smokinjoe73

This is very cool.

Kinda reminds me how bike guys seem to appreciate all things motor but car guys.......not so much.

My theory is that car guys resent bikers because it immasculates their sport/hobby.

Fast cars seem cool & scary but are trumped by bikes since we all know its rider bravery that sets us apart.

Probly the same reason harley guys dont waive but thats a whole different thread.

xeris

Some harley riders will wave but a lot don't. What's that all about?
Maybe it's because in their mind they waive the obligation because harleys are so special.

CruxGNZ

Or...Harley build quality + hand off bars = crash?

This is just what I surmised.

jscobey

hahaha yessss

a buddy of mine had a sportser 1200 and just got a 1340 fxr. helping him do all kinds of things to both bikes has made me HATE!!!! harleys. ya know how every bike and car has a few small "design flaws"? well its like harley made sure every part of the bike is a design flaw. if you wanna take one piece off, you have to take 15 other things off just to gain access to the piece you want. it makes a job that should take 20 minutes, take 4 hours.

i dont get why 1930's technology in a very poorly tuned motor is so attractive to some guys. i mean for gosh sakes the cams use push rods and rocker arms. this is 2014! how do you have a 1340CC motor that outputs only 60 horsies and less torque than most I-4's?? not to mention that EVERY harley leaks oil out of the head gasket. but the guys just laugh and say "it aint a harley if i dont leak" to which i reply, i prefer my oil in the motor thank you very much.

Wolverine

I think I might serve up a slice of humble pie, since my thread took a bit of a mini-jack.

Mr.Scobey, the Hennessey Venom GT... it set that world speed record with you guessed it... a pushrod motor!!

jscobey

maybe someone can figure out how to do a pushrod conversion for the VTR so we can add loads of HP!


do you know why they used a pushrod motor? because its "american" and they wanted a nice "all american" car built in texas. the fact that it uses outdated technology has little to do with its output of 1200 HP. you have 2 massive turbos to thank for that.

you better believe that if DOHC 4 valve per cylinder motors were "american" they would have used that.

Wolverine

Amazing what you can accomplish with pushrod technology.

jscobey

I must agree. Obviously that's why teams in racing organizations such ad F1, motogp, wsbk, indy, and so on and so forth, use the most advanced valve actuation known to mankind, behold the pushrod!!!

captainchaos

I knew this discussion wouldn't take long to turn down this direction...

What exactly does that mean? The GT500's engine isn't "American." Last time I checked it had 4 cams and 32 valves. I guess the C4 ZR1's LT5 wasn't either. Who (or where) exactly do you attribute the OHC and DOHC engines to? If you look it up "the first car to utilize an engine with an overhead camshaft was the Marr Auto Car designed by Michigan native Walter Lorenzo Marr in 1903."

Guess those silly pansies racing top fuel funny cars and dragsters need to get with the times too...those weak 10 THOUSAND horsepower engines use silly ol' pushrods and central camshafts too.

The Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette drove back and forth from the track with AC, radio, and power windows (emissions compliant, etc) back in 1988 and set the street legal speed record at over 254 mph. Held it for over 10 years too. Another silly turbo small block pushrod Chevy motor...

I thought Buell (racing under Harleys control) building and racing their bikes with Sportster motors was pushing the issue a little too much, but are there really many better choices out there for making things go fast than an LS based engine? Not saying it's the ONLY choice but it's certainly one the best.

captainchaos

This is going to start sounding like a Youtube comment section in no time.

Wolverine

Let's talk max HP. Any of those do 8000+hp?

