From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!guy
Newsgroups: net.auto
Title: Re: Re: Most Powerful Street Legal Car in US
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.1096
Posted: Thu Feb 24 21:07:50 1983
Received: Fri Feb 25 07:22:23 1983

Well, something happened in 1973 that made such cars a bit less desirable...
Also consider than the 400+ CI engines were not exactly the car companies
bread and butter (many of them were detuned racing engines), so as the DOT
required more safety and emissions work, the money went to that instead of
big-block engines.  Of course, Mercedes-Benz still made the 450SEL 6.9
up until 3 or so years ago...

Note that 400+ horsepower was SAE gross horsepower until some point in the
early 1970's, when GM (and probably the others) switched to SAE net.  Making
the engine run such useful accessories as fans and generators (and whatever
else is involved in SAE net) tended to cut the output a bit; the Car&Driver
with the article on the 1984(!) Corvette has a bit on the history of the
'Vette which implies that close to 100 HORSEPOWER was "lost" when GM changed
from SAE gross to SAE net.

As for the Turbo Carrera, it's not currently being imported by Porsche (although
there are compliance shops bringing it in).

					Guy Harris
					RLG Corporation
					...!decvax!mcnc!rlgvax!guy