[427 S/O]

Considering the fundamentals, I believe the FE427 is the perfect combination of torque and HP.

This is Interesting reading, forgot where I found it.

HARD AS IT MAY BE for those of us brought up to think of horsepower as the ultimate measure of an engine's worth, we need to rethink our emphasis. Maybe we should add the word "power" to torque because that's really what we're after. It's the torque that gives us the "feels good" sensation in seat-of-the-pants evaluation of acceleration. Going back to the most basic understanding of an internal-combustion engine, we all know that it is the reaction of an ignited air/fuel mixture that drives the pistons down the bore, causing the crankshaft to turn. Obviously, the more energy released in that reaction, and the more energy used (rather than lost), the greater the force on the piston and the more twist there is on the crank. Torque is a measure of the "twisting force" of the engine. One of the ways engineers evaluate the power of an engine is by looking at the Brake Mean Effective Pressure (BMEP). The higher the BMEP, the higher the torque. Torque is a function of cylinder pressure and displacement, which is the scientific origin of the old speed merchant's axiom, "You can't beat cubic inches." The reason engineers look at the BMEP is that, unfortunately, with current rod design the peak pressure is reached when the piston is just past TDC (10 to 15 degrees) and decreases as the piston goes down. That peak pressure near TDC arrives at a time when the pistons/rods have the least amount of mechanical advantage for twisting the crank. As the piston moves downward, the volume increases, creating a cooling/refrigeration effect when we really want heat! In terms of engines in street and racing trim, where an engine gets power is all important. An engine with a low BMEP has to run higher rpm to make the same power as an identical displacement engine that features higher BMEP. Shifting the maximum torque to a lower rpm range really makes the engine feel bigger. A good low-end torque motor always has the advantage from stoplight to stoplight. Within the usable rpm range of most street engines, good torque is much more valuable than peak horsepower. Horsepower is rpm-related. In a racing situation, where the desired speed and rpm are known, high horsepower is good, so racing engines are tuned to make their power at high rpm. Outside of Bonneville, 95% of the driving public may only see peak power in their engines momentarily. Within each gear we get up to maximum horsepower briefly and then have to shift before power drops. During acceleration through the gears, we're only getting perhaps 60% to 70% of the potential power to the ground because the engine must go through a range in each gear, and maximum power is available only for an instant. The rest is a compromise. The "perfect engine" would run at a single, specific rpm. Then everything, from cam timing to carburetion, exhaust design, intake manifolds, compression ratio, and combustion chamber shape could be designed to make optimum power at that speed. Engines that must operate within an rpm range are designed with compromises. What works best at 5000 rpm is not going to work as well at 4000 or 6000 rpm. Perfect engines can be easily built today. They are already in place as stationary engines all over the world, providing pumping power and running electrical generators.