Undersquare vs. Oversquare Engines

You have to remember theres a few ways to see more power out the crank. Any crank. You can reduce weights, reduce friction, machine very accurately, and focus on one area in the power curve. Do any of them, and more power will be found at the crank for that given rpm area. Lighter parts are easier to accelerate, and won't deform as stress rises with rpm, so more power is the result. You also have to remind yourself that every action has a reaction. You could make a balsa wood rod, and it would be light, but it can't work. Parasitic or frictional losses are huge. If you thinkg there's no difference, go turn a PS1C Procharger by hand... Then compare outputs from a 10psi boosted blower engine vs a 10psi turbo engine. Turbo engines make monster horsepower because they take none to drive. A blower uses as much as 25% of it's own power produced just to turn itself. The higher the boost, the worse the loss. Also as I said, frictional losses due to the longer strokes, shorter rods in shorter decks and smaller bores are much greater at lower rpms.

Ram, in terms of packaging, i think the big block have the knod. They can fit larger ports where they are located already, and they are wider, giving more intake port volume for that size. This is for street type, 6500redline engines. Above that.. the small block simply have more heads available (Cup car/sprint car R&D), along with better valve angles and lighter parts among other things. I still think the ultimate cross breed car (street/strip/road race) is an LA stroker A body.