When I was with my kids at the drag strip last weekend I was reveling in the chance to teach them stuff about the cars they were looking at. Lots of the stuff we take for granted understanding like a camshaft and how it works is full on sic-fi to them so it was neat to drop some knowledge their way. One of the more fun things that we did was play a “guess the power adder” game during the small tire categories. While it is not difficult for us seasoned veterans to hear a car and understand if the thing is a nitrous car, a turbo car, or a blower machine, for the kids it was like playing Jeopardy. They loved it.
Tom decided that he liked the sound of the nitrous cars the best and that led to a pretty good discussion about why a nitrous engine normally sounds so mean at idle and going down the track. We talked about the fact that the engines are typically larger cubic inch, that they don’t have any obstructions in the exhaust, that they have big camshafts in them and those big valves opening up a bunch make sweet noise, and a multitude of other factors.
He heartily approved of the video below which shows a big block Chevy style engine making some 1,751hp on the dyno at Westech Performance in California. Between the header flames, the huge power, and the ear splitting noise, this is about as good as it gets. While it is “easier” than ever to make this type of power today, it still requires talent, good parts, and experience to create an engine that will do it more than once.
A pair of big Holleys, a Wilson billet intake, a COMP 60mm solid roller cam, Applied Nitrous technologies spray, and Dart 11-degree big block heads by CFE, a Donovan block, and 12.5:1 compression are the basis of a package that went into a, get this, 19′ freaking boat. Yeah, that thing will be dominating whatever lake it sits on!
