ORIGINAL: rainedave
If I get as much enjoyment and return from my .074 plane as another person gets from their forty-size plane then what difference does it make how big or small the engine is? If they both cost the same to get into the air, so what? I'm simply agreeing with eniac that paying $75 or $80 for an .074 - if that's what you like to fly - isn't outrageous. People who run .46s expect to pay that much and how can anyone prove they have more fun, or get more for their money?
That's all I'm trying to say.
David
David's point is well made, but this has been hashed over several times before. Larry Driskill made a valid argument some time back: differences in materials cost, large engine vs. small engine, is not a significant part of the differential. In many cases, the level of precision required is actually higher for the smaller CID engines than for the larger and machining costs could actually be higher, so we shouldn't expect costs to be that different between displacements.
While we get tied up in the "bigger is better" concept of pricing, like David said, if I get $75 of fun out of an engine, then it shouldn't matter if it is a .74 or a .074.