I think north american car makers just don't want to do the work to engineer it properly, and they don't have the experience. Whereas many J-spec vehicles are offered with turbos, and the germans(Mercedes, Volkswagen, Porsche) are happy to force feed air to almost any engine. Oh, and most diesel engines have turbos. Forced fed engines can be as reliable as any other, when done properly.

 

forced induction engines are no less reliable when properly maintained...but they take less "lazy owner" abuse than do NA engines...especially with a turbo setup, things like oil changes are more important than with an NA setup. however, look at fords ecoboost program, and a while back, i posted on the main page that dodge needs to put together something like this...even though dodge has never been shy about adding a turbo to the small engine models.

on the other hand, american muscle has typically been NA...and i think thats why so many cars stick to that formula...

 

The current SRT-10 Viper, with its 600hp, barely beats the previous Z06 Corvette with 500hp....and you didnt see GM whining about having 2 less cylinders of displacement did you? No, they built a ridiculous V8 that smacked the SRT-10 in the mouth...


08 SRT-10 Viper =
1/4 Mile (sec @ mph):11.8 @ 125.3
Engine Type:V10
Horsepower (hp @ rpm):600 @ 6,100
Torque (ft-lb @ rpm):560 @ 5,000


07 Z06 Corvette =
1/4 Mile (sec @ mph):12.0 @ 121.8
Engine Type:V8
Horsepower (hp @ rpm):505 @ 6,300
Torque (ft-lb @ rpm):470 @ 4,800


600hp is still 600hp regardless if you get it all motor or turbo'd or supercharged..... thats like whining because you got a green 1st place medal instead of a gold one...

The hilarious irony to ALL of this is that both the ACR and ZR-1 times are unofficial at the Ring...

 

and i believe that the official record is what porsche and nissan are bickering over..?

 

Actually, I think it's more like the Vette and Vette fans are complaining about their second place medal. It's still second place.

The Viper is much heavier and much safer. Did it take 95 more hp to beat the Vette? Yeah... so? A win is a win. You could lower the hp a bit and it would still beat or tie the Vette. So it didn't exactly take all 95 hp.

 

not to mention....GM has had over 50 years to get the vette right...and they spent the last what, 15 years catching up to the viper?

 

If it wasn't for the Viper the vett would still be like the 80's version. It may still look the same as the 80's vetts but at least they made it a performance car again.

 

Looks like gearing or traction (lack of) from the Viper is what makes the E/T close. The heavier Viper is putting much more power to the ground with a higher trap speed.

I must admit though, GM got it right with the LS engines. Very powerful, and reliable from what I have seen. Not as good in the trucks because they are designed for HP with the very good flowing heads. Low end torque seems to suffer on the 6.0L and 6.2L GM truck engines compared to the Hemi and 5.4L Ford, which both have a very flat torque curve with 90% of their torque by 1200rpm.