I'll put my 2002 Honda S2000 up against any piece of V8 iron ya got!
With 240 horses pounding out of a 2000 cc engine, it is the most efficient production engine ever offered. When you climb on her, at 6000rpm she kicks in her second chain drive cam, snaps your head into the headrest on her way to redline at 8,900 rpm, to the quarter mile at 115mph. Tested to be the stickiest car in a slalom other than a $400,000 Lambrogini. Four coils feeding spark to carbon fiber infused aluminum pistons, driven through six short throw gears.
An unbelievable car for $33k.
Well let's see. A 302 bored and stroked to a 347, SVO heads, 355 rearend from a stock 273. Dyno test was 505 HP at 5700 and 482 ftlbs at 5250. Runs low 11s 1/4 with street tires. Lord knows what she'll do on slicks. Bring it on.
Dude, the S2000 is quick and all, don't get me wrong. But it's no Z06 Vette or 390 hp Mustang Cobra.
With 240 horses pounding out of a 2000 cc engine, it is the most efficient production engine ever offered. When you climb on her, at 6000rpm she kicks in her second chain drive cam, snaps your head into the headrest on her way to redline at 8,900 rpm, to the quarter mile at 115mph.
Consider yourself lucky if you get it to 100 in 1/4 mi. 115 is way, way out of reach for a stock S2000.
Arriving at a lot of horses per liter is an interesting engineering endeavor, but not very useful in the real world. What you want is acceleration - look at hp/lb. of the car instead. Even better, look at the torque curve - the flatter, the better. Your S2000's peak torque is up around 7k rpm - what do you when you're in first gear below 4k? Abuse the clutch? The 9k rev limit is impressive, but the steep torque curve causes the Honda to lose 0-60 and 1/4 mi to the Subaru WRX, even though the scoob's short about 13 hp.
When Carroll Shelby said, "There's no substitute for cubic inches," he was pretty much correct (disregaring forced induction). Bill told you what he's done to his Mustang, and that 302 still has some power left in it. I bet it's got enough torque at 2000 rpm to smoke the rears (without slipping the clutch as you would have to in the Honda), and then some.
Tested to be the stickiest car in a slalom other than a $400,000 Lambrogini. Four coils feeding spark to carbon fiber infused aluminum pistons, driven through six short throw gears.
Yes, the lil Honda is quite a handling machine. No argument there.