Kind of a Drag: GM tackles front-wheel-drive Drag Racing with Cavalier/Sunfire and an amazingly stock 775 hp Ecotec four-cylinder - Motorsports - General Motors Corp - Brief Article - Product Announcement

Automotive Industries, May, 2002 by Gerry Kobe

With the ever-increasing popularity of front-wheel-drive and import drag racing, General Motors Corp. sees the hand-writing on the wall for share-of-mind with the Gen-Y crowd. Honda's Civic and Ford's Focus have jumped into the limelight for this performance-oriented young audience and GM has decided to get its share of attention by fighting fire with fire.

This year it's campaigning a Pontiac Sunfire, which will compete in the Hot Rod and Quick classes of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and Import Drag Racing Circuit (IDRC) respectively. It also will run a more heavily modified Chevrolet Cavalier in the NHRA Modified and IDRC Outlaw classes.

Aside from the obvious high-profile publicity, GM is bent on proving a point, not just about its cars, but more specifically about its engines. It hopes that by using a surprisingly stock Ecotec four-cylinder it can convince race fans that the Ecotec is to today's youth what the legendary "small block" was to their parents.

To speed the Ecotec learning curve, GM and Bothwell Racing in Fraser, Mich., started working together about one year ago. First they applied nitrous injection to the production 2.2L engine to see where the weak points were. With stock rods and pistons, the limit was about 275 hp before reliability became an issue. After upgrading to JE pistons and Crower rods and crankshaft, power surged to 500 hp before head gaskets blew out.

"We stumbled trying to figure that one out," says Steve Bothwell, development manager at Bothwell Racing. "Everybody thought the sleeves were shaking and if we shored them up we'd never have a problem. We put in a plate and all we did was break blocks because of thermal expansion. Then we went back to the head and shored it up, returned to the stock block and pulled 650 horse effortlessly."

Most of the Ecotec's current 775 hp comes from the 23 pounds of boost produced by its Innovative-supplied turbocharger. Bothwell says they have tested with up to 28 pounds, but horsepower is not the issue -- traction is. The other important consideration for Bothwell and GM is to keep the engine as stock as possible and not create something that the average do-it-yourselfer can't build.

"We don't want to go so far that somebody looks at the car and says, 'I could never do that," Bothwell says. "We want to show people this is a great engine and it can be made much stronger than the way it comes from the factory, same as GM's small block."

Bothwell says that the engine in its 775 hp form costs a mere $12,000 and has been 100 percent reliable. He also says the program has sent a clear message back to GM Powertrain that it's okay to "crank up" the Ecotec.

RELATED ARTICLE: 750 hp Ecotec Engine

WHAT'S STOCK?

Block (liners and studs added)

Head (ported, support added)

Cam drive

Dry sump

Main bearings

Rocker arms

Valve springs (double)

Cam drive (modified)

Cam cover

Camshaft (ground to racing profile)

Intake manifold

Water pump

Engine management

Oil pump

Gaskets and seal (excluding head)

WHAT'S NOT?

Head gasket (copper)

Pistons (aluminum)

Rods (H-beam powder metal)

Crankshaft (destroked)

Piston pins (full floating)

Turbocharger

Valves

Key Aftermarket Suppliers

Crower--crankshaft, rods, grind cams

JE--pistons

Ferrea--valves

Bates Engineering--machine shop fabrication

Accel/DFI--Engine management

Innovative--turbocharger