Power, Speed, confused...

[Jon_Lyle]

First let me apologize for the streaming non-coherent babble you will find as I have no order or method to my thoughts.

My confusion lies in why current 4 cylander vehicles go faster than old 8 cylander vehicles. Or if that is even true, as most of my information is from varried internet research.

I was recently told that a friend's co-worker was selling a 69 El camino, 350 small block V8, 4 barrel carb, 300 hp. Looking at my current car, 00 Toyota ECHO, 108 hp I4, I thought that the power increase would be much more fun.

Problem is, my friend and co-workers are sporting trucks that hit 60 in around 6 seconds, my ECHO taking around 9 is obviously not up to par, and there is little out there for the ECHO performance wise.

I haven't found much info on speeds of el caminos that haven't been heavily altered and am wondering where a stock 69 would fall, I'd like to get closer to their trucks' speeds without spending too much on mods early on. (High School Senior, part time job, need money for college).

Reason for confusion on 4 vs 8 cyls in power and speed came recently when I saw a program on Police Vehicles where they said the 69 Fury with the speed driven police package hit 60 in 10 seconds flat, and thinking that my little ECHO does better with the 108 hp 4cyl. Why is that?