Quote:
Originally Posted by Yardjass
I'm not following how that matters at all. In the face of these stricter standards, you can now get a V6 in a pickup or pony car that rivals the v8's from a decade or two ago.
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Well, you're comparing motors then and now which are light years apart in technology and output. A comparison between an F20/22 and an FA20 is far more a comparison of equal technologies, cylinder layout aside (and really irrelevant), than a new 3.5 - 4 liter motor with 12+ compression, 4 valves/cyl, modern engine management, etc. versus a 8.7:1, cast iron pushrod lump from 1986 which made power from displacement, primarily. The ever tightening noose of emissions standards makes it progressively more difficult to extract power while still burning clean...the fact that many manufacturers are going to forced induction to achieve a desired power level rather than doing so through rpms highlights that. It's much easier to make a motor run clean within a ~5000 rpm operating range (or even 6500 like ours) than an 8000+ rpm one, at equivalent power output. Likewise, I believe making the numbers the F20 made in 1999 would make the motor less likely or impossible to pass modern emissions requirements. Honda has dropped vtec recently and gone to forced induction for this very reason (along with others).