mm_omega2 said:
If you beat a 4cyl with a v-8...what real bragging rights do you have?
You have the bragging rights that you won the race.
I'm not going to call you a ricer, or tell you that you don't know anything about V8s, etc... but your logic is seriously flawed.
I thought the whole point of a race was to make it to the finish line quicker. How people somewhere along the line got the idea that nitrous is "cheating", or that a V8 should "pull 4 plugs" to make it even is downright asinine. If I have 4 more cylinders than you, and I have nitrous... then my car is a V8 with nitrous and I'd be a damn idiot not to use the power I have. Run what you brung... excuses are made by the driver of the slower car.
The other thing you are forgetting in a SRT-4 vs. Z28 type comparison is the forced induction the SRT has. The Z28 has 4 more cylinders? Fine. The SRT has a turbo. You do realize that for every 14.7 psi of boost thrown at a motor, the effective displacement and A/F being consumed is doubled, right? That means a 2.5L STi with 12 lbs of boost is operating very similarly to a 5.0L DOHC N/A V8. People rave about the specific power output (HP/L - which is a garbage statistic in the first place), but they don't realize it's practically the same thing. Tell someone you are producing 300 HP with a DOHC 5.0L V8, and you'll hear shit like, "yeah but you got 4 more cylinders", or "that's all the HP you can make with 5.0L??? Shit, I'm making 300 HP out of my turbo 2.5L" ... stupid arguments.......
A couple more things... you said a Cobalt SS or SRT-4 could whip on your 94 Z28 if they were driven properly. That's pretty close to accurate because the 94 Z28 was LT1 powered... if you take on a LS1 Z28 (98+), you wouldn't fare nearly as well, and the driver would have to start making serious errors before the SS or SRT could keep pace. We all know that a Dodge Omni can beat a Ferrari when the universe aligns... but for the sake of an intelligent argument, let's assume grandma isn't driving any of these cars, ok? The discussion was about the CAR, not the driver.
And finally, you menioned a Ford Pinto with a 460, and then went on to say, people hate getting beat by a car with a smaller engine. A 460 is a bigger engine than a Camaro has (346)... so I'm not sure what you were trying to say there...
I am never going to be pissed off if a lose to a car with a smaller motor. The only time I am going to be pissed is if I lose to a slower car... and in that case, I'll only have myself to blame.