First off, let me say that the small-block Chevy is the best all-around engine ever made. Period. The performance potential, the popular tuning expertise, the power-to-weight ratio of the latest iteration: put it all together and you have the best engine ever. This position can be backed up by any number of car enthusiasts; venture to contest it and I’ll wager at least a half-dozen SBC buffs will produce numbers and stats reasserting its superiority.<\/p>\n
This declaration may come as a mild surprise to some of you acquainted with my general import car and specific rotary engine fandom. But a clarification is in order–the arena of appreciation of a particular powerplant is big enough for more than one exclusive attribute, or in my case two: respect and interest.<\/p>\n
That said, do I respect the SBC and its virtues? Absolutely. Does it interest me? Not in the least.<\/p>\n
Put two vehicles side-by-side, say a Corvette Z06 with the factory performance catalog added and a Miata with a homebrew turbo system scavenged from various cars and run with a owner-programmed EMS, and I’ll invariably be drawn to the latter. The Corvette may blow away the Miata in every way, but how many times have the standard parts (cam, headers, etc) been added to an SBC in the pursuit of power? Yawn. Yes, it may spin the tires through third and run 10s all day every day, and I have nothing but respect for that. It’s power and that’s always a draw. But let’s do something different<\/em>. That’s where the interest lies.<\/p>\n Respect is about those qualities I admire in a car: power, handling and the like. Interest is about those qualities I’m drawn to in a scope wider than just the automotive realm: innovation, creativity, new solutions to old problems that may at first be inferior to their elders but could potentially, with enough development, eclipse the traditional “best way” to do something.<\/p>\n I have a hunch more enthusiasts than just me view their automotive passion this way. If nothing else, maybe it will explain why a lot of car buffs persist in focusing on forms of internal combustion that are seemingly inferior in so many ways to the tried-and-true-and-effective. It’s a matter of interest.<\/p>\n