THE EMPIRE
The car world is filled with brand loyal engine fan boys, people who love one engine over another for no sound or rational reason. There are people who will fight over Small Blocks Fords being better than Small Block Chevs, or cry when a VTEC Honda makes more power than a turbo Nissan. They are easy to upset, all you have to do is claim the brand they love is not the best, but that will only make another fan boy happy.
There is however one reliable way to upset all of them: Be objective, present facts and use engineering. The simple reality is all engines are governed by the same laws of physics. They all operate on the same principle; of pump in air and fuel, burn it, pump out exhaust gas and turn the energy released into rotary motion using a crank.
That means that two engines, capable of pumping the same amount of air, will generally make the same amount of power. With a good grasp of maths you can even calculate how much power an engine will make using its bore and stroke measurements, cam profile measurements and flow rate of its intake, cylinder head and exhaust.
That means that two engines, from different manufacturers, when built with the same basic measurements will make the same power, and if the cam profiles are the same, do so over the same power band.
The simple reality is, all things being equal, no one engine is better than any other, and the fact they are not all equal, but designed and engineered for different tasks, is what makes them all so cool and interesting.
Motor Trend recently did a video as part of Engine Masters series that illustrates the point perfectly, two stroker V8s, one from Ford and one from Mopar, but built with the same cam, intake and carb:
-Moppie
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