Somewhere north of about 4,500 the 368ci mill in the Cadillac limo floats the valves. Most small-block Chryslers hate life above 6,000 RPM without serious work, and the most rev-happy V8 I’ve ever had my hands on, a 327 Chevrolet, windowed the block at a recorded 7,800 RPM. After that, you find yourself in the world of sport bikes and Formula 1, where stratospheric revolutions per minute are the normal and not the extreme. You’ve heard F1 cars before…they don’t roar or pop and hiss, they shriek in a manner that will permanently alter your eardrums if you’re too close.
What you are about to hear is the Cosworth CA 2.4L V8. 20,000 RPM is exactly what it was designed to top out at, but that feat is just a footnote in history because Formula 1 restricted engine RPM starting in 2006 and put a moratorium on further development. And that might be a good thing for the time being: at 20,000 RPM, the pistons are accelerating at 10,616 g, while the crankpin was put under a load of over 13,000 pounds. The noise is almost electronic instead of mechanical, and when the RPMs drop back into the four-digit range, the CA becomes calm as a Hindu cow…at over 9,000 RPM. Yikes.
