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I am the only Die Hard Pontiac guy around left around here Grumpy.When I look over the local guys racing cars its obvious that the current small block fords and chevy LS engines and the use of turbo's,
in the newer car builds, are much more common that the use of the older big block, 392-and 426 hemi, 429-460 ford, 440 dodge wedge, 454 Chevy and 400-455 Pontiac's,
that most Of the guys I grew up with raced.
many of the guys I grew up hanging out with, and helping work on their cars were seriously into building and driving,
Fords,Pontiac, Buick, Plymouth, Chevy, Dodge,and AMC cars.
those fox body mustangs don,t weigh a great deal and the lower weight is a huge advantage in getting to a decent power to weight ratio to compete with the hellcats 707 rated horse power engine,
the real key is access to a structurally, strong & rigid block, forged rotating assembly components,decent internal and valve train geometry, and cylinder heads that flow well.
the fact is that almost any of the larger displacement American V8 engines can produce 1.2-1.5 horse power per cubic inch N/a ,
and 2-3 horse power per cubic inch if your running non-pump octane fuels and turbos or nitrous, but you can,t really change the laws of physics, some engine designs DO have advantages and some have designed in limitations
A lot comes down to the clutch or torque converter chosen.the thing is that you almost have to use a small motor to make 1800+ hp because a big block making that power hits too hard grumpy.. i watched a 2000 hp big block 550+" turbo car nearly shake off 16x33" slicks... lost to a 1500 hp 4th gen fbody with 370" because it had way more traction and was all around a much less violent crazy car to drive.