their cheaper and we want somewhat good fuel economy, thats us audi guys dont know about the evos and subis. our V6's are smaller and make more power overall but their still a bit expensive for us younger guys and for those of us that do want the light powerful high revving audi V8's definetly cant afford them, so we go with a 1.8t or 2.0t for tuning

 

I think they all behave differently and each gives its own unique driving experience. Personally, I love the sound of the turbo and the big torque is great fun to drive on a daily basis. The 2.0T is an awesome engine. Having said that, I drove the S5 several weeks ago and there was nothing sweeter sounding than that V8 growling around the track.



Cheers!

 

chef if you want an amazing V8 sound drive the RS4 or when the audi driving experience is back in town get some time in the R8, reving those engines intot he 8k mark is amazing and the speaking from experience the RS4 just pulls and every gear change is so crisp. pure sex in one of those V8 cars.

 

That is what has made the American car companies sell their cars. European 6 cyls, are more powerful than many American V8s and most of American V6s. They (Europeans) achieved this by combining technology, which is still a sci-fi for people in Detroit. If a European company wants a 300Hp car, they will add turbos and complex technology to achieve it, whereas, GM/Ford will simply put a 6 liter V8, and usually that doesn't work well for the consumer. This was the reason that they laughed at Audi Quattro when it came in 80's to take part in rally's because it only had 5 cyl., whereas American (so called muscle cars) had V10 or V12. Therefore, a technically tuned 4 cyl engine is good enough, than a plain V8..sometimes.

 

^^ wow that seemed really technical, but also made sense

 

^^ Best explaination so far.

 

He hehehe hehee. Heeeee. Whooo. Hehe. Ok, I'm better now.




Here's the thing. I have had every type of car possible. Muscle cars (66 Mustang coupe with punched 351W, 69 Cutlass with 455, 69 Camaro with 427),retro hot rods (51 Ford coupe with 327),luxury cars (Lincoln Towncar, 58 Cadillac Series 62), off-roaders (79 Blazer), sport sedans (Lincoln LS and Audi S4), ultra-performance sedans (E39 M5, with a five liter V-8, I might add), even asuper-truck (02 supercharged Lightning, which incidentally got sold this morning). In a week, I'll be in a three litersport coupe.

Every car made has a purpose. Every driver has acertain needwhich their choice of cars must meet. The trick is to find the car which fits your needs, and trickier still is to realize that your needs are not global, others have different needs from your's. Some needs are regional. For example, if I live in Belize, I have little need for an AWD sedan, as inclement weather is as rare as non-watered beer at the tourist restaurants. Likewise, if I live in Manhattan, a Defender 90 is going to be no more utilitarian than an VW Golf. If I live in Helena, Montana where there are no curved roads, low-power but great handling car like an Elise or MR2will never get used properly. And if I live in rural England where no road stretches straight for more than 500 yards (or metres, I suppose) a 70 Chevelle SS454 is going to feel something like the Lusitania in a kiddie pool.

Other needs are present, of course, maybe I can shift a manual quicker than a hiccup, but I couldn't spot a late apex withDamon Hill pointing right at it. Maybe I want a performance car but can't swing the 10mpg or $300/mo insurance. Maybe mommy and daddy bought me my car so I make due with what I have until I can get better. Maybe my job requires me todrive around with clients, but I still want something fun for the rest of the time.Or maybe, maybe I just don't care and drive whatever is cheap.

Furthermore, while you can make serious power with a force-induction V-8, generally speaking they are considerably more expensive to do so than a four or six cylinder, especially if the V-8 was originally naturally aspirated. Plus the handling aspect, sure a powerful V-8 in a light car would handle great, if it weren't for the fact that cheap V-8 cars are not light, and light V-8 cars are not cheap.

