Power Hungry Americans

[Darringer, Chris]

> Don't get me wrong, I love powerful, fast cars.  I hope to
> have an A6 4.2 or 2.7T someday.   Maybe even an S4.   But
> where the Audis shine is that they wring the power and
> torque out of small displacement engines.  And then they
> build strong but light bodies to further get better
> performance for the same ounce of fuel.  Efficiency, that's
> the real buzz we should be high on, not raw HP or the
> greatest displacement.

According to http://www.fueleconomy.gov/, "big displacement" engines with
lots of HP are not necessarily inefficient.  A Camaro or Corvette (18 mpg
city, 27 mpg highway) gets better fuel economy than an S4 or even my 130hp
'90 80q.  Even a Viper has roughly the same fuel economy as a '90 BMW 535i.
Besides, I seem to remember that the Eurpoeans got a real kick out of the
sound and performance of the Vipers and the Panoz cars at LeMans.  These
large engines can be very effective AND efficient.

Chris 
'90 80q