Well, I finally got a letter published in Road&Track, and it is about the RX-8! I corrected their statement that the Ferrari 458 produces the most hp per liter than any naturally aspirated car in production. I politely pointed out that the RX-8 is still in production and produces 178 hp per liter versus the 126 hp per liter of the Ferrari.

 

Wee....

Where's your free T shirt?

I thought you got one when you found a goof......

 

2.6 liters

 

Why not reproduce your letter here.

 

as yax said, the rx8 is technically 2.6 liters.

its like our 9k but really 3k rpm redline.

or our 238 but really 215 horsepower.

this car is full of lies.

 

Lets not forget this car has a rotary engine. To compare pistons to rotor is an apples to orange comparison right from the start. As noted by others too we have (2) rotors. So as much I support the comparison (love the 8), gotta think about the validity of the comparison.

 

Hey, it's not our fault that a 4-stroke piston engine is so space-inefficient.

 

wait wut?

 

srsly??

the rotors spin at 1/3 the eccentric shaft speed. 9000/3 = 3000

 

Last time I checked, you measure RPM by how fast the flywheel is spinning

 

which is why the redline is 9k. but the engine is physically spinning at 1/3 that speed

 

I didn't read the article but from the sounds of it it was agnostic to the type or style of the engine, just a comparison of power per liter of an engine in a general sense. So with that in mind his letter is correct then rotary makes more HP/L.

 

We may flow air like a 2.6L 4-stroke piston, but it's not our fault that we use every 'stroke', and the piston people only use half. We have a 1.3L, they are just wasting space.

 

I will try to scan the page later tonight, but the original article said "The Ferarri produces more hp per liter of any naturally aspirated engine in production". In my letter i did state something along the lines of "at least clarify this by saying, it produces more hp per liter of any naturally aspirated piston engine in production"

 

Doesn't the lotus have a similar figure on a 2.0L engine? and what about the pontiac gxp or saturn sky red line pumping 130 hp per liter (of course it's turbo)

 

Which lotus are you referring to? The Elise puts out 105 hp per liter. They did state "naturally aspirated and still in production" So any turbo/supercharged engine doesn't count, and Saturn/Pontiac are no longer in production.

 

The Elise - just googled it's actually a 1.8 producing only 197 hp on the NA I must have been thinking the FI hp rating.

I don't think any piston engine will catch the RX-8 on hp/liter NA for a LONG time.

Assuming a linear hp/liter curve can we expect to see 285 hp+ on the 16x? It would be nice to see it top 300 with a factory FI version.

 

The generally accepted equivalence, to compare rotarys with piston engines, is 1.5 to 1. This is what the racing organizations use.

 

Added scan.

 

Hmm, interesting use of the word "agnostic."