie not all power at the top end I doubt it is that hard to drive.

JJ
 
insane .


in my opinion he needs to do 2 things

1- get it 4x4 converted
2- sort the heat issue like mark said.
 
Having 4wd doesn't stop someone who doesn't know how to drive a powerful car properly being useless behind the wheel mart ;-) that's why so many Subaru and mitsi lancers end up stacked you either drive a car with that power with a bit of restraint and the respect it deserves or best case you write it off and not yourself with it.

JJ
 
JJ said:
A fwd car can handle a lot of power nowadays compared to a few years ago when it was thought anything approaching 200bhp was silly now we have them running 300bhp without any major issue (yes I have driven one first hand so it os personal experience) yes it tugs a bit but even driving aggressively IF suspension geometry is altered and if it is drivable ie not all power at the top end I doubt it is that hard to drive.

JJ
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I think 300 bhp is about the limit for a FWD car to be honest, you just need to drive the new focus RS to see this, and this car has had a shed load of developement gone into it to make is safe for the road. The Cougar was never built to handle this kind of power in the first place. If you put the 2 cars up against each other you would see the difference straight away but you still can not take it away from this guy for the effort to get this kind of power from the V6 engine only using 2 driving wheels. A perfect straight line drag car I guess, not much use in the twisty stuff at all.
 
The big problem is torque steer but tbh why go to all the efort with the v6 when the zetec has done 600BHP verified. Also costs a lot less.
 
i wouldn't no mate but i keep playing that video over n over grrrrrrrrr sounds sweeeeeet.

why is the v6 engine no good for that power and the 2lt is good for more?
 
It's engine dynamics you have two pionts of force on a v6 engine an inline 4 only has 1 so it is easier to strengthen the mains and big ends to take the force. the scooby has two points of force but they are opposed so again it is easier to design the mains to take the extra umph
 
Having driven a 350bhp front wheel drive Cougar for over a year, I can safely say that you would be very suprised at the traction available.
I had a Quaiffe (sp) Diff fitted and yes, there was some slight tugging on the wheel on a badly rutted surfaces etc, but overall being supercharged, and thus the power being delivered without one great big "hit", the car was able to put a lot of the power down very well.

To give you a clear picture, myself and my mate in his Scooby P1 did a couple of drag starts from some lights (Clear dual carriageway road. Straight for over a mile. No houses, pavements etc etc and of the three starts we did, I managed to beat him everytime. We were doing 0 - 100mph btw
It certainly helped running very decent Toyo Proxy T1 tyres that's for sure !
 
I think we're heading down the wrong direction personally when we're getting into the "high power & FWD does work, ish" territory. Yes, the Focus RS just about works but if you compare it back to back with rear wheel drive or four wheel drive you soon realise why nobody in the performance car business uses front wheel drive. You're fighting basic physics, and you're never, ever going to get to the place where traction on the driving wheels increases with more torque applied so long as you've got front wheel drive.

The absolute best you can hope for with front wheel drive is that it doesn't torque steer and tramline.

Try comparing the Focus RS to the Audi TTS which is heavier, less powerful and has higher drivetrain losses with 4wd. The TTS has the same 0-60 time. An additional 50bhp in the Focus RS 500 only knocked another 0.3 seconds off the 0-60 time.

With FWD your power is always working against you and not with you, which is why FWD always has been, and always will be the domain of the city hatchback and not high powered sports cars.
 
jamie_duff said:
I think we're heading down the wrong direction personally when we're getting into the "high power & FWD does work, ish" territory. Yes, the Focus RS just about works but if you compare it back to back with rear wheel drive or four wheel drive you soon realise why nobody in the performance car business uses front wheel drive. You're fighting basic physics, and you're never, ever going to get to the place where traction on the driving wheels increases with more torque applied so long as you've got front wheel drive.

The absolute best you can hope for with front wheel drive is that it doesn't torque steer and tramline.

Try comparing the Focus RS to the Audi TTS which is heavier, less powerful and has higher drivetrain losses with 4wd. The TTS has the same 0-60 time. An additional 50bhp in the Focus RS 500 only knocked another 0.3 seconds off the 0-60 time.

With FWD your power is always working against you and not with you, which is why FWD always has been, and always will be the domain of the city hatchback and not high powered sports cars.
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I agree, that is basically what I was getting at in my post. The Focus RS is on the limit of what a FWD car can do with that kind of power. The Cougar was never made to handle this kind of power from stock, after all it is all based on the Mondeo running gear, and that car is just a family 4 door car, not a sports car.
 
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