Competetive 4-cylinders in Comp?

[Axis Racing]

Sounds like the Honda is run at 134"? How are the H/EA power numbers compared to the L/A and F/D?

I'm talking hp per inch here....

[david ring]

My engine builder (Al Ackerman) never tells me those things-since his motors have always made my car go fast, I've never really pushed him of the subject either. Plus the real value of a dyno is not what the HP numbers are but how the HP numbers change as you make a tuning change.

[Axis Racing]

I'm sorry, I'm not really looking for specifics. More so, I'm wondering if the engines in the few 4-cyl comp classes all make similar #'s. I have no idea what it takes to be competetive in Comp., but it seams that all the competetive engines are quite large for 4-cylinders. I'm looking to run a FWD car in SS, with a 4-valve combo. Due to the high weight of a SS car, and the SS/CX class' 12lbs. per cu.in., I'll be somewhere in the neighborhood of 164" or so. That in itself is a pretty big 4-cylinder, but the 200" stuff like the F/D guys seem to be running is even bigger. I'd heard that there was someone running a 122" Honda in F/D, but that would require a car that's 40% lighter than a 200" Splayed valve deal.

I would really like to talk with someone that's running a competetive n/a Comp 4-cylinder to see if my thoughts of power requirements are even in the ballpark. It does nobody any good to spend a bunch of money to NOT BE competetive.

I can be reached at brian@phenixindustries.com if anyone is willing to give me a little guidance.

[Backyard Bandit]

I have considered running a turbo-charged front wheel drive car in comp. Have you thought about that?
Here's our car

[art leong]

Tim Kish, Larry Dowty, and myself run (or have run) FWD cars in SS/GS. We have different approches to the goal. Larry ran a Quad 4 engine and a manual trans. Tim runs a 120 inch neon engine and an auto trans. I run a 150 SRT4 block and an auto trans. All 4 valve heads.
All of us have run 13.0's or better. At 18 pounds per inch. And each of us has got the index hit.
These 4 cylinders make a lot of power. But I'm not sure you can get a car light enough to run 12 pounds per inch.
And expect to get an awful lot of hand made "one of's". And they aren't cheap.
In superstock with the breakout I'm sure you can build a competive car, but in comp it might be another thing.
One big problem is final drive (gear) ratio. Most factory final drives are in the low three's. And this makes for a major problem
Welcome to the 4 cylinder world.

[Backyard Bandit]

You don't have to tell me about the one-off parts. People have come a long way with the auto trans cars recently. That's why we were considering it.

[art leong]

Originally Posted by Backyard Bandit

You don't have to tell me about the one-off parts. People have come a long way with the auto trans cars recently. That's why we were considering it.

If you are going to drive off the front wheels. The trans themselves are fine. I even have a fully functional trans brake for the chrysler fwd trans. The gear ratio is the major hurdle. I have a custom set of side gears, and the biggest we could go is a 3.94 ratio with out extensive work to the trans case.
Before people b1tch about the indexs for the front drive cars. They should think about how fast a rwd car could go if they were restricted to a 4.0 rear gear.