1200 horsepower, 35mpg Mustang

[theunchosen]

Diesel is probably the way to go for enduro racing.

If you're going to be heavily modifyin the engine biofuels(ethanol) actually can produce alot more power, but they have to be completely retuned. E-85 really sucks when its run on a flex fueler because those are designed to pretend its gas. . .and its not. E-85 can be compressed much much more than gasoline without risking any expensive problems.

For sheer convenience gasoline is probably still the way to go for short races(sub 200 miles).

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by theunchosen

use an H22a new rods, get a custom 5 valve head(or get a VW 5 valve head and drill new bolt holes)

All things considered in terms of cost I think a ~3-4+L engine would be the most cost effective way to make power, especially considering that engines ~1.5-2x the size only weigh ~25-50% more than some of the HO fours. We aren't getting to the point where mileage sucks because the engine is too large to gear down, but we also don't have to run obscene boost or swap internals to get to ~500hp. IMO of course.

[theunchosen]

The point of running the H22 was that it would be in an extremely light package. If the engine makes up 40% of your total weight it matters alot(I'm working a custom build now and its definitely going to be at least 60% of my total weight). I think my example was for a 1400 ish #er, in which case even increasing 1/4 of the engine weight bumps up your entire car weight by about 7%.

If you're going to Race it (Enduro or otherwise) a custom could weigh as little as 800 lbs and a supercharger or turbo weighs alot less than 100-200 lbs. Not to mention some of the new guts for increased power are lighter than their stock counterparts so it runs more FE outside of the boost curve(or under super off the switch).

As far as pure cost goes. . .An imported Toyota 92-96 engine is about as cheap as they come with complete driveline. Go rip a turbo or supercharger from a junk yard and fab up your own stuff. Buy the new guts for about 2/3 of the price difference of it and your 3-4 liter engine and you have something very light very eco friendly and equivalent power when you want it.

[roflwaffle]

Searching indicates that an H22 is about 400lbs, so going w/ something like a 3VZ-FE like ya mentioned would add an extra liter but only about 70lbs, nowhere near ~100-200lbs. For that matter, 300+hp N/A is supposedly possible, so going from ~200hp/1400lbs to ~300hp/1470lbs, and whatever the turbocharged equivalent is, certainly seems worthwhile from the perspective of power to weight, not to mention the lower engine cost.