highest revving auto engine?

[aspetuck]

What are some engines that, with modifications, could rev over, say 12k? 10k? Any V8s? I would prefer production engines. I've heard the rb26 can supposedly rev well over 10k? Can any engine beat that?

[Tim.Wright]

Well if we are comparing unconfirmed rumours about hypothetical modifications then I heard that my 1.2L polo motor could supposedly do 50k RPM with the only modifications being the crankshaft, pistons, conrods, head and block...

Beat that

[RicerDude]

The Caparo T1's 3.5 litre V8 spins to around 11k RPM.
The Ariel Atom 3.5 litre V8 spins to 10,500 RPM but its technically a bike engine so it doesn't really count.
The Lexus LFA can hit nearly 10k RPM which is pretty impressive for a 5 litre V10.

[AnthonyG]

A Mazda Rx8 engine can do well above 10k, but is limited at 9000ish due to risks for the cltuch etc. (don't know the details anymore)

[Pup]

I think a Tesla roadster is limited at 16,000 rpm.

[FW17]

Yamaha R1 Revs at 12500 with a limit at 13750

[FoxHound]

The Rx8 is cheating a bit as it's a rotary engine.

The Honda S2000's F20C engine pushes 9300rpm on the red line. Which is remarkable for a car you could buy for 30k and which sold around 100,000 units.

[neilbah]

yamaha OX99-11 v12 10,000RPM, Not exactly a runabout

[garygph]

A Mazda Rx8 engine can do well above 10k, but is limited at 9000ish due to risks for the cltuch etc. (don't know the details anymore)

Interesting one as then we would need to know that RPM in the Rotary engine is not how many times the crank rotates in a minute as that is one third of the displayed RPM IIRC. Which is also why I doubt the limted RPM is due to the clutch. I do know that when ported to get the extra power when racing etc. and the high RPM ( 9500 on my 13B rotary, apparently the 12A could rev higher.) the standard Apex seals would catch in the ports so we had to change them to lighter stiffer carbon seals.
So yes, as Foxhound says, I don't think this engine could be considered

[aspetuck]

Let me narrow this down a bit: production engines, designed for a car (not motorcycle), piston engine (no rotary)
Not necessarily stock, but molded (like a tuned rb or jz or honda)

[RicerDude]

Saab or 360cc Subaru two stroke? Can't find any official specs but I'd imagine they would rev pretty high.

[tim|away]

... production engines...Not necessarily stock...tuned ....

This is where the confusion lies for me. As some people already implied, you can make the motor of a canal boat hit 30k rpm if you replace enough parts. There are less than a handful of production engines that actually manage to beat 10k rpm without modifications. I think it would be more helpful if you provided some background and criteria. How is this engine going to be used? What are the requirements? What is the budget? etc.

[aspetuck]

This would be an engine to stick in a track car, like a miata, e30, mr2, ect. Really the engine matters more than the car, I want it as sort of a technical project so I'd pick the car around the engine. I'm not interested in a bike engine though. I was looking at the nissan rb series, toyota 1jz, smaller honda 4s. I would think a 1uzfe would have quite a bit bang for the buck, even if you need the manual trans conversion

[krisfx]

K20 or F20, absolutely bulletproof (I think) and are happiest at high revs.

[Nuvolari_the_legend]

The 2013 Jaguar C-X75 Prototype maybe. It revs over 10.000 rpm.

I don't know if model cars can compete as well, but if they can they probably will beat everything else because they can easily rev to 40.000 rpm.