Surely any 1.4 engine would beat a 1.1, regardless of its make ?
New to this game are we?
Depends on....... (big breath)
Fuel type!
Age of engine and how well it's been maintained
Age and efficiency of engine design....
Differences between how manufacturers tune their engines (and variations upon these same plans over time / use in the model range) for certain purposes
Size and weight of the car
Torque - power balance (...and how many valves it has)
Carb vs Injection vs Multipoint injection vs common rail vs FSi
Whether the owner has tuned it in any way
Natural aspiration vs mild turbo vs big turbo vs twin turbo vs supercharger
Number of cylinders, even
Gearing
Grip (inc tyres and fwd/rwd/4wd)
Driver skill
etc.
Just for a little comparison here, amongst older cars, a 1.2L Corsa used to offer up all of about 44BHP (slightly worse than a 1043cc polo), exactly the same power output as an 899cc (0.9L) Panda or Cinquecento (not seicento!) and similar torque / revs too if i remember.... The italian engine being quite efficient in extracting power from a small capacity whereas the americo-german lump was a bit soggy in that regard.
When you then consider the cars those two engines were put in, or could be put in... let's stick a cinquecento next to a 5 door nova saloon just to make things dreadfully unfair. I think you can spy the weight difference there, plus the gearing on the italian number is a lot shorter and closer, giving it a lot of ass whupping power even if it's worse for economy and comfort vs the taller, wider cruising gears on the nova.
1.2L vs 0.9L not being too much different from 1.4 vs 1.1....
A couple other examples......
The old Rover 25s were available with a range of engines, including a pair of 1.4 16v injection units that produced either 81 or 104 horsepower. I never did figure out what the difference was between them, but they were sold concurrently for at least 3 years. Perhaps it was a typo and the less powerful one was actually an 8v?
1272cc Polo GT (8v, but MPi with 75hp) in that fairly light, 3 door frame vs a 1598cc Astra (8v, Spi, all of 70hp) in a stodgier 5 door frame, plus the weight of PAS, A/C etc. The torque-power balance is more towards the torque in the astra, but despite the extra displacement it doesnt make a great deal more of that either. 1.6 vs 1.3 isnt quite as wide a gap but it's still telling - the larger engine has less peak power and probably a slightly worse torque/weight ratio.
1272cc Polo G40 (8v, but MPi with a sodding great supercharger and intercooler mashed onto it - 113hp and super torque) vs pretty much anything unblown under 2 litres.
Toyota Yaris slipping in nicely between the Panda and the Nova, kicking the ass of the GT and Astra with 70hp extracted from all of 999cc - though the torque is definately a sore point in japanese engines of this nature, that doesnt matter so much when you're thrashing it at high revs. Plus, again, it's lightweight.
Plus having test driven a couple-a-three 1.4 escorts, i then went back to the 1.05 polo and found it feeling (even if not being) a whole lot quicker..
and as stated, it would be nipping at the heels of a 75hp (displacement unknown but probably about 1.3) pug 1007 simply because of the weight of the doors.
dino wrote:
Would beat everycar off the light up to about 30 where i would stick to the limit and they dont.
Ah, try birmingham sometime, its classic.
Love how i'll cane it away from a light (2 lanes inexplicably going into 3 then back down to 2 some way after the lights), having scooted round the empty right lane just to jump 10 places ahead, get ahead of the pack by the time i reach for 2nd, reach a nice cruising speed (anywhere from limit -3 to limit +6) and block change to 5th, then get all the numptys of the world and their wives tailgating me at a say-your-prayers distance in the
left hand lane when the right one is still free. Freaking blood boilers.
Agreed that the 1.0 is shhhhhugar slow, but its not the size of your milk float's battery but what you do with it that counts. Doubt that very many people in this country as a whole ever use their engine's full potential...
And hell, i could beat a 1.3 Ka on my pushbike. Or in an 895cc polo....
(22 seconds? would have thought the weight advantage might knock a little more off the power disadvantage than that, oh well.... bet it can hold the speed like a mini). The Ka was a dumping ground for a whole load of unsold and otherwise unsaleable old bits and pieces from previous Fiesta lines, most especially engines including the ancient pushrod jobs.
