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I am a dealer's son. My Dad went into the business when I was around 5and worked almost all aspects (including repossessions) of it through his death.
I had the opportunity to own/drive so many cars over the years and considered it to be a privilege.
We all buy cars for different reasons and for most of us growing up with the post WWII cars it was HP and the looks of the cars. They did make some beautiful cars at the time.
One that I had that stood out was a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S convertible. It had the 340 motor which was unrated power wise for insurance purposes. I think it was rated at 325 but would test out more like 375 and in my case the car only weighed in about 3100#. I abused that motor over the years and it just kept on running. The car surprised many people on the street with it's performance.
The suspension was pretty good too for a factory car at the time.
I think the car looked better with the top down than up.
But I loved the high/quick revving 340 motor in that car. I have also owned a 426 Hemi and a 440 6 pack in other MOPARs over the years.
I had V8 hot rods all my life, my last Vega had a 408 small block near drag race motor.
But my favorite right now is my Integra GSR. 1.8 liter, 170 HP. so nearly 100 HP per liter. 8,100 redline and it revs eagerly to that and pulls all the way. VTEC and a dual stage intake manifold, it sounds fantastic as I go through the close ratio gears.
I don't get the love for ancient big block V8 engines. Today, boring middle class cars have 300 hp and it's nothing special to own a 400 hp car. My totally pedestrian 6-cylinder Subaru Outback has 256 hp and 247 foot-lbs of torque.
When push comes to shove, it's the weight to horsepower ratio and a flat torque curve that matter. You can get a 500+ hp Mustang for sub-$50K that completely smokes any 1960's/1970's Detroit big metal and will actually go around a corner.
Lotus 907. Sure it was heavy and unreliable, but dual overhead cams and 150 -180 HP from a 1.8 in 1973?
Mazda Wankle 13B or whatever it was called (the three rotor one).
There is was a Honda that changed the cam shape based on demand. I am not describing it well. Pretty neat idea. Not sure how well it worked.
Prius - hate the car, but the drive is innovative.
Oddball five cylinder Volvo turbo. why 5?
Honda CvCC engine. Not sure that CvCC valve really added anything at all significant, but it was an interesting idea.
Gm Iron Duke. The most preposterously bad idea in automotive engineering. No power, no efficiency, no reliability, no fun to work on, it was even an ugly engine. One year, the Iron Duke Camaro was slower than the GM school bus of that year.
The twin turbo 6. No sure who first came out with it in production cars. The first one I was aware of was Mitsubishi in 1995, but there were probably earlier ones. 300+ HP out of a 6 is spectacular, especially in 1995.
While th new Dodge Hemi that is not a hemi engine puts out a lto of HP for a reasonable cost, I do not much like the engine. There are a lot of stupid design issues, like dual irridium spark plugs for each cylinder (adds little but cost), exhaust manifold bolts that break (common Chrysler problem), . . . It also bugs me that they named it "Hemi when it is not a hemi. sure I realize plysperical heads are more efficient and powerful now, but then why even use the name? It is misleading. Of course the Dodge "Polly" engine probably would not sell as well.
1. 1968-'71 Mopar 440-4 bbl. Good power output and loads of torque.
2. 1968-'70 Cadillac 472. Smooth, reliable and lots of torque.
3. 1966-'71 Mopar 426-Hemi. Great breathing capability and power.
Other engines I like: Mopar 340 and 383, Chevy 396, 427 and 454, Oldsmobile 455 W-30, Pontiac 400 Ram Air IV, Buick 455 Stage 1, Ford/Mercury 351 Cleveland, 390 and 427.
Mazda Wankle 13B or whatever it was called (the three rotor one).
There is was a Honda that changed the cam shape based on demand. I am not describing it well. Pretty neat idea. Not sure how well it worked.
Oddball five cylinder Volvo turbo. why 5?
Gm Iron Duke. The most preposterously bad idea in automotive engineering. No power, no efficiency, no reliability, no fun to work on, it was even an ugly engine. One year, the Iron Duke Camaro was slower than the GM school bus of that year.
The twin turbo 6. No sure who first came out with it in production cars. The first one I was aware of was Mitsubishi in 1995, but there were probably earlier ones. 300+ HP out of a 6 is spectacular, especially in 1995.
