While eight cylinder engines have a large displacement advantage that will always give them an edge over four cylinders in terms of ultimate potential in a full-out race situation and an edge in power production given similar design and technology, four cylinder engines can still be very potent. There are four cylinder Hondas on this board trapping 136 mph running low boost for the first half of the track, four cylinder DSMs running 10's at 130 and above on pump gas and street tires, four cylinder turbo Dodges putting out 500 whp on the stock longblock-unopened valvecover and pump gas. When you consider the weight of the average Camaro (no, it's not 3000 pounds, try 3450 for an 02 Z28) and the weight of your average 240sx (~2600) or Honda (~2200-2400) , or the AWD street tire advantage of a DSM or Scooby, you'll see that imports can be very competitive players.