What makes sports car engines expensive ?

Wedrer Waas: What makes sports car engines expensive ?
Hello,

I would like to know why manufacturing sports car engines is more expensive than regular ones ?

I mean, the same materials are used in both of them (steel, aluminum, rubber, plastics..), and the final weight must be close from one car to another, but the difference in price is still important.

I heard that the precision involved in the manufacturing of sports car engines is higher, but is that the only reason ?

Finally, there are a lot of car manufacturers that do not sell powerful sports cars, is it because they don’t have the technology to do so ? Or is it simply a marketing decision ?

Thank you all for your help !

Answers and Views:

Answer by Mad Jack
The answer is very simple. Horse power costs money.

High power engines require stronger components. An example. The low power version of an engine may have a cast iron crank shaft. The high power version for a sports car will have a forged steel crank shaft. A lower power version of an engine may have cast iron connecting rods. The high power version will have forged connecting rods made from more exotic materials. The low power version of an engine will have cast iron pistons. The high power version will have forged pistons made from more exotic materials. The forged parts cost more to manufacture than the cast iron parts. The forged parts are required because the cast iron parts won’t handle the high horse power.

The engine block will usually be different than the low horse power version. At the very least it will be stronger at the main bearing areas. Usually having 4 or more bolts attaching the main bearing caps. However there may be more significant changes. For example the Dodge V10 used in the truck and the V10 used in the Viper aren’t all that different in basic design. However the truck engine block will be cast iron, the Viper block will be an aluminum alloy. GM does the same thing. The basic design of their truck motor and the LS motor used in the base model Corvette are basically the same. However the truck motor is cast iron while the Corvette motor is aluminum alloy. An aluminum alloy engine block costs more to manufacture than a cast iron block.

Cutting edge technology. Most times the sports cars will have the manufacturer’s latest in technology. The high tech items many times will cost more to manufacture than the tried and true low tech parts.

Many times the sports car version of an engine will have some additional power adders like a supercharger or turbocharger. These additional components add to the cost of manufacturing an engine.

Many times in the higher end sports cars the engine will be hand built as opposed to being built on an assembly line.

All these add to cost.

Answer by moboy
There is an old saying in hot rodding. How fast do you want to go? it answered by how much do you have. High performance powerplants cost more because of what is hidden inside. They cost more because the are not sold a high numbers compared to common family sedans. You can make and sell parts cheaper if you sell a million of them then you can if you sell a few thousand.

Answer by Jeff S
Technology.

For instance, the Cadillac CTS-V is about $ 30,000 more than the regular CTS because it has a much more powerful and sophisticated powerplant (supercharged 500+hp V8 vs 300+hp V6) and a much tighter suspension (was up until recently the fastest production sedan to go around the Nurburgring in Germany thanks to its tightly tuned suspension).

Technology is expensive, it takes a lot of R&D to get it right.

Answer by in51der
The answer is one of refinement and BHP basically. The reason some manufacturers don’t make them comes down to marketing, would you buy a Skoda supercar? Probably not.