Well, there was a turbocharged 2.0 V6 tax break special, so some of the manifolding etc may already exist.

276bhp is the official figure, but the tested engines have come out at around 300bhp.

www.nsxprime.com is the place to go to ask if there are any engines about, there may not have been many NSXs sold in the UK (around 800) but in the states and worldwide there are around 8-10 thousand out there, so sourcing an engine shouldn't be too difficult. It just depends on how much you want to spend.

If you get one in the states, you could always do this
www.scienceofspeed.com/products/engine%5Fperformance%5Fproducts/NSX/ScienceofSpeed/custom%5Fengine%5Fprogram/FI%5Fcustom%5Fengine%5Fprogram/
to it before getting it shipped over here

What about Cadillac northstar - transverse v8?
Goes in the front of a golf:
www.cwstuning.com/gallery/coupe-degolf
Only came as an auto, but it looks like it has the same bellhousing pattern as other GM front wheel drive setups.

or turbo sbc on a transverse autobox:
http://fieroaddiction.com/SBCTa.html

I would use an LS1, not an old iron sbc and use a 4t80e as it would be stronger - aftermarket programmable controlers for the autoboxes are available. Depends if the thought of an autobox floats your boat..

Or in the back of a MR2
www.v8mr2.com/

might have been asked before, but do you really NEED 500bhp??????

i ask cos if you speack to the likes of stig in the Ultima section less than 500bhp can still be very entertaining in a light weight car!

he had a 600+bhp GTR but has sold that and now has a 400+bhp Can-Am and says its prosiable better!!

now if all the above doesn't apply to you then ok lets look at this logicaly. 500bhp is quiet a big number, esp. if you want it to be useable and reliable! track work or any kind of racing will make this figgure harder on the engine than for road use. as will VERY sticky tires.

now 500bhp isn't all that hard! why not go for a 1.3 ltr 'busa engine tuned by holeshot??? its very light, makes bags of power, comes with a 6 speed sequential box, etc, etc. down sides? has to be run on race gas, wont last teriabley long, will need regular rebuilds and will cost quiet a bit! lol

now even with a 2.0 ltr its not going to be a walk in the park! uyour still pushing around 250bhp per ltr, which is wuiet a lot! but if you really want to go for a 4 pot then i would look for a nice Evo 4G63 unit. with alot of cash you can get a very useable 500bhp out of these things. id go 2.4ltr stroker (RC Developments does a nice one i think) and a GT35R turbo. you will need high lift cams with pullies, a very good intercooler/chargcooler system, standalone ECU (motec is a good one), a Very good tuner (Norris Design, RC, etc,), plus a hole heap of other bits and bobs to make the think work!

thanks Chris.

PS could you not settle with 300-350bhp from a Honda Ka20 or a Audi 1.8t??? reliable and proven in mid engined cars (see Lotus elise transplants).

Napiersport who now make the Corse Stratos replica have one with a twin turbo Alfa V6. However, it's also mounted inline and mated to a Porsche transaxle.

Have you even considered the gearbox? 500bhp is a lot of power and few production gearboxes will survive it for long.

And as has already been asked, do you really even need 500bhp? Especially in such a short car?

As Tony Blair will tell you - power is nothing without control.

Anyway, you can contact Napiersport via www.superstratos.com

eliot, i was only saying if i had to go with a four pot!

also OEM turbo cars can allways be made to spoll faster. stock jurnal bearing turbos kill spool on small engines turbo cars. ball bearing is a much better solution. even the US V8 guys are getting into it now!

and as you will need a standalone ECU, why not run anti-lag??? hehe

Also to the original question, how about an Alfa V6 with a Rotex,Vortec,ProCharger type supercharger on there?? these will be much kinder to the transmition and should be easier to hadle than a turbos on/off boost delivery???

thanks Chris.

welll why not go for a compound boosted engine??? a guy with a fiesta has done a mid mount (used to br in the front) with his twin charged 1.9 (might be 2.1 now) CVH. he ran a small ish roots blower and then a T34 and ran N2O ontop of that! made great power for the engine.

would be even better with the alfa engine!

OR you could go for a V6 built for boost, then fit magnacharger, Kene Bell, or Whipple blower on top!!! that would give you a V6 that feels like a big V8.

thanks Chris

The Merc 3 valver single cam engine is a compact light weight engine [it DOES have aluminium block]. In Naturally aspirated form comparing like for like it weighs the same as the exceptionally light BMW 328i M50 engine (about 160 Kgs- the Jag 175kgs I quoted earlier is not a good comparision as it includes anciliaries this comparision doesn't).
They come out equal, because the BMW has a heavy straight six crankshaft (23 to 25 kgs) but the Merc has more valve gear, sprockets etc etc and a balancer shaft. The Merc has a capacity advantage but the Bimmer has VCT. Unfortunately the Bimmer is NOT compact for this kind of thing being a straight six...

i have thought about stuff like that! cant imagine the fuel consumption being to good though!

but to be honnest i dont think compound boost is that bonkers! crafty (off here) posted some great compound boost OZ manarnos on lS1tech the other day. they ran a centrifugal blower into a roots blower. so at low RPM the roots is doing all the work and at higher rpm the cent. SC is tacking over. and there is no need to worry about over boosting as the centrifugal supercharger is the overalll limiting factor. i think the 5.7 ls1 was making about 620bhp at the rear wheals!

also if the like of VW can get it to sell then i think it has great chance! imagine if they ditched the 3.2ltr V6 for a 2.0ltr twincharged engine?

thanks Chris.

PS. have you considered the VW VR6 and the newer 3.2 V6?? they are very tunable and you can get turbo and supercharger kits to make BIG power.