Most powerful 4 cylinder 16v engine without VVT
Discussion
neiljohnson said:
tr7v8 said:
944 was not variable cam timing & was 211BHP, 968 had vario cam & was 240BHP.
The 944 varies the cam timing by adjusting the tension on the timing chain tensioner it's a primitive way of doing it but is variable The 968 was powered by an updated version of the 944's straight-4 engine, now displacing 3.0 L with 104 mm bore, 88 mm stroke and producing 240 PS (236 hp/177 kW). Changes to the 968's powertrain also included the addition of Porsche's then-new VarioCam variable valve timing system, newly optimized induction and exhaust systems, a dual-mass flywheel, and updated engine management electronics among other more minor revisions.
davepoth said:
E30 BMW 320iS was a tax class special for Italy and Spain (there was a massive tax jump for cars over 2 litres). It was basically an E30 M3 with a 1990cc destroked engine, and made 189hp at 6900 rpm, or 94.97 bhp/litre.
Close but no cigar! Both the Merc 190E EVOII & the BMW E30 M3 Evo Sport were over 95bhp/litre.
stevesi:Dgo said:
OP did post (#3) 2.0lt or below. In which case I think as far as unmodified production engines go the BMW 320iS wins it. Unmodified would be difficult to predict, but the Caterham JPE Vauxhall would be a good bar to set for a start.
Ah, didn't notice it was changed to 2.0lt. Anyway, I'm incorrect now on two counts. After converting PS to BHP the Evo II has 94.2bhp/litre & the Evo Sport has 95.3bhp/litre. So, the E30 320iS is as already previously stated by davepoth a clear winner. No cigar for me Fair point, however bike engines tend to be high revving low torque compared to car engines, whcih tend to be high revving and low torque compared to truck engines. I guess the longer life expectancy of car engines plays a part too, but unless you want hundreds of gears or to be replacing the clutch every few thousand miles, you want some torque from the engine.
RizzoTheRat said:
Fair point, however bike engines tend to be high revving low torque compared to car engines, whcih tend to be high revving and low torque compared to truck engines.
No they don't. Bike engines have more torque per litre than car ones and car ones more per litre than truck ones. You're confusing absolute torque and torque per litre. Absolute torque is a function of engine size and that is irrelevant in determining how "good" an engine is in relative terms.Diesel engines don't even have a good spread of torque compared to petrol ones despite people forever banging on about how torquey they are. That's why they need so many gear ratios to drive anything properly.
If we're ignoring capacity limit, then I'd mention the engine in the Fiat Mephistopheles GP car. An 18.7 litre 4-cyl nicked from their production aeroplanes, it made something over 200hp before all the pistons made a bid for freedom through the bonnet and it was replaced with a 6-cyl
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