We're all aware the economy is wading through some murky waters these days. And that's why it's cool with us if you aren't familiar with Castrol Syntec's Top Shop Challenge by now. We realize that some of you are living out of shopping carts these days, spending the only $4.99 you manage to panhandle every other month on Import Tuner...and we appreciate the dedication. Then rest of you; you have no excuse. But we're going to walk you though what you've been missing anyway.
So here's the deal: Castrol Syntec has officially invited yours truly to kick the asses of all other magazines by building the ultimate power-producing engine. Actually, the other guys get to try building one too, but as you'll see in a minute, that means nothing. The short end of it is: Whoever builds the baddest engine (us), wins. And it seems we're in a pretty good spot so far (see sidebar); especially when the other mags are either blowing up family sedans on the autocross course, installing hydraulics on God-knows-what, or struggling with B-series swaps in their EF hatches. Not namin' any names, of course...
Rest assured, we're going straight for the jugular with this one; four-figure power from an SR20DET. And with the support we've got, we'll hit the mark without breaking a sweat. Sure, we'll have to deal with the forced induction penalty that essentially means our 2.2L SR20 will be judged as though it were 4.4L...but we're still talking about 227 hp-per-liter here--Ass-kicking guaranteed! Still, just for the hell of it, let's look at what the other guys are doing, and have a good laugh at why they think they have even a snowball's chance in hell of defeating us.
Super Street:
We have to admit it, when we first heard Super Street had contracted all-motor guru Bisi Ezerioha to build them a naturally aspirated F22, we wondered if they had a trick up their sleeve. But as it turns out, they ain't got nothing. Don't get us wrong--Bisi's engine building skills are second-to-none; his personal drag car can do low 9's in all-motor trim, but not because its making insane amounts of power. This isn't a drag race--it's a power competition. At best guess his methanol-fed F22 puts down about 360whp. Knock off some ponies for having to use 100-octane gasoline like the rest of us, and we're thinking Stupid Street will be making 350 flywheel hp at best from their naturally aspirated 2.4L F22. Going n/a eliminated the displacement-doubling penalty all us turbo-charged guys will have to deal with, but we're betting they'll still be left with only about 136hp/L. Weak Sos!
Sport Compact Car:
These guys crack us up! First, they decide to enter a VQ35DE in the competition. Not a rev-up engine, but still not an entirely bad choice. Then they go to Cosworth to build it. Very good choice; Cosworth wrenches on F1 cars for fun...safe bet they know what they're doing, but here's where things go genuinely SCC--they decide to go naturally aspirated at 3.5L, they're practically at the same displacement as our built SR20 with the forced induction penalty. This means that, pound-for-pound, they'd have to churn out about 770 horses to even be competitive. Isn't gonna happen.
eurotuner:
Everyone knows that euros and horsepower go together about as well as oil and water. It's a fundamental law of automotive science, right up there with the Venturi Effect and Murphy's Law. Yes, we know the Bugatti Veyron is European. And the badass LP640 hails from Italy. But Volkswagen manufactures neither car, and eurotuner thinks they can win this thing with a 7A Quattro engine. What's that? You're laughing? So are we! In all seriousness, we wish them the best of luck. That doesn't mean we won't laugh again when their engine does nothing but trigger a door chime when they fire it up for the first time. Duh nuh nee, duh nuh nee...!