Mountainbike, I’ve got a built engine right now that may put out serious HP and torque numbers but I’m waiting for the right car to come along to put it in. When this deal gets done it will probably head to the dyno rollers because I’m real curious about this one.
It’s a Cadillac 500 C.I., hot cam, shaved and ported 425 Cadillac heads(upped the compression ratio considerably), aluminum intake with Holley, block hugger headers, and reworked advance mechanism in the distributor. Much of the garbage on the front is gone and has been replaced with a simple, homemade serpentine belt system. (machined my own balancer to achieve that end)
Removal of the stock intake and exhaust manifolds along with removal of the garbage on the front must have lightened it by 200 pounds!
These motors moved granny’s 2.5 ton DeVille around pretty well so it should scoot a 3000 pound something around even better.
The knowledge, experience, and skill shown by the other posters makes me ALMOST afraid to mention this story that I read in Road&Track 35 or 40 years ago.
Guy shows up at the Rolls Royce exhibit at the big auto show in London; appears to be very knowledgable about RR models. Invites the company people to come outside and see his “somewhat unusual” model Rolls. They see what looks like a Silver Phantom, but then one of company people notices that the hood (“bonnet”)is stretched a few inches. The guy opens the hood, and there is the Rolls Royce engine – the 12-cyl Merlin aircraft engine. When asked later how fast it might go, a company guy said “Oh, 200 MPH, no problem.” As I recall, he didn’t say anything about getting it to stop.
OP, in regards to your question about basically comparing a high performance 4 banger against a high performance V-8 big block here’s a few things to consider.
Near where I live there is a road racing circuit (Hallett) and a few years ago a guy showed up with a Merkur XR4Ti. This car is a German Ford and uses the Ford 2.3 4 cylinder.
It had a stock bottom end, opened up intake/exhaust, ported head, and had the boost pressure bumped up to about 25 pounds.
He ran this on the track against 40 year old Boss and CJ 428 Mustangs, 427 Corvettes, etc.
The big blocks would pull him out of the corners but on the straightaways the 140 cubic inch 4 banger would blow right by them.
A few years ago up in KS at a test and tune night at the strip a guy with a FWD Dodge Spirit (about as ho-hum as you can get) made a test run. Stock appearing car down to the hubcaps except he added a pair of slicks to the front. His first pass was in the high 13s and after about 4 more runs he had it in the low 12s. There’s no doubt in my mind after we left that he probably hit the high 11s with it and was outrunning a number of BB 8 cylinders.
As to streetability, even this car was iffy. Talking to him in the pits, he said that with street tires on the front it was near impossible to use as a driver. Unless he creeped off from every stop light the tires were always breaking loose. His car had never been dynoed but HP was likely in the 250 or so range.
Cosworth also created the special 4-cylinder Cosworth engine for the Vega Special edition. I think it only came in black. The engine used the standard block with a dual OHC heads with 4-valves per cylinder.
When I rebuilt my Vega engine (everyone did who kept them past 70k miles). I had the cylinders steel-sleaved…and put in 11:1 Compression Ratio pistons. Also added a dual carb setup that was designed for the Vega by Rochester Carb.
the correct phrase used should be; “money is speed, unless you have know-how”.
everybody here is so pessimistic. an american block is easiest to work with. there are a million guys that have done things to them to help you out. how many people do you know that specialize in honda street power?
you can get 1000 streetable HP in a twin trubo’d mustang. If you didnt know that, who are you to be saying “you cant get 1000 streetable HP!”
besides all that, chevys are the cheapest to build. but big blocks will make more power. not as cheaply, but still cheaper then foriegn exotic parts. 2000 hp is easy with an aftermarket block. although 800+ should be enough to stomp every single punk in tuners.
Good luck getting traction with the 2400 HP Corvette. What are the odds of it going on a 900 mile road trip and not breaking down? Weirdly the Veyron is a far more practical car that this Corvette.
“What are the odds of it going on a 900 mile road trip and not breaking down?”
Excellent! Saboury routinely drives to Ocean City, MD from Westminster (350 miles round trip). The cops are very, very interested. He pulls over so they can admire his Corvette close up; the seem to have developed quite a friendship. It’s not a trailer queen, and that makes his car all the more amazing.
