Posted on 10/24/2014 12:13:24 PM PDT by all the best
Mourn with me.
Cadillac – Cadillac! – no longer sells a single car powered by a V-8 engine. Or such will be the case in about two months, when 2014 fades to 2015. Come Jan. 1, all new Cadillac cars will be powered by fours or sixes. Some will be turbocharged. But none will larger than 3.6 liters.
The last of the V-8 Caddys – the (very) limited production CTS-V sedan/wagon – is being retired. There appears to be a replacement on deck for 2016, but the continued politically viability of V-8 engines within the system (so to speak) is shaky. Not because people don’t want the power. But because government demands “economy” – creating an impossible Catch 22 situation.
The 6.2 liter V-8 in the current (2014) CTS-V produces 556 magnificent horsepower – more horsepower than any ’60s-era muscle car (including the halo’d Chrysler 426 Street Hemi). But its Achilles Heel in this misbegotten age – in which government bureaucrats and political hacks decree car design via regulatory edicts as opposed to the freely expressed wishes of the people who buy the cars – is its hunger for fuel. The CTS-V’s EPA mileage stats are the modern-day equivalent of a racist joke caught on mike: 14 city, 19 highway.conan pic
Hear the lamentations of the women.
And so, GM – like every other automaker – is scrambling to “apologize” for its sins – atonement coming in the form of much smaller (but ironically only slightly more economical) not-V-8s such as the 3.6 liter V-6 that will be the mainstay powerplant in future Cadillac “V” (high-performance) vehicles.
Instead of 556 hp, 420 hp. But hey, 21 city and 31 highway will be your reward. Is it a fair exchange? The loss of 136 hp, two cylinders and 2.6 liters’ worth of engine in exchange for a 7 MPG uptick in city driving – and 12 on the highway?
Having spent a good part of my life around race trucks and having built several ground up/frame off vesicles, including the engines, I am aware of the details ;)
And anything in the neighborhood of 400 HP is a lot of power regardless of the computer wizardry. You still have to steer the thing and 400 gets you into the ‘oh sxit’ range of the speedometer faster than many are able to deal with.
Then let us not forget the turo-charged Buick Grand Nationals of the late 80s. With todays technology the V6 could put out some serious horsepower for GM.
Check Ford’s poorly named ‘Eco Boost”. Serious stuff.
My 2008 Shelby GT500 has 500hp and I have no problem handling it. My wife drives it and has no problem handling it. I know people that have a 2014 Shelby GT500 with 662hp and they have no problem handling it. The Dodge Challenger Hellcat has 707hp and I anticipate that most owners will have no problem handling it. Modern cars are built to handle high horsepower.
There's been people with stock 1971 Buick GS 455s that have posted confirmed top end speeds just above 160mph, and some Pontiac GPs will run about the same top speed. The stock 6cyl Mustang won't do that.
Those 455 Buick and Pontiacs ran into the 13s ET in the 1/4 mile on redline skinnies. The stock 6cyl Mustang will just about get into the 13s.
If there's any weak point in most of the 'B/O/P' 455s, it's the valve train valley casting in the block's upper end. I've seen more than one crack and suck an intake valve down into the cylinder. One of them right in front of me.
I'm thoroughly a fan of computer controlled fuel-injection and intercooled turbocharging, but GM is still making enormous displacement crate engines available like the Chevy 572s that will run well over 1000 horsepower (and more importantly, ridiculous torque figures) on regular old 92-octane pump gas. I can't imagine anyone wanting to drive one around town as a daily driver though.
And looks what Cadillac was up to about 10 years ago:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/cadillac-sixteen-concept-v-16-engine-feature
Engine - 6.2L SOHC 2-valve Flex Fuel V8 engine (F-250/350)
And I’ve seen a girl get into my last truck with 485 on the dyno HP and damn near rear end a car because she was used to driving with less power and stepped ‘normally’ on the gas.
Being a car buy you KNOW that 400 isn’t trifling. Put 500 on an icy road with traction control and no experience with it and watch the computer be useless. They can only do so much.
No problem... I would look better in this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTLCf_KCsI8
Of course, I haven’t figured out where my dog would sit. Should my ship come in, this would be my town car.
So Obama is evolving the US beyond that stage. Obama's supporters don't pretend to work and he still pays them with other peoples' money.
That made me laugh when I first heard about it. God...
You didn't mention that you can get into real trouble very quickly in your GT500 Super Snake if you wanted to, or were careless. You know what happens when you're tooling down the boulevard at 45mph and drop it back a gear and floor the accelerator. Angels aren't there to make sure your front wheels are pointed straight.
There will certainly be people found hanging out of their Challenger Hellcat up in a tree on fire in the coming months. Just like people who thought they could manhandle their Viper GTS-R found out the hard way.
Even guys driving a comparatively reserved 1979 Porsche 930 Turbo that only has 285hp found themselves wearing the poopy pants if they were rounding a corner at sufficient RPMs for the turbo to kick in...
Not more than the Hemi they mention (425 if I remember). And I think the Chevy had an even bigger HP engine.
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The numbers were WAY understated in many instances to please the insurance companies ... a street hemi was over 500 easy... the only Chevy that came close was the ZL-1 ... the strongest “muscle car era” small block was the Ford 351-C at 290 hp NET ,, made more than the 375hp GROSS Fuelie Corvette 327.
The voice of reason. Thank you.
The 351C. Struck more fear into more BBC owners than about anything.
And oh what a sound.
However, it is none of the government's business what type of engine we have in our vehicles. I fear that under Obama's new CAFE standards V-8 engines even in trucks will disappear. I could see our highways soon looking like Cuba where 50 year old cars are still plying the streets. In our case it will be 30 year old trucks and pick-ups that will be patched together as there will be no large block engines available even though they are essential for some business and farms uses.
Indeed. There's a TRD supercharger for the iForce 5.7l V8 in the Toyota Tundra that bumps the power from 375 (stock) to 505hp and the same number of torque.
I know a supercharged Tundra 4x4 owner who will not drive his here in the winter when the ice covers the roads: The computer-controlled Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) and traction control does absolutely nothing. You can't even creep off the line in that monster giving *any* gas on the pedal without starting to go sideways in 4x4 locked. And this is on snowflake-sidewalled DuraTrac tires which are one of the best snow/ice hybrid tires you can buy. Just ridiculous. A bone stock Subaru Legacy wagon could easily whoop him in a drag race in snowy conditions; just leave him sitting still.
There's other guys in town with 700hp Ford turbo-diesels that are as nervous as first-time drivers when the flakes come down.
You CAN have too much power.
All I can say now is ‘I owned at least one V-8 engine’ . .
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