As long as we're on the subject, it being a V-8 or an inline six or a flat four or whatever has no bearing whatsoever on how much power it's capable of producing. Power is contingent upontwo things, how much air and fuel you can get into and out of the engine in a given amount of time, and how completely you can burn that fuel. More air and fuel equals more power, everytime. The only thing that cylinder confuguration has to do with it is that it allows for greater displacement with lower piston speeds. If a V-8 and a four cylinder (or a single cylinder for that matter) are burning the same amount of fuel and air and burning it equally efficiently, they will make the same power.

 

wouldn't it be a helluva lot easier to have 8 cylinders to stuff air/fuel into as opposed to 4 though?

and a question, seeing as how i don't know much about 4 cylinders and the bunch, does driving an 8 cylinder provide a much smoother ride over a 4 cylinder like it would seem (2x power strokes)?

or is it a miniscule difference?

 

Average american 350ci motor - 5.7L V8 - Maybe 300 hp.
LS7 motor ('07 Z06) - 7L V8 - 505hp.

BMW's S54 motor - 3.2L straight six - 320-330 hp.
Audi RS4 - 4.2L V8 - 420hp.
Porsche 911 GT3 - 3.6L H6 - 415hp.
My 'priller motor - 1L V-twin - 140hp.

In my personal opinion, it's not about displacement or cylinder count. It's the power/displacement ratio that speaks to me of a motor's level of engineering and technology. 100hp/L is straight magic. As you can see here, America simply sucks at building engines. Oh, and all the examples above are naturally aspirated. Here's a few examples of FI for comparison, and as you'll plainly see, Detroit sucks at that too. Off the top of my head...

'03 Ford SVT Cobra - 4.6L V8, Roots type supercharger - 390 hp.
'89 Porsche 959 - 2.85L H6, turbocharged - 444 hp.

 

Depends on your definition of easier. In reality, it's slightlyeasier because you can get lower piston speeds with the same displacement in a smaller overall package. You can get lower piston speeds with a four cylinder, but to do so you have to have a shorter stroke and a larger bore, which slows the piston down and allows for a more complete fuel burn, thus equating to more power out of the same displacement. However, if you wanted a five liter four cylinderwith low piston speeds, it would have to beseriously oversquare (oversquare means that the bore is larger than the stroke, undersquare means the stroke is longer than the bore, for those who might not know). Oversquare engines have two issues, first that they have to rev higher to make power and second they have to be physically larger because the pistons obviously are larger and thus youadd a lot of weight.

The downside to V-8sis that as you increase the number of cylinders, your efficiency drops, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. You get extra drag from having more rod journals, you get slightly reduced fuel delivery efficiency from having the air travelling farther from the throttle body and almost always travelling unequal distances from the throttle body to the cylinder.


Theoretically, that's correct, since there is half as much time between power strokes, they should be smoother,though I'venever really seen it make a difference in the real world. I think that since there's such a miniscule amount of time between four banger firing, splitting it betweeneight cylinders isn't noticeable.I've only seen that be an issue with bikes, going from fours to twins, you can feel a difference. When I was racing, I could slip the back tire of my 916 Ducati no problem, and I had lots of control, but I couldn't do it so well with the Yammie R6, even though the R6 was modded and had similar power to the stock 916. Keith Code (bike guru) told me that it was because there was more recovery time for the tire since the Ducati was a twin and had more dead time between firing cycles.


Might mention that you mean an Aprilia bike. I don't think most people would catch what you mean otherwise...


My RX-7 makes 330hp per liter.

What power an engine makes from the factory has little bearing on how capable it is. I've seen Cobra blocks make 1700hp and more,I can't thinkof any Porsche streetmotor than cando that. Doesn't mean one engine is better, doesn't mean one is a technological marvel and the other is not. Ford could have easily boosted the Cobra more and gotten 800hp from the factory, but there were other considerations, namely insuring a car like that and the number of dead teenagers if they could just buy a car like that from the factory. Liability plays as much a part of a factory engine's output as technological advancement does.




I know....