The 13B was 2 rotor. We never got the 20B 3 rotor engine over here officially.
Are you sure you are not describing VTEC?
The Iron Duke wasnt sexy or fast but it was reliable. It did what was asked of it. They even build a racing Super Duty version of it and campaigned it.
I guess it what Nissan that came to our market first with a V6TT in the 300ZX Twin Turbo in 1990. The 3000GT VR-4 came along a year later.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I have to go with the engine on my first car, a 1958 Chrysler. It was a 392 Hemi (real Hemi) with 4 barrel and dual exhaust, 345 horsepower. With all drum brakes that had to be manually adjusted it didn't stop well, but that engine was a beauty. The Chrysler 300 had dual 4 barrels (shown below). Overall, the Chevrolet 350 is probably the most reliable, versatile and popular engine of all time. I had one on a 1972 El Camino that I restored, with 330 HP, but yes, today a V6 or even 4 banger with turbo can put out that much.
I don't get the love for ancient big block V8 engines. Today, boring middle class cars have 300 hp and it's nothing special to own a 400 hp car. My totally pedestrian 6-cylinder Subaru Outback has 256 hp and 247 foot-lbs of torque.
Me either! I was at a NHRA event a couple years ago and they were STILL using the old 60's hemi as an engine platform in the top fuel cars. Couldn't they come up with something better after all these years?
Yeah, the old 340's were a great engine and never got the respect it deserved. In a Challenger it was a beast. I built one for bud back around 2000 that we put in an old Dodge 1 ton van. With 4.10 gears it was a huge sleeper and many are still wondering what was in it. That engine responded well to cam, lifters, headers and bigger carb. Getting enough tire under it was a problem.
My mom was also into drag racing, the whole family was. She started with a GTO and her last was a 71 Olds 88 with the 455. Nice car and the 455 really pushed it quite nice. I don't recall any of her times but she held her own. On the street, it was another sleeper that made many a Mustang drivers cry. Neat to watch a full size sedan walk a hopped up Mustang. Obviously, hers wasn't stock either but it looked stock unless you looked at the rear tires and suspension. Sometimes other drivers only got to see the back of it.
The small block GM engines are my favorite though. That's what I started with and built a number of them over the years. You can take one as far you like and not break the bank or the engine. Built a couple of 302 Z's too. Put one in a 56 Chevy coupe that we had to make custom mounts for it as it would rip a new motor mount on launch. That one had twin Holleys sitting on top with a roller cam with pinned studs. Pretty wild car even though it wasn't mine. My bud finally managed to pop the engine. The tack had locked up at 10 grand. That's almost unheard of back then.
One engine I always wanted to work on was the GM Mystery motor. I have a friend that owns one but it sits in a museum of sorts. He's a car collector and it's rare for anybody to even see any of them. But it was an interesting engine that I would have loved to tinker with. Not many know about it. Same with the Ford DOHC 427, not too many know about them as there just wasn't many built.
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I don't get the love for ancient big block V8 engines
Real simple, you could work on one. Today you need to know computer programming and what parts will work with what programming. Back then, all you needed was a toolbox and a clue. That's when we had mechanics. Today we have new parts fitters- few have a clue about what makes it run great or how to rebuild anything. The average Joe can't afford the equipment to work on one today. Parts are incredibly expensive too. Back then, a new alternator was 25 bucks as was a water pump, starter, or power steering pump. You could tune one up for 10 bucks in parts. Yeah, the engines today are a lot stronger and get far better fuel mileage. But they lack the character of the old iron. If you had a clue back then and broke down on the road, most often you could get back up and running if you had a pair of pliers and screw driver. I threw a push rod in my 348 60 Chevy Convertible out in the country. No big deal. Pulled the valve cover, pulled the rod out, beat it with a hammer until it looked reasonably straight, put it back in, put the valve cover back on and drove the car another 50,000 miles before I traded it in. Can't do that with a cam follower today.
I rather like the S14 of the E30 M3, but, I guess I would. Just very engaging to drive.
More pedestrian but easier to live with as a daily, the 1.7 liter of my old Scirocco. Not a world beater for power, but close to 40 MPG if driven somewhat conservatively, in over 200K miles of use it seems to have not given anything up to wear. It uses about a quart of oil in 12,000 miles (Redline 10-40)
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