V8 vs Inline four???

[Guest vegeta]

i understand your view, bro, but still....

how reliable do you think that 10,000+ rpm 267 engine is?

honestly, no valvetrain failures at that speed, huh?

dont they rebuild those engines completely after every event in NHRA?

and its only seeing those RPM's for a few seconds at a time, right?

i guess Indy engines (close to 10,500 RPM for a couple hours) are DOHC designs just because the teams are "OHC elitists", right?

and F1 engines (15,000+ RPM) have pneumatically controlled valves for the hell of it?

 

have you ever even driven an S2000?

seriously, you gotta rev the hell out of those things to go fast.

the engines dont even peak until 8500 RPM (or 7800, depending on the year). That's the drawback to a small displacement, high-strung engine. so saying the owners dont rev them past 5k, thats like saying the vast majority of vettes never see past 55 mph, and i think we all know that isn't true

 

and that whole American LeMans issue i think this explains it:

 

the FACTORY BACKED vettes won the series by a small margin against the PRIVATE TEAM ferraris (Prodrive). and the C5R's needed a 1,500 cc BIGGER engine just to make the SAME horsepower as the 550 ferraris. that would be like in major league baseball, some small company sending its company-softball team (Prodrive) into the World Series against the Yankees (Chevy), and the Yankees are allowed to have bigger bats/gloves, and they only narrowly win.

 

but i totally agree with you that if you're building a hotrod/racecar, its almost always easier(read: cheaper) to make big power with a large engine than with a small one, unless you turbo.

 

later

[johnc]

the FACTORY BACKED vettes won the series by a small margin against the PRIVATE TEAM ferraris (Prodrive). and the C5R's needed a 1,500 cc BIGGER engine just to make the SAME horsepower as the 550 ferraris. that would be like in major league baseball, some small company sending its company-softball team (Prodrive) into the World Series against the Yankees (Chevy), and the Yankees are allowed to have bigger bats/gloves, and they only narrowly win.

 

Uuuhhhh, bad analogy. You need to read the ACO rules. Last year the Chevy engine's air intake is regulated by two 35mm diameter orifices and I assume its the same this year (I don't have the 2004 rule book). It had to run restrictors where the Ferrari didn't. The ACO may have added restrictors to the Ferrari this year.

[Guest vegeta]

yeah, sorry, it wasn't a great analogy.

still, with such a displacement advantage, it only seems fair. no factory C5 comes with a 427.

besides, what happened to the huge monstrous OHV v10 viper gtsr?

they dont seem to be very competitive anymore? is it the new chassis or something?

 

later

[johnc]

Dodge proved their point and pulled out of factory support for ALMS and Le Mans. The ACO was going to really hit them hard with restrictors and weight penalties because it was obvious in the Viper's last factory season (2000) how much they had been sandbagging.

 

Even without factory support, privateer Vipers were pretty successful in the FIA GT series over in Europe and they still place on the podium now and then. Chamberlain still runs a couple "pay to play" GTS-Rs if someone has the money and wants to run in ALMS, FIA GT, or Le Mans. Milka was the last one I heard that had bought a Viper ride.

 

The Comp Coupe was built more for SCCA's Speed GT then ALMS or ACO. Remember, Mercedes wasn't too happy with the Viper when it was winning in Europe.

[Guest vegeta]

ok, yeah, that makes sense.

thats sort of like what i was saying, that without factory support its hard to compete, so it was pretty cool to see those ferraris do so well.

i'm not surprised about mercedes being frustrated with the gtsr's.

8.2 liters? yikes! lol

[Guest vegeta]

btw

i wasnt trying to insult the idea of piloting an ohv engine in racing, i was just trying to illustrate how that design won't make as much power as other designs unless given a displacement advantage.

[cyrus]

Here is the answer in physics. Smaller lighter pistons moved over a shorter distance (stroke) takes less for than a larger, heavy pistons moved over a longer distance, hence more RPM are possible, thus higher horsepower.

 

Now there are other factors make the RPMS usefull Vtec, 4 valve per cylinder etc. Both are great engines.

 

Bottom line you car does not car about brand, it matters how much HP is produced to push a given weight.

 

Rather than specific HP it is more interesting to talk about HP produced per pound of engine and how much total HP is avaible, that my friend is of use.

 

I know a civic si engine is powerful for its size, but who cares only 160 hp, I can not build a car light enough to capitolize on the light weight of the engine.