Wanna Go Fast Day 1

[LancePearson]

Robert,
Have they committed to do it in the Chicago area again? they seem to move it around but it looks like full attendance so you'd think they would.

I won't do it but for racing I'd want to strip my air conditioner out of the car and the associated weight. Still pretty heavy cars though there are others as heavy.

Some kind of rush for you guys who ran. Cool.

Lance

[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by LancePearson

Robert,
Have they committed to do it in the Chicago area again? they seem to move it around but it looks like full attendance so you'd think they would.

I won't do it but for racing I'd want to strip my air conditioner out of the car and the associated weight. Still pretty heavy cars though there are others as heavy.

Some kind of rush for you guys who ran. Cool.

Lance

Lance,

WGF is talking 2 Chicago events next year.

[Paul Workman]

Hope so! "Phoenix" (hopefully) goes to see Doc Brett this w/e where the road to recovery officially will begin! "Not hurt bad", bolstered by some measurements taken Sunday, is music to my ears! I'd like to see what she does from the "dig" vs. rolling start. (Oh, yeah...and brake early, brake often! ... Gotta try to remember that!!)

P.

[BigJohn]

Well, you didn't put it in the pond!

[-=Jeff=-]

Originally Posted by Paul Workman

Hope so! "Phoenix" (hopefully) goes to see Doc Brett this w/e where the road to recovery officially will begin! "Not hurt bad", bolstered by some measurements taken Sunday, is music to my ears! I'd like to see what she does from the "dig" vs. rolling start. (Oh, yeah...and brake early, brake often! ... Gotta try to remember that!!)

P.

Check on my rocker while you are there

[Hog]

Hey Lance, Hotrod Magazine has been running a Coyote swap series for the last couple editions. The Coyote engines start at $6000 and that's just for the engine. Coyote into Fox body Mustangs cost $17,000-$20,000 once you get all the weird parts that allow the engine to sit in the body.

Coyote is a cool engine, but there's no way I'd do one over an LS3. $6000 gets you a 525hp 376 LS3 stock from GM. Much better match IMO for the car you speak of.

[LancePearson]

Hog, seems like if you spend around $20,000 one way or another today you can take a 5.7 litre v8 and crank it up to 500-600 hp with the engineering knowledge around. It sure would make me think twice to leave the dohc architecture though. A dohc with twin turbos has to be a beast that will really crank. The little 3.5 l. v6 Sebastian Loeb ran in a Peugot and Rhys Millen ran a 4.0 twin turbo v6 4.0 liter that each put up published approx 900 hp and were probably tuned higher than that. Loeb won the Pike's Peak Hill climb race in his by obliterating the prior year record of 9'46" at 8'13" and change. Millen ran 9'02" but finished second. Take our engines and spin turbos on them and you'd have to see 1,000 hp. Way more than I could manage. The Loeb car on a flat track did 0-62 mph in 1.8 seconds, 0-124 mph in 7 seconds and to 149 in 10 seconds I believe. I love my lt5 and I love my 2008 LS2 with the 4:10 rear end but after seeing what people are doing with turbos it is hard not to think I might do something like that rather than the traditional re sleeve, port and relieve, solely if I were to do something more to the engine.

Lance

[Paul Workman]

Ah...the ol PEAK HORSEPOWER argument again... In an upcoming edition of the HOTB, the subject of torque and acceleration will be touched on, and for those that can "read between the lines", something will become clear when comparing contemporary pushrod architecture to DOHC. Lance's opinion on FI is correct, far as achieving really big HP numbers go (in anything that is street driven, BTW). But, the top speeds at the 1/2 mile shootout in Chicago were (exclusively?) DOHC platforms as well.

It is a never ending argument, I suppose. And, the venue has as much as anything to do with which engine architecture has an advantage; auto-cross and road courses favor low-end torque, the reason (in part) why the Challenge cars did so well. And, I believe, the reason the 1/2 mile smiled so favorably on the ZR-1s is due to the "long legs" of their DOHCs.

I tell ya what is going to end the argument tho...electric motors! A motor at each wheel is the future sports car; I'm talking hybrid. Bet on it. The question is how best to feed them? That will depend on the application. (Personally, I think it would be sexy to spin the generator(s) with a gas turbine. I suppose that might be fine for a LeMans type race, but not so much for a grocery getting in the "Family Truckster".)

Arguing about the virtues of various internal combustion architectures has been fun for a long time, though the sand is running out of the hourglass on that one, I believe.

We live in interesting times... But, my "antique" Corvette still has more capability than I'm capable of wringing out of it, tho I try to push the envelope when I can. I'm tellin ya that 5-2 down shift at around 50 and standing on that LT5 to mid 7000s has wiped the smirk off the faces of many would-be "bad azzez!" I'm just sayin!

P.

[XfireZ51]

Paul,

It's pretty amazing that you can do a 5-2 downshift on an LT5 without blowing up the motor.

[LancePearson]

Desdemondic valve operation...and what the W196 looked like...it was supercharged with technology of the day. 290 hp out of a 2.5 liter straight 8 cylinder engine then was a lot. Today more can be wrung out of it than that by far but usually with v6 or v8 architecture of something like 64 to 90 degree v's...puts them in smaller space or behind the driver and ahead of the rear wheels. The limit on power today seems to me that it is not knowledge but money to modify and install. You can get to huge horsepowers any of several ways. I'm looking forward to reading the torque/acceleration discussion. I can tell you the torque in my LS2 410 hp engine with a 4:10 rear end is nothing compared to that of my LT5. Not even close.

The Des. valve arrangement looks like you would go from four cams to six cams to do it which would seem to add complexity and cost...same arguments for sticking with the two valve pushrod engine architecture GM used. However, I wonder what the possible trade offs in benefits are? No one that I saw really said when referring to the Mercedes race car.

Lance