ORIGINAL: HerrSavage
Racing a Mach 427 I get ten minutes to a tank EASILY, and can push my pit stops significantly later than guys running VSPECs... Have done it several times. Ten minute pits, no problem. So trying to compare eight to 14(also something unrealistic on a regular basis) is pushing the comparison by a good margin.
Do the high end race engines get better fuel mileage? Sure, but it's not THAT big a deal from a VSPEC to a Mach 427, talking purely run-time.. And god knows Machs have better reps when it comes to conrods and bearings...
(just to single out one, and possibly the most popular race 21's of the last five years..) The VSPEC might be better in other ways - idle, responsiveness, etc.. But it'd better be - it costs twice as much..(and there have been LOTS of guys with VSPEC's who never saw three gallons without catastrophic failure..)
The Mach 427 is MASSIVELY underrated. It'll hang in truggy with %75 of the so-called ''race'' engine 21s out there - in most significant categories. Though illegal, put it in a buggy and it'll hang speed-wise with even more..
Ok guys this has been going on for a long time. It's pointless for you guys to argue the runtime factor of the engines here. The only way to measure this is for the same driver under same race conditions running two different engines. (ie you or tib to take a vspec and a mach 427 and run it in the same day mounted in the same car.) They would also have to be tuned properly and matched with proper/pipe/plug etc etc. To be fair I have seen the clocked B5 run some ridiculus times, and I personally have never seen a vspec get out mileaged by a mach in the same day.
As for the cheap vs high dollar engines, yes a RTR engine will be great or better due to less precise tuning window to a lot of people. Most of us (basher or racers) with our offroad setup can not push the performance envelope of the engines consistantly to make the difference gap big enough to notice all the time. (or tune 100% correct for that matter) If you can not push the envelope consistantly, spending the extra money is based on reliability or cool factor.
The tell tale story is in the 1/8th scale onroad... how often have you seen a engine made by the mass producer companies compete? This isn't solely because of the smaller market. (This applies to 1/10th scale on road to a lesser degree.) Metallurgy is a part of a country/companies industrial base knowledge and abilities. It simply can't be raised as fast as the some other aspects of manufacturing. At least not without significant cost increases.
