Torque vs Horsepower

I got into an email "discussion" with a friend the other day. It's one of those discussions that you are never going to win without concrete proof, in this case, a ride in a car. The topic was in regards to Chevy's continued use of larger displacement naturally aspirated engines vs Ford's modular supercharged design. My argument came down to the low end torque created by an engine and how it is so much more useful than the peak torque and peak horsepower you read about in car reviews.

I'll admit, it took awhile to convince even me that the Chevy 454 was anything more than a heavy boat anchor. In my early years of hotrodding, when I heard "454" I immediately had visions of the emissions years with low horsepower/torque ratings. Aside from the initial two years of the engine, my theory was fairly correct. As my knowledge grew however, I realized something of much greater significance, "horsepower potential." Maybe I'm a little bit old school in my line of thought, but I still envision "bigger is always better" when it comes to engine displacement. The bigger the bore, the bigger the torque.

My early years consisted of only small block Chevy knowledge. Then the day came when I purchased a 454. It was a 1974 emissions engine with all the emissions crap still on it. A later tear down would prove that it was completely stock aside from an aftermarket camshaft, a Comp cams piece with relative low lift, somewhere around .484 lift@.050. That engine replaced a small block that....well....kinda blew up so to speak. That particular engine made around 400 hp and ran a best of 13.1 at the track, though never made it back the following season with a new cam and heads that were ported more and flowed better, I assume I was well into the 12's that following year. The big block I got I did little to initially. I swapped on my 750 Edelbrock carb, installed headers, MSD ignition, and that's about it. Still ran the heavy ass EGR intake even with some of the emissions stuff just capped off. That engine ran a best of 13.3 in the 1/4 mile. That was my first taste of the raw torque a big block makes. I was sold, as with very little work these big blocks could be made into real stump pullers.

My Challenger, while it wasn't a real speed demon, probably is about a high 13-low 14 second car, yet I see the potential to making it faster. While it displaces only 383 cubic inches, which is smaller than some small blocks out there. It's advantage is that it shares the same size bore, 4.25 inches, as a 454 big block chevy. Combine that with the short stroke it has and you have a relatively high revving engine with good low end torque.

I love how people try to compare a small displacement engine with a blower on top to a larger displacement naturally aspirated engine as if it is apples to apples. Newsflash, for $3,000 or so you can get a blower kit for most any new tech engine. With the larger displacement engine with good flowing heads, the increase in power from the boost should be exponentially greater than their smaller displacement competition. So it's not comparing apples to apples if you ask me.

Now not to say that I won't build another small block sometime down the road. A big block for my daily driver isn't exactly practical given my 30 mile or so commute to work. I wouldn't write off my 69 Camaro one day seeing another small block either, in an effort to run some sort of top speed racing or closed course racing such as the Pony Express ran out west. In those scenarios a high revving small block is the more ideal choice. If I just wanna go fast in a straight line, the big block will ALWAYS be the one to win my heart over.