Cool Cars

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally posted by evansk7


US-made cars tend to have very low power outputs for their size - why is that?

My (2003 model) 3 litre ford engine gives me only 220bhp, which means I'm getting less hp than half the other people in the office who drive BMWs, Hondas and Scooby's. There's one guy in the office drives an Impreza type P.. 277bhp from a 2L engine. And better fuel economy than me..

So c'mon, all you 'merkins... explain the fascination with big engines and low power output for a confused brit?

Kev (delurking for the second time this decade)

'Cause we're smarter.:p
America is a big place and has room for big cars. Big cars mean more weight and bigger engine compartments. So if you have the room, the cheapest way to make the torque necessary to move that weight, especially with the more and more popular automatic transmissions and power robbing accessories, is a large displacement engine. Oh, we had engines that made one hp per cubic inch(16.4cc), back in the 50’s, but they didn’t have the longevity the average motorist wanted.
In the early 70’s Detroit was hit with a double whammy, oil embargo and emissions regulations. Over the last 30 years they have evolved to lighter cars with smaller engines that are 99% cleaner. Electronics have played the biggest role in this evolution. My car has more computing power than most mainframes had 30 years ago. It also cost more. There are many, many European cars that have lots of power but won’t pass American safety and emission laws.
I’ll let TW tell you how our cars would be more efficient if the MBAs had built a supercollider and Bush hadn’t lied to help his oil business buddies.