Big Power

      Now, there is a percentage of the motoring world that believes that the key to a cool car is found directly underneath the hood.  Now, there are a few different ways that these massive amounts of power can be created in a variety of combinations.

      Big Motors:
The most logical and common way to create more power from a car is by simply putting a larger motor in the car.  This can mean either a larger cylinder block displacement, more cylinders, and best of all, both.  The best example of an automaker going for the biggest displacement can be found in the Dodge SRT Viper, at a mind boggling 8.2 liter V10.  This car claims the title for the biggest motor in a current production car.  And this was a success, at making well over 640 horsepower and 600 lb/ft of torque it ranks as one of the most powerful as well.  Now, the prime example of a production car with an immense amount of cylinders belongs to the Bugatti Veyron.  Boasting 16 cylinders in a w formation (like 2 V-8's with one row of cylinders stacked on top of the other), 64 valves, 4 turbochargers and well over 1,000 horsepower.  This motor is so complex that it is likely that no other car manufacturer will ever attempt to re-create Bugatti's masterpiece.

     Forced Induction:
When simply putting in a larger motor will either not work due to engine bay restrictions or not enough money to afford an engine and transmission swap, then forced induction is another, less expensive way to boos your car's power.  Forced induction is the term used for any system that aids the engine in helping increase the amount of air being put into the cylinders.  A naturally aspirated engine will only take in as much air as the pressure of the outside air will allow.  When you add a means of drawing in more air and compressing it into the same space, you increase power.  Denser air = more power.  The most common forms of forced induction are supercharging and turbocharging.  Superchargers are a compressor powered off of a pulley that draws from the rest of the engine.  Now, what this allows for is almost instantaneous power boosts off of the line due to the compressor generating power from the direct increases in engine rpm's.  However, this compressor draw can sap some engine efficiency as the rpm's increase.  A normal supercharger draws air in from the engine's stock intake system, but if the stock system is not providing enough air to keep the compressor from maximizing, another intake route is available.  This alternate to stock intakes is called a blower.  What a blower does, is it is an air intake that comes out of the hood of the car directly over the supercharger and draws all extra needed air down to the supercharger when needed through the opening of valves.  These blowers are so effective at drawing more air into the supercharger that they can add power boosts of immense proportions.  Turbochargers on the other hand are operated through utilizing the pressure of the exhaust.  Turbochargers have two housings, both that hold a set of rotors within them.  One housing and set of rotors is connect to the other. This first housing is connected to the exhaust pipes just after they connect from the headers and the fan inside is turned by these exhaust fumes. The higher the engine rpm's, the more exhaust fumes produced, thus creating more pressure and spinning this fan faster.  The second fan and housing, is connected to either a high flow air filter or is open to the outside air in a cold air dam.  What the function of this housing is, is that it takes the spinning power produced from the first housing, and it spins the second fan, that draws in and pressurizes the outside air that is then piped into the engine to create more power.  The advantages to having a turbo instead of a supercharger is that it provides a wider band of boost through the rpm's,and it doesn't draw away power directly from the engine pulleys.  The one major and probably apparent drawback to turbocharging is that it takes longer to build up the needed exhaust pressure to build  considerable amounts of boost at low rpm's.  The easiest solution to this problem is to either keep the engine rpm's high when expecting to need a power boost, but this can cause lots of wear and tear on your drive train and i would not recommend doing it very often.

      Precision Cylinder boring and Pistons:
A rather new but very effective way at producing immense power in any engine size requires some high tech approaches.  With new advances in cnc machining and precision machines similar to that, engines with almost the exact same cylinder and piston dimensions have become common technology in many different race classes.  The understanding around this is, is that before, a large amount of energy was being lost when the combustion was occurring and energy was escaping around the piston faster than the piston could move.  Now, these new engine blocks and their pistons are so close in measurement, that when the engine is cold, they are physically one piece.  The only way for racing teams to make use of this technology is to circulate pre-heated engine fluids through the engine hours in advance to firing the engine in order for it to work.  As the block heats up, the cylinders become just wide enough for the cylinders to move when firing the engine.  This new technology is a large contributor to the reason that the tiny 1.6 liter v6 used by formula 1 right now, produces well over 600 horsepower and how NASCAR engines can produce an astonishing 900 plus horsepower while being naturally aspirated.  Unfortunately, unless you drive a race car to work every day with a means of heating your engine block, this form of gaining power is somewhat out of reach.  For now at least it is.