Rash comments

[C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

Joe Elliott suggests that the old 2.5 liter Alfa V6 putting out 150 or so 
horsepower is more than a match for the latest 5.7 liter Corvette at 365hp. 
The Alfa is at 62 hp/l more or less and the pushrod iron V8 is at 64 hp/l. 
To get the 62hp/l Alfa uses a short stroke sohc crossflow design built of 
aluminum, prone to breaking bits like the timing belt. GM on the other hand 
uses three lumps of iron with wedgy combustion chambers prone to breaking 
just about nothing that can't be fixed with a set of combination wrenches 
in an afternoon under the shade tree.

Now when we get realistic and compare the hot Corvette engine at 405 hp, or 
74 hp/l, utilizing the same "advanced" technology and compare that to let 
us say the Alfa quattrovalvole dohc all aluminum engine, that is as modern 
as we got out of Europe in the last 164LS, developing what was it 220 hp? 
That's 73 hp/l a little less than the Corvette.

Sorry Joe, but as I've heard from a Southerner not so long ago, "thayut 
dawg won't hunt, boy"

Sure we have naturally aspirated modern ohc engines developing over 100 
hp/l but none of those approaches 5.7 liters. Certainly none of those is as 
cheap as the Corvette engine. And most importantly, none of those cars can 
actually beat a modern Corvette, either in a straight line or on the track.

Quibblers might claim the 164 engine put out 240 hp or 80hp/l (did anyone 
actually get to buy one of those in North America?) but they should know 
that GM could easily up the Corvette engine to that level if anyone 
actually wanted to buy one.

The debate was about the superiority alleged for ohc engines over pushrod 
engines in street vehicles with respectable performance. No such 
superiority can be demonstrated. Europhiles like myself might not like 
driving the Corvette as much as a European car, but don't let's descend 
into ridiculous claims that the Corvette cannot outperform just about any 
other street car out there, for a pile less money. And you will get that 
silly grin on your face that you just can't wipe off every time you screw 
up the courage to actually put that gas pedal to the floor in a modern 
Corvette and hold it there. Sixty miles an hour comes up awful quickly and 
you don't even have to shift the danged thing. It is in fact as fast or 
faster than anything else out there plus it feels about six times faster 
than it actually is. Just stand on it and hang on, there's just nothing 
like it.

Pushrod iron engine eh? At least the muffler is high tech, it's titanium!

Cheers


Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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