Automotive Trivia (7)

[funked]

Which normally aspirated mass produced passenger car engine has the highest horsepower output per liter of displacement?

[funked]

AHEM

[sky_bax]

I have come to the conclusion funked that something is seriously wrong with you.

I have seen you over and over take something little out of my posts on AH & AGW and make something of it.

But you won`t bring anything to the table with you, no major contributions to the discussion, only a few wise cracks in a stort sentence.

It`s like a broken record from you.

Whatever gets you off buddy.

PS: To reply to YOUR post in a normal way, I don`t know the answer.

So many powerful small engines these days.

Horsepower these days is really high in factory cars. With technology they are able to get the performance, economy, and keep emmisions low all at the same time.

My mothers $23,000 Acura CL coupe has a 3.0 V6 that produces 200HP. And I just saw on a commercial on TV where the new CL has 275HP!

An Oldsmobile Quad4 2.3L 4cyl with no turbocharger or supercharger puts out close to 200HP I think.

An that Honda Vtech 4cyl is no slouch either.

These horsepower ratings for small engines in average everyday automobiles is getting really high.

It has to level off soon.

[funked]

What are you talking about?  I posted an Automotive Trivia question and I get a personal attack?  Whatever gets you off...

[This message has been edited by funked (edited 02-15-2001).]

[Ripsnort]

Paranoid Skybax?

[funked]

Despite Skybax's strange and un-called-for comments, I think he wins the prize.  To the best of my knowledge the correct answer is the Honda S2000 with 240 hp from 1997 cc or 120 hp/liter.

[bloom25]

Horsepower is kind of misleading IMO.  Since it is torque x speed all you have to do to have high horsepower is to make a super high revving engine that puts out a modest amount of torque.  I believe that Honda engine is rated at something like 8500 rpm.  Now I KNOW I would never want to rev an engine up that high.

Now obviously gearing plays a part, but you would have to have an extremely high ratio to take advantage of an engine that put out maximum power at 8500 rpm.

The quad four is a little different.  It is a four cylinder, but it fires 2 cylinders (1 & 3, 2 & 4) at the same time.  This results in horrible vibrations (countered by twin balance shafts in the newer models) and a lot of pressure on the head gasket.  This resulted in the earlier quad 4s blowning head gaskets like mad.  It does make for a lot of power though...

That is why an electric motor is so powerful.  It develops maximum torque nearly as soon as it is turned on.  Since it doesn't spin that fast though the amount of horsepower isn't very high.  (We have a 300 hp electric motor here at OSU.  That thing is really BIG.  That thing can easily gulp down 500 amps of current.  You should see the cables that connect it to the transformer.    It's used as a dyno and acts as a generator when being driven by another engine.  Just a couple months ago they were testing a hybrid diesel-electric for Ford.)


------------------
bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[funked]

Actually torque is the misleading value.  With the correct gear ratios, the engine with higher power output will have more torque at the driving wheels for a given vehicle speed.

[Vermillion]

"Horsepower" numbers like that are very misleading, because that is a peak horspower number.

Like Bloom said, engines like these have very high "peak" horsepower ratings, but also have a very steep power curve. IE only at the very highest RPM's will the engine produce near the rated horsepower.

Which is why you will commonly hear car buffs speak of "useable horspower".

Here is a perfect example.

I own a 1995 Mustang GT 5.0 liter (V8), with a 215 horsepower rated engine.  My father bought a 1997 Firebird with a 215 hp rated V6 engine. Similar size/weight cars, with what are reportedly the same horsepower.

I had to hear his crap for months about how his "little V6" was as fast as my "overated V8", and I knew he was full of it, since I had driven both cars.

Wanna bet who won when we went head to head?  

Easily.....

------------------
Vermillion
**MOL**, Men of Leisure

[AcId]

Personaly, I rather enjoy my 310hp LS1 - Mustang eater.

[This message has been edited by AcId (edited 02-16-2001).]

[Jimdandy]

Tractive effort guys. Just like thrust to wieght. That takes it all into account because thats where the power meets the road.

[funked]

Of course Vermillion.

I thought we all understood that we are talking about peak horsepower here?

If both engines are operating at their power peaks, the one with more power will be able to generate more thrust, if both vehicles have optimal gearing.

But unless you have a CVT or something of that nature, you can not remain at the power peak at all times.  Then it becomes a contest of gear ratios and torque vs. rpm curves.

[Vermillion]

True Funked, I assumed that you knew that, but some others.... who knows.

I continuously hear from some of these riceburner fanatics about how their little engines with high reving turbochargers are so fast and have "XXX horsepower", that I sometimes overact in reply to the subject. Admittedly a sore point with me.

And then you hear from the ones who say "I added a Super duper Acme Air filter that adds 10 hp, a Duper Super 3 inch exhaust tip that adds 35 hp, and a NEATO spark plugs at $12 a piece and the ads say that it adds another 20hp. So now my little 4 cyclinder has as much horsepower as a Z28 Camaro !!!" All I can do at that point is laugh my bellybutton off because alot of them truely believe the hype they see and read off the ads.

Acid, bring over your LS1 sometime   Just FYI though, my Mustang is literally my economy car. If someone wants to race me, I get out my real car. But unfortunately it only gets 8 miles per gallon on the highway, less around town. Of course the upside is the 400hp output, from a factory stock motor.  

------------------
Vermillion
**MOL**, Men of Leisure

[Jimdandy]

Along the lines of what your saying Verm. I think that the 70's Camaro's (I just never liked the Camaro's after '82) and the 80-90's Mustangs are the best cars to fix up for bang/dollar. I can just about guarantee that I can take a 1972 Z28 and for the same money get it to handle as well and go faster than just about any equivalent euro/rice burner. You take that 10 grand that the same guy spent on making his 1995 Honda Civic go 100mph in the 1/4 and top out at 150mph and I'll make a '72 Z28 that will turn the 1/4 110mph and top out at 170mph. A 350 Chevy or 5.0 Ford are very hard power plants to beat. Bang for the buck Ford and Chevy small bocks can't be beat. On top of that I'll be driving that '72 Z28 10 years form now with the same engine in it when that euro/ricer has blown a head gasket, seized up, or thrown a rod. To get those little engines to really perform there so strung out that they don't last long. A friend of mine had a 1969 Olds 442 that we were not kind to. His dad bought it new and wasn't kind to it either. It was still in ok shape in 1982 and had 200,000 hard miles on it when my friend rebuilt it only because he wanted to hop it up and not because it was anywhere near it's last leg. I've seen that with several old Muscle Cars. I haven't seen that with as many of the strung out euro/rice burners.

[This message has been edited by Jimdandy (edited 02-16-2001).]

[funked]

Verm you would have loved this board I used to post on.  

I drive a Honda Civic Si, because I wanted a new car, there's nothing faster that's cheaper, and in my family's experience, American cars are lemons.  

But I have no illusions that this is some kind of muscle car.  It is a hell of a lot of fun on a mountain road, but if I was obsessed with straight line speed, I would go the route suggested by Jimdandy.

Anyways I found out there was a BBS for my car, and I went on there, and found it was infested with the kind of doofuses you described above.  Guys who think adding a spoiler to your car makes it faster.  You would not believe the difficulty I had in explaining to these idiots the relationship between fuel octane, spark timing, and the knock sensor.  I sorta got flamed out of there after I called one guy's car a "hideous bondo sculpture", and told another guy that if "you wanted to go really fast, you should have bought a really fast car."