There could be a difference of opinion on the meaning of the word streetable also.
I’m in agreement that it’s entirely possible to have a 1000 HP car and drive it across town in traffic.
However, my definition of streetable means a car that is a daily driver and sees normal or even semi-normal mileage totals per year; 12k , 15k miles, etc.
I get magazines such as Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Mopar Muscle and constantly see these cars in there that are claimed to be perfectly streetable but in the story makes references to 500 miles on the car since built, 2000 miles over the last year or so, etc. How do they even know what the car is like over the long haul?
If someone has a 1000 HP car that goes 30-40k miles without having to raise the hood for constant spark plug changes or inspections and does not require gassing up on Sunoco Race gas or at the local airport then I would agree they have a streetable car.
One issue of Muscle Mustangs featured a 9 second Fox-bodied Mustang that was claimed to be an everyday grocery getter. I’m just don’t believe the wife likes a tubbed car in which she has to crawl over a full roll cage to fill it up with 5 to 8 dollar per gallon fuel.
Still, those are 40 YO tec against brand new stuff. I was asking about “NEW” V-8 BB. I have no doubt that a new fuel injected will put one over a 40+ y/o 427.
(a 2.3 will never have that loverly rumble that a BB has)
Yeah, I understand what you mean. By steetable it means to me that you can take it on the street and not get a fat ticket just for showing your face on the street (excluding all the things you can do to get a fat one if you try).
But really who drives their toy all the time anyway?
There’s an enormous number of great comments here.
The comment about a 1000 horsepower streetable car being possible is interesting only because Bugatti has alrady done so. My definition of streetable is a car that can be comfortably driven around town or on the highway, day after day, with pump premium and no special skills. Not only would it not be a cop magnet, but it would be quiet, sane and safe. I’ve read test drives of the Veyron, including the one by the British show (the name escapes my) and it does all of these things flawlessly. The price is a mere $1.25M, but it meets all the criteria of a truely streetable 1000 HP car.
My comment that if there are no imposed limits on fuel type or cost there are undoubtably some 2000 HP hotrods out there (but you would not want to try taking them on a trip) is based on some beautiful T-bodies, early-30’s coupes, and such that I’ve seen with full out blown race engines and zoomies.
I have a feeling that the T-bodies and Coupes with the blown engines are what the OP had in mind.
OK4450, I wish I could see some of your work. I’ll bet that Caddy motor is going to be gorgeous.
If you’re using pump gas, once boost goes much over 15 psi you’d better be doing lots of stuff (intercooling, timing management, water injection, etc) to avoid detonation. The article I mentioned below goes into some of that.
Yes, that Veyron is a beast but I wonder how practical it really is in traffic? Television’s Simon Cowell stated that he bought a Lamborghini Gallardo and while the car was great on a track it was near worthless in traffic so he couldn’t drive it.
I’ve been on pins and needles a bit about that Cadillac engine also because I want to see it actually propelling something. Stock with dual exhausts, it’s rated about 400 HP and 525 Ft. Lbs on the torque. If the modifications bump it to 500 HP and 625 on the torque I’ll be ecstatic.
It’s also pretty neat to look at. It’s almost the same size and same weight as a Chevy 350 now that the stock exhaust/intake manifolds have been replaced and some iron on the front has been removed.
With the small valve covers and the Chevy orange paint several people have thought it was a Chevrolet 350 at first glance until the front mounted distributor sunk in.
Even the transmission mounted to it is an odd one. I pulled it out of '67 Buick LeSabre and it’s called an ST-400, which is the variable stall converter version of the TH400. The ST was only used for about 3 years back in the mid 60s and only on a few models such as Buick and Olds. The stall speed can be changed from 1800 to 2800 by either a switch on the throttle linkage or a dash mounted toggle, etc.
I read that Danika Patrick has a Gallardo. I’ll bet she’s hard to pass on the highway…
IMHO a '32 Vicky…not chopped, not channeled…would be the perfect recipient for the Caddy motor. But, then, I think the '32 Vicky is perfect for just about anything. What’s the fun if you can’t haul your family with you…in style?