I've heard this statement before, and over the years I've learned to take everybodys BS with a grain of salt... but finally today I've decided I need an answer to this statement.

I've heard people say that you've got to drive a sports car hard to keep the engine and pistons, etc clean from junk. Meaning cruise at higher RPMs, push it higher on shifts.. basically if you drive around under 2K or something constantly that your engine will get more buildup junk than usual.

Now don't flame me, I just want answers one way or another.. is this BS or real?

 

In my opinion, I think the best thing for the car is to do both. Drive the car normal and every once in a while let it loose.

 

Agreed, a sports car is meant to be driven not sit in a garage and look pretty

 

Personally, I don't believe this has much credibility now.

This idea used to have some credibility, and most likely stems from when carburators were used. - Even then it didn't have much credibility...

 

Agreed to all 3 of you.

Drive it normal after a tired day at work... But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, unleash it and put a smile on your face. More often than not too.

And with carburetors it makes sense, just wondering who is an engine nerd that can explain this stuff... so I can then pretend I know as well.. Thanks guys, just a random question I couldn't get out of my head lately

 

Not much of an engine nerd, but mainly from pooling.

 

Blowing out the carbon once and a while is a good thing.

 

90% not true.

 

That goes for every car.

 

There is no need to race your engine by running up the RPM’s. In fact your car will last longest if you drive it conservatively. --Spike

 

Can't say for all cars but my uncle that works for BMW said BMWs have the most engine problems with elderly owners, since the engines get sooo much carbon buildup.

I have also seen an RX7 that was babied for over 20k miles, never taken even close the redline, and blew on its 2nd quarter mile run.

 

The only known truth to that is the Rotary engines. They must be driven hard or they will fail.

 

I highly doubt this is true.


Probably stuff 15 year olds tell each other before they get their Civics and Integras.

 

It is somewhat true, your injectors wash the carbon buildup off the intake valves, and if you're never going full throttle you don't get a lot of flow and can get plenty of gunk on there. Crankcase vacuum is also stronger at low throttle opening crusing, meaning that more oil vapors and stuff gets pulled back into the intake via the PCV system than at higher RPM/Throttle opening operations.

I've always seen my engines clean inside when I open them up and I beat them religiously. I take apart fairly low-mileage cars at work and see tons of buildup on parts.

 

I feel this is an extremely subjective opinion.

A BMW tech will say they have the most engine problems. A Mercedes tech will say they have the most engine problems. A Hyundai tech will say they have the most engine problems. So on and so forth...

13B's are time bombs. This is like pointing out when a shop's purpose-built drag car blows.

 

Yes this is totally the opinion of my uncle's professional experience which he has over 35 years of from BMW, Volvo, Fiat and Alfa Romeo, and Porsche. I'm not trying to act like he is 100% right, I'm just saying that I do listen to his knowledge as he does have alot of experience at his jobs as well as all the cars he built from the ground up in his garage.

The 13B is subjective too, because as you said they are ticking time bombs. It could have been a cooncidence, sure, they are unreliable cars. I just thought it was weird that it was literally the 2nd time in 20k miles that the car went to redline and just blew.

 

i dont know about the engine wear, but i do know my car is happier when i get into it.

 

 

60% of the time works every time

 

On the point of rotaries, most of the FD engines/cars I have seen back in the 90's, were poorly maintained (oil level/change) by the owners IMO. These engines burn oil so if you never check your oil level, the engine (apex seals etc) is going to go bad quickly.