What's a good bhp per litre

obi_waynne

obi_waynne

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There used to be an adage of being able to get up to 100bhp per litre from an engine.

Is this still a good maximum or is it obsolete now with modern engine tech. How many production cars reach this.

I also presume this relates to NASP only as turbos can potentially double that.
 
100bhp/l was racing spec back in the 70s when turbos were almost nonexistant. My 1700cc Elan was 168 at the wheels, so around 200 at flywheel = 117bhp/l. This figure just doesn't cut the mustard these days. A reasonable figure for a turbo is around 200-250/l but much higher figures are possible.
 
na or turbo/supercharged will give completely different results - for outright power turbos are king.

also size does matter 200 from 1000cc is easier than 500 from 2500cc
 
Ford do indeed do a 1L (998cc in fact) turbo engine called 'Ecoboost' which makes 125bhp. Thing is i've not found them terribly economic... I know someone with one who manages around 38mpg... My girlfriend by contrast has a 306bhp C350 Coupe... (so 3.5 V6 Petrol Direct-Injection) which manages to average 30.x mpg. In terms of actual efficiency the V6 is by far more economical for the power it gives.

We are worlds apart in terms of bhp/litre though...
This makes her car around 87bhp/litre
My car runs 140bhp/litre

but as mentioned above, its hard to compare turbo to naturally aspirated :)
 
Aerial Andy944 said:
Honda S2000 - 240hp from 2l
Mazda RX8 - 231hp from 1.3l
Don't Ford do a 125hp 1000cc n/a engine?
I can remember when the Alfa 75 twin spark was the most powerful production n/a engine with 150hp from 2ltrs
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The RX8 is pretty amazing when looked at in this light, you make some good suggestions there. I think Honda frequently get near to the 100bhp per litre in their NASP engines thanks mainly to the high redline.

It is probably the high redline that helps the RX8 get silly power from such a little box.
 
obi_waynne said:
The RX8 is pretty amazing when looked at in this light, you make some good suggestions there. I think Honda frequently get near to the 100bhp per litre in their NASP engines thanks mainly to the high redline.

It is probably the high redline that helps the RX8 get silly power from such a little box.
Click to expand...

It's also what makes them really heavy going to drive in my opinion. Below 4000rpm they're utterly useless.
 
Its the same with bike engined kit cars. At high RPM they are amazing but below that they are totally gutless.
 
Rotary engines are not really a good comparison to std motors

There are a number of standard na engines that manage 100bhp per litre . And there are also some 25 year old turbo motors that made over the 100 per litre out the factory unmodded.

Out of interest are we including tuned engines in road cars as well . If so they would have to start at at least double ,
 
With a tuned engine you'll typically invest a lot more and get everything made an machined to much higher tolerances.

I would expect a tuned car to produce at least 100bhp per litre!
 
^^ I was getting more than that from the factory, now I am 3 times that amount, admittedly after spending a tidy sum ;)
 
obi_waynne said:
There used to be an adage of being able to get up to 100bhp per litre from an engine.

Is this still a good maximum or is it obsolete now with modern engine tech. How many production cars reach this.

I also presume this relates to NASP only as turbos can potentially double that.
Click to expand...


I am at a conservative (6.4L/392 CID) 680 crank hp or approx. 106 hp per liter with a centrifugal supercharger. My Hemi has a potential of well-over 1000 hp with up grades. |B
 
Love the sleeper style but fail to see the point of his actions, other than to confirm that he is a twat and should be sterilised before he can produce more like him....... Did I just say that out loud? :)
 
Any bhp thread always ends up with pub talk - Posting your possible bhp with upgrades is pointless ( Mine would be 400 per litre with just bolt on stuff )
BUT this is a fact thread so I will stick to comfortably over 2oo
 
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