On Horse Power

[Lil4X]

If you consider the "sports cars" of the 50's and 60's, next years' Elio will compare rather favorably in terms of performance. Although most had engines producing up to 105 horsepower, most were considerably heavier vehicles as well - so overall performance would be pretty comparable. We thought anything with a sub-10 second 0-60 was "sporty" back in the day - when most of us were driving family sedans that couldn't match even that figure. Along came the muscle car era and changed the way we thought about straight-line acceleration, but didn't do much for handling. Weight was and continues to be the enemy.

By the early '70's, skidpad performance of most sports cars and the sportier small sedans was somewhere around .70 to .72 G. It appears that the Elio will beat that number handily. If you set the wayback machine for 1970, you might find your Elio doing pretty well out in the twisties against cars of the era. We've been spoiled - most of us are thinking of the Elio as an ultra-economy car, but the previous generation might have looked on it as a sports car.

 

[ecdriver711]

Elio, sounding better everyday.

 

[tonyspumoni]

And to be honest, when a vehicle balances all aspects of performance, even modest performance can be wonderful. My ex-brother-in-law had an old Beetle he restored. I got to take it out one day and man was it a blast to drive. It didn't corner like a sports car and it didn't accelerate like one, but it did have a certain indefinable analog grace that was addictive. That's harmony, I suppose.

If a car has a silky ride but no guts it will leave me at a loss. Likewise if it has guts but rides like a sow, that's also a downer. Perhaps his owes to the fact that I am trying to make up for a deficit in one area by flogging the other? Who knows. I do know that if the Elio has balance and poise and does everything just about as well as everything else and it's not wretched in one particular area, 55 bhp will be just fine.

 

[ross]

You should be scared! Statistically, it is running on borrowed time!
JK. I am impressed that it's still running.

Must be the last one on the planet.

 

[ross]

This is indeed a good question. Bolting on a turbo to the current engine would likely be possible however I doubt it would be recommended. The issue I see is that the internal moving parts and bearings in the engine would likely also need to be upgraded to be able to reliably handle the increased stresses caused by a turbo. The ECU engine controller would also need to be reprogrammed as well.

Of course none of this would be an issue at the factory however to do it yourself would likely require an engine rebuild to go along with adding a turbo. These engines are not really all that complex and this is something I could some of our mechanically inclined members doing however if you were paying someone to do it this would increase the cost significantly.

Any thoughts about direct injection?

 

[Joshua Caldwell]

Any thoughts about direct injection?

I don't like needles.

 

[wheaters]

Any thoughts about direct injection?

I'd say no need. The injection pump and the injectors have to be more sophisticated and therefore more expensive. Also, the injector tips are exposed to the combustion process, which in my mind means more maintenance and / or a shorter life. Injecting fuel sequentially through the wall of the inlet port onto the back of the inlet valve is the best compromise, in my mind.

 

[karl]

Found this at a competitors site

 

[goofyone]

Found this at a competitors site

We have some good discussion on that video here:

http://www.elioowners.com/threads/p...nterior-and-suspension.3831/page-3#post-53606

 

[wheaters]

Interesting video, thanks for posting. I can't help but say that the similarities to the existing Suzuki G10 engine are many, including the way the EGR system is arranged.

Suzuki obviously did a very good design job, especially as the G10 is thirty years old.

The fact that the Elio engine has been designed to run at very low rpm is interesting. I have modified my own 850 cc Reliant to work in the same way. Unusually high compression ratio, low lift cam and tall rear axle ratio, to make the engine pull harder on an open throttle, increasing the volumetric efficiency. In other words, make the engine as close to a Diesel engine as possible, without causing detonation.