The Engine Masters Challenge is the purest interpretation of motorsport, a sport literally made out of motors. This is the event where top builders nationwide compete for best overall power on the engine dynos at the University of Northwestern Ohio’s Applied Technologies College. 

Speedmaster have become a sponsor of this initiative, investing in the future of the automotive industry by partnering up with some of the biggest brand names on the market.

The 2016 competition marked the second year running with multiple classes and brought a few changes to the classes that were carried over in 2015. Regardless of class, each competitor must submit three runs for scoring, completed within a 35 minute window. Listed are the classes below: 

Small-Block

The Small-Block shootout is for domestic pushrod V8’s with a minimum displacement of 350 ci using commercially available two-valve cylinder heads.

Spec Big-Block

To focus on easily duplicated combinations, the Spec Big-Block class required competitors to pick an Edelbrock cylinder head and intake from a list of legal part numbers, while using an MSD ignition. 

Vintage

Our vintage class is for domestic V8’s introduced before 1954, with the exception of Ford Y-Block, MEL V8, Buick Nailhead, Packard V8, and 1956-1967 Chrysler A-Series Polyspheric small-block. This class also includes inline-six engines introduced before 1964, although we haven’t seen anyone field one yet.

Nitrous

For the new nitrous class, competitors were limited to carbureted, domestic, two-valve V8 engines with a displacement of no more than 367 ci. There was no correction factor for displacement, and each competitor would be given the same nitrous jet, leaving the fuel jetting up to them.