HP/L who cares???

[Firebird]

ok so heres the deal whats up with the HP/L thing? Who are you trying to impress by saying you make 100hp/L??? for example if you have a 2.5L engine if you make 100hp/L you make 250 hp oh wow give me a break are you to ashamed to put out your total hp numbers?

Ok so let me see if this impresses you I say I make 53 hp/L sound impressive? not really untill you take into account the fact I 'm talking about a 7.4 L engine in which case I make almost 400 hp.

The only thing that proves you have a fast car is an E.T. (a 1/4 time) if you want to do a ratio make it a power to weight ratio. According to physics: force = mass x accel. ,or in other words, accel. = mass/force so if you have a 4000Lb. car with 300hp and a 1500Lb. car with only 200hp. the 1500Lb. car will win hands down because it's power to weight ratio is greater.

just had to get that off my chest. by the way no my car is not a 7.4L and no I don't make 400hp I was just using them as examples.

my point: HP/L isn't really impressive when you are talking about a small engine and talking about HP/L in a big engine is just stupid so for the sake of everyones sanity just put out your total HP and stop making us do the math.

[NB8CT]

It matters becuase it shows that the people who made the engine actually THOUGHT when they built it. They though "how can be get every ounce of power out of this engine" they didnt just say "lets make it huge displacment cuz we dont wana sit down and figure anything new out, thats too hard". Really man lets take the classic hp/L example the Honda S2000, makes 120hp per liter, lets say that your "mythological" 7.4 liter engine made 120hp per liter, lets do our math, thats 888hp, screw your paltry "400HP'
And your calculations below negate what accually matters more than horsepower, torque. Lets look at another example: a stock 240sx has 127hp @ 5000 rpm and 135lb-ft @ 4000rpm and a stock civic si has 123hp @ 7500rpm and 93lb-ft @ 6000rpm. Now I would bet that even though the 240 is heaver it would wack the si off the line, and beat it in the 1/4 becuase the massive gap in torque.

[Firebird]

ok heres an example of the best of both worlds top fuel and funny cars run a 528 hemi that's a 8.7L engine they make roughly 6000hp my math says that they make almost 700hp/L and 528 cubes is pretty damn big now I don't know about you but I think it probably took a lot of thought to get that and I highly doubt they were thinking "hey lets just make a huge assed engine cause we're lazy" that beng said. what you said about torque is very true, but both horsepower and torque must work together to make a truely fast running car.

[LjasonL]

what u said about torque is very true. example stock civic si 160 hp 110 (i think?) ft/lb torque, my subaru stock 160 hp 165 ft/lb torque. now my car is MUCH heavier than a civic, but if theyre both stock mine will put about 3 lenghts on the civic through the 1/4 mile, the civic will NEVER pull on me i will be pulling on him for the entire race.

oh yeah firebird, if this post was directed at me for saying something about hp per liter in another post, u should know i was being sarcastic. i really dont get the hp per liter argument either. so what if your civic makes twice the hp per liter as a camaro ss, your civic still has 160hp and the ss still has 345hp.

[CAptynCrunch]

This brings up a question i've always wondered. Why aren't tehre a lot more like 700+ HP domestics running around? i mean if you take the import fans outlook on things(ie. sucking as much power as possible out of what you've got to work with) it shouldn't be that hard to build one hell of a car. A finely tuned N/A 2.0L can produce easily like 250HP. Thats 125 HP per litre. Now why don't people with domestics tune their 5.0 litres to like 600HP?

I mean this in no way as a dig or an insult to domestics, jsut as a question. I mean if this can be done to an import why not a domestic? Is it due to dominishing returns? Like is it easier to get 100+ HP/L from a smaller engine then a big one? I can't really see that making that much difference but maybe.

[LjasonL]

Originally posted by CAptynCrunch
This brings up a question i've always wondered. Why aren't tehre a lot more like 700+ HP domestics running around? i mean if you take the import fans outlook on things(ie. sucking as much power as possible out of what you've got to work with) it shouldn't be that hard to build one hell of a car. A finely tuned N/A 2.0L can produce easily like 250HP. Thats 125 HP per litre. Now why don't people with domestics tune their 5.0 litres to like 600HP?

I mean this in no way as a dig or an insult to domestics, jsut as a question. I mean if this can be done to an import why not a domestic? Is it due to dominishing returns? Like is it easier to get 100+ HP/L from a smaller engine then a big one? I can't really see that making that much difference but maybe.

good point. i bet if imports made larger engine with the same hp/liter, so u could buy a 5.0liter mitsubishi with 600hp, the domestic manufacturers would get off their asses and try to do the same. but as it is now, theyre still winning the overall hp battle, so they dont really have any need to try. theyll be sorry when some day the imports DO make larger engines, and they find out theyre so far behind in technology theres no way they can catch up.

