Is the Veyron street legal?
If the compression ratio is higher than the street E85 cars, it seems to me it would be more like alcohol fueled race cars. NHRA funny cars and dragsters certainly use the combination to their advantage.
Oh, yes, it’s a production street legal car in the US. Just super expensive.
I’m aware of the 2400 HP Corvette that is mentioned because I have a magazine stashed back somewhere with an article on this beast.
As to that Vette being a streetable car (defined to me as one that actually gets driven on the street on a very regular basis) I don’t buy it.
If that guy puts an honest and verifiable 5000 miles a year on it then I’ll believe it.
It takes more than a license plate, a hop or two across town, and claim to make it legitimately streetable. Just my opinion anyway.
We used to have a guy here who had a 65 Malibu that was also streetable; tagged, insured and the whole shebang.
The car had a 327 that was churning out about 550 HP and he took this one out on the street at times but it was a nightmare to keep it there.
The interview in the Baltimore Sun says that Saboury runs errands and cruises the town. It is not his everyday ride. He drives an F-250 for his roofing business. Since it goes to Ocean City and he drives it around town, it appears to get at least a couple thousand miles per year. The car is raced, but the articles don’t say whether he trucks it there or drives it to the track.
Yeah, I remember. They sold it as the GT version. It was distinguished by a wide strip up the middle, a black grill, and a bit wider tires. My roomie in the Air Force had one. His was red.
I owned a GT…and it was NOT a Cosworth. The ONLY difference between the Standard Vega and the GT was the GT had a 2barrell carb while the standard the 1barrell.
11:1? Dual carbs? Cool.
How’d the drivetrain hold up?
It held up ok. The one thing about his car was that there were at least 3 different transmissions for that vehicle (even in the same year). The one I had was made by Opel. The rear axle I had replaced it a couple years earlier (axle came out). I put 60k on the engine before I was rear-ended. I pulled the engine and sold it to a friend who was building a custom vega.
That should REALLY haul. I had a 1972 Fleetwood with a 472 in it (and this was after they'd lowered the compression compared to 1970-and-older so it "only" needed 91 octane gas), I got it to do 0-60 in 8 once, 9 or so was reliable -- and that was just mashing the gas, not revving it for a launch or any of that business. Stock, just had to replace the very bad condition plugs, wires, cap and rotor when I got it.
As for building up an engine, the torque is where it's at more than the horsepower. All else being equal, an engine with more torque, and especially a broad torque curve, will outaccelerate a car with a somewhat higher horsepower rating but either low torque rating, or torque only within a narrow RPM band (generally high RPMs). Of course if you're talking turbos etc., they tend to generate absolute GOBS of torque (as well as horsepower.)
These 2000HP cars are generally not streetable, usually they'd have a hot cam, probably funky gearing, possibly reliability problems, and it'd be hard to feather the throttle enough to not accelerate excessively for street conditions. Although having a switch to flip down to more streetable power would work.
I think the secret to a high power car that is reliable will soon be direct injection though -- a few stock cars have it just in the last few years. The big trick with direct injection, detonation is impossible! Ping, knock, detonation, it's all caused by the fuel preigniting. Direct injection injects the fuel DIRECTLY into the cylinder only when it's needed -- the fuel can't preignite because it's not there yet. Nissan has already raised the compression on direct injected models from a previous 8.5:1 or so to like 12:1 or so. "Back in the day" you could get 12:1 compression engines in stock cars but you would need about 95-100 octane gas (leaded of course)... this Nissan does it on 87. Even the turbo models are at 11:1 (still only needing 87!), which would have been madness previously (most turboed engines are like 7:1 for street use, and still require at least 91.)This URL was sent to me from a friend of mine today. I thought it was appropriate for this discussion.
The '72 GT came with the dual cam Cosworth head. They must have changed the configuration of the '73 and put the head in a newly-created more expensive model.
No, Europeans make more powerful street engines than do Americans, many with lower displacement than the most powerful American engines. The difference is Americans make their power more cheaply and reliably.
Japan never got into that horsepower war, due to their 276 hp “gentleman’s agreement.”
An aluminum SBC is a good option in a lot of cars, but even that can’t beat an aluminum block 4 cylinder or a rotary for applications where light weight matters. (The LSx engines are actually lighter than some iron-block I4s, though.) Also, many people like high-revving engines, and for the most part American V8s aren’t.
Horsepower per liter is pretty pointless for comparing engines. It somewhat translates into where the engine will make its power, so why not just say “300 hp @ 7000 rpm” or whatever it is.
Hey OK4450,your rig sounds great(about what I would like) what is it?700-5K sounds very streetable. Very practical-Kevin
I dont believe in absolutes,somebody will always be willing to fork over the big bucks to be the leader of the pack.I see too many young guys blowing thier money on things that only make a minimal improvement.
Has anyone seen the 65 Chevelle with the V1710 Allison?-Kevin