Edit: captain, this is totally a friendly debate. I'm not a fan of the pushrod... but I do give credit where it is due.

captainchaos

No one questioned that. Fact remains that top fuel dragsters are the fastest racecars in the world, and the Venom GT is the fastest street legal car in the world. The Speed Demon is the fastest piston engine (not jet) land speed car (462 mph). ALL use American pushrod engines. Period... Regardless of anyone's opinion those are the facts... Like Wolverine said, have to give credit where credit is due.

captainchaos

On that note I guess it should tell everyone something how lots of motorcycle racers have gone on to race cars. Can't recall too many retired auto racers going on to race motorcycles.

jscobey

just a friendly discussion indeed

and i think weve gone way off topic from the OP here, but much more importantly ;] weve gone off topic from MY orginal post in this thread where i said HARLEY engines are even more poorly tuned than my grandmothers piano that hasnt been played in 30 years...

let me repeat that, HARLEY engines...... the fact is cars (for the most part) never get into the high RPM's which is where bikes are able to shine. all the harleys ive ever ridden are just coming into the power and then your at redline and have to shift. why you ask??? the fact that they have been using the same designs since the days of my great great grand pappy, part of the poor design being the pushrod's which severely limits the engines ability to get to high RPM's safely.

back to my original statement.... harley motors are of old design and poor technology when taking into account modern engines. period.


now you guys can have your back and forth about dragsters and funny carss

Wolverine

Lol! Hearing a hardly trying to go fast, every gear we count up 10 mph.

7moore7

I'm just glad I can have pride in Human production. How silly we must look to spacefolk; all worried about the fastest we can go using combustion and 6,000 year old "wheel and axle" technology.

Wolverine

Back to the topic at hand:

Note: The Hennessey Venom GT design is based on the Lotus Elise / Exige. The Venom GT is created from a base Lotus Elise / Exige and utilizes components including but not limited to the roof, doors, side glass, windscreen, dash, cockpit, floorpan, HVAC system, wiper and headlights. Hennessey Performance and the Venom GT are not associated with Lotus Cars.

7moore7

So it's a highly British car... still Human made. I still get to be proud while all you "America rules" suckers have to eat worms.

CrickiKaze

Only thing good about the car is its speed and that derived from the motor and gear box, the car it's self can't handle it and it goes back to the American way of shoehorning the biggest/powerful engine to go the fastest in a straight line. The destruction of a well balanced vehicle didn't warrant it as it should have been built around an actually new chassis/body.


I do recognize its prowess as it will be the only car to accelerate in such an intense matter.

HRCA#1

I would remind everyone that the Honda CX500T and CX650T were also push rod motors! Nothing slow about them, handling was a different story!

captainchaos

Destruction of a well balanced vehicle? The car can't handle it? Looks like it handles it pretty well to me. Obviously you're not going to make the world's fastest car and still have a little fun to drive corner carver like a stock Exige. "Shoehorning" in the most powerful engine to go the fastest in a straight line kinda seems like an obvious way to build the car with the highest top speed in the world but maybe I'm missing something. If this is the "American way" what would you call what Bugatti did? They shoehorned an engine a full liter larger into theirs, with twice as many cylinders and twice as many turbochargers. Love to see the R&D budget to build the Veyron as opposed to what it cost Hennessey to build this... that might have something to do with why Hennessey didn't build a 100% every nut and bolt from scratch brand new car. It's almost $100,000 just to have new tires mounted and balanced on the Veyron...oh and hopefully you live in France because that's the only place that'll do it. I think the Venom GT is still a pretty amazing achievement.

I think a new body is kind of irrelevant, and I think it looks pretty cool as is. The Bugatti might be a huge status symbol because of the speed and the price but as far as the looks it's pretty hideous, and I'm sure I'm far from alone in that opinion.

captainchaos

Found this pretty interesting too. It's what McLaren boss Ron Dennis thinks of the Veyron...

Bugatti Veyron is a 'piece of junk' - McLaren Boss Ron Dennis

CrickiKaze

Not highlighting the Veyron at all, I wouldn't want one and I think they are over rated. Have you seen the documentary on it though, a car built from the ground up unlike the Venom.


I seen the video as well as other and from some else point of view the braking of the car after the run was unstable and car had some panels shaking. Its not properly set up to take those speeds.


I like a good top out once in a while and it would be a rush if I went along for the ride I just feel as though there could have been so much more done.