[Firebird]

Actually Idelaysionl your post was where I got the idea to make a thread I understood your sarcasm It's jus something I keep reading everywhere and wanted to know why people wrote out their numbers like that. as for making a 5.0L + domestic really gutsy it's not that hard just that I'd have to agree it's cause most manufacturers are too lazy they have made some very good improvements though example: a 1990 firebird (like mine) with a 350 only put out around 225 or so HP but a new f-bird is around 350hp with the same size engine, hell the v-6 in a new f-bird will probably wipe up a stock 350 from 1990. still room for improvement: yes but unfortunetly most of our big engine cars are leaving and taking their engines with soon we'll probably have to work with small engines too

[LjasonL]

whats gonna be left of the domestic performance cars? vette and viper? is the mustang still gonna be here? mustangs arent that good anyway unless u get a cobra or saleen or something, i like vettes, and vipers are just too damn expanesive. are those the only 3 gonna be left? oh yeah ford lightning not really a performance CAR but fast anyways.

are they gonna make a new chevy ss fullsize truck? my friend has a picture of the concept version, i think it had an lt1?

[Firebird]

hmm. lets see the only thing left after this year will be the Viper, Lightning,Mustang,Corvette yeah your right thats about it. the wierd thing is GM is still making a V-8 RWD Camaro wannabe in Australia it goes by the name of Monaro.It kindda looks like a Camaro but not really but you can get it with V-8 power. The ss truck you talked about do you mean the 1/2 truck 1/2 car thing? if so it goes into production late this year it is suposed to be RWD with a v-8 the plans are for the LS1 with around 350hp we shall see.

[Firebird]

oops. the name of the 1/2 car 1/2 truck is the SSR it started out as a concept El camino. is this the right one???

[Blackbird01]

Yes. There are only a handfull of fast domestics cars left. However, since there are fewer, the car companies producing them are stepping up.
Ford's Cobra is now a Supercharged 4.6L DOHC motor making 390hp/390ft. lbs.
Chevy's Corvette ZO6 is already making great power at 405hp, but when the C6 is released in 2004, the bar will be raised even more. Expect the C6 to come with more then 400hp. Also, look for a ZO6 version of the C6 making over 450hp (Chevy's goin Viper Killing!)
Now, I'm sure everyone's seen the '03 Viper also.
500hp/500ftlbs....Nuff Said.

Also, Bob Lutz, a big name in GM is looking to revamp GM's product line.
He came to GM too late to save the F-Body from extinction in '02, but he is looking to make up for it. Holden, a car company in Austrailia that is owned by GM offers a few cars that are VERY cool and have sparked interest in Bob Lutz. He has already said he wants to bring them to the US, sell them VERY cheap (we're talking under $20k) and offer them with HP levels in the 350-400hp range!

Sure the domestic performance cars are dwindling, but it's going to turn around.

[Polygon]

Originally posted by Firebird
ok heres an example of the best of both worlds top fuel and funny cars run a 528 hemi that's a 8.7L engine they make roughly 6000hp my math says that they make almost 700hp/L and 528 cubes is pretty damn big now I don't know about you but I think it probably took a lot of thought to get that and I highly doubt they were thinking "hey lets just make a huge assed engine cause we're lazy" that beng said. what you said about torque is very true, but both horsepower and torque must work together to make a truely fast running car.

HAHAHA, that is too good. You beat me too it buddy. I can't agree with any of your statements any more.

[RiceRocket]

don't you think domestics are getting into the hp battle with the imports???
but they're only doing it to their compact cars to match the other compact cars in the market and they're doing a poor job of it too ---> they're way of tuning is supercharging or putting turbo on their small cars... like dodge neon and making it a factory standard option.

[flylwsi]

there are tons of reasons that the hp/l is important.
mainly b/c of technology.
domestics dont use the same tech as an import. end of story. 100hp/l na is pretty impressive. especially for a streeter. your 6000 hp car has a s/c on it. null and void. why not look at the integra w/ the 4liter custom tt motor that makes 4k hp...

its all about size and tech.

[bluevette74]

im not sure but the reason big engines like 5.7l have a hard time creating big hp/l numbers is because they dont rev as high as imports, if youll notice on vettes red limit is like 6000rpms but imports are like 8,000rpms. But dont worry you import fans, camaros and f-birds arent gone forever they will be back in about 5 years or so! so until then youll have to watch out for those ss's, cobras, z06's and not to forget the vipers! oh yeah and the next time you pull up to a domestic and its shaking and loaping i wouldnt mess with it!:sun: