Quote:
quote:Originally posted by macster
If this car had 250 stock HP it would be awesome.
|
The engine was designed to give the PT more power, and the SRT-4 and Mexican Stratus R/T also ended up with it as well; but it was designed for the PT.
Keeping in mind that the SRT-4 is scheduled to go as high as Stage III with around 300 HP, I think it is alsmost safe to say that the engine was designed to produce in excess of 285 by design.
It is a great marketing ploy by DCX: Engineer to make 325 HP, Sell upgrades to make up to 300 (25HP margin of error to lower chance of engine damage), Sell as Stock Turbo GT with 215HP (110HP Margin of error to lower chance of engine warranty claims and to be able to sell the performance to the customer a-la-carte). Just like the 180HP model coming out in 2004, this keeps everyone from having to pay for the higher performance model. Since we haven't seen the retail on a 285HP model, we can only hope that we haven't already paid for one.
This way, they can sell an additional 2 upgrades to net an additional $1K out of the customer, while still staying 65 HP under the engine design specs.
These are all hypothetical HP numbers. However, if you see the engine in the SRT-4 slated to get upgrades to the 300HP mark, and figure there is some margin of error there, it isn't too hard to imagine that the engine was designed and engineered to make that kind of HP; and more..... From there it becomes a question of how much to derate it to keep it from competing with other sales, how much to derate it to lessen engine warranty claims and how much will the customer pay to get the power the engine was engineered and designed for under the hood of their PT-GT.
I took a local for a ride today in my GT with Stage I. He had bought one of the first 2001 models in town. He had heard about the Turbo GT, but hadn't heard about the staged upgrades. There aren't any words I can think of to describe his reaction when I turned it loose.
It is incredible to imagine that a 4 cylinder can produce the kind of torque and hp that we have...