Charlotte, N.C. — Years ago when racing men would talk of engine horsepower they’d become giddy at the notion of getting one horsepower from each cubic inch of displacement in the engine. That thinking, if it applied, meant that a 358 cubic-inch engine made 358 horsepower. But there are new frontiers.

With a little tinkering over the years that one pony per cubic inch has escalated to something more than 2.2 horsepower per cubic inch — a power level which the engine builders of NASCAR can now produce and sustain all day. Now, with the advent of relatively small motors making big, reliable horsepower, the engine builders are looking to explore new regions; and hopefully exploit. The new playground appears to be raising the rpm band from its current 9,000 - 9,200 range to something closer to 10,000 rpm.

The prospect of high revving engines dawned June 2002 when the Ford engine in Ryan Newman’s car turned close to 9,700 rpm on Pocono’s long front straight. That display caught the eye of Winston Cup series director John Darby and got him to thinking about the future.

“Rpm in the engines is a technology that goes up every year,” said Darby of the ever-escalating rpm ranges. “Shoot, I remember the days when you got to 6,000 rpm you were doing something. Now 9,000 is fairly achievable and I guess you could look at it as a race to 10,000 at this point.” And according to engine builders throughout the garage, the race to 10,000 is well underway.