Upstairs, the test engine made use of a composite FAST (Fuel Air Spark Technology) –Wilson composite intake manifold and Wilson Manifold fuel rails. The FAST intake is manufactured from a polymer material, and its designed in three pieces, allowing access to each part of the manifold. There’s more too: The manifold fits under stock late model hoods, but it also accepts 78 or 90-mm throttle bodies (MSD 90-mm shown here). The runners are longer than stock, but tapered. According to Wilson, this makes for top end gains with any sacrifice in low end torque.
 Fuel rails are also from Wilson Manifolds. These high volume rails feature a large 11/16-inch ID, which, according to Wilson, provides for optimum cylinder-to-cylinder fuel distribution, particularly on high horsepower engine combinations. The material used in manufacture is extruded aluminum. Wilson builds these for late model LS engines and late model Mustangs. The folks at Kinsler offer all sorts of different fuel rails for a wide array of countless combinations (for example, custom setups for early Chevy small and big blocks, Mopars, Big Chief head combinations, Ford SVO engines and so on). A good way to think of a fuel rail is to consider it a modern fuel block. High pressure, regulated fuel comes in and it’s distributed to the respective injectors. |
Modern EFI Emerges...
F1 in Europe was the big stage for EFI. In a pre-EFI state, an early eighties F1 engine could develop somewhere in the range of 750 horsepower from 92 cubic inches (turbocharged). Even with those sorts of impressive numbers, engineers knew they were making tremendous compromises in order to provide safe performance from their engines. Given the capability of an EFI system to easily handle a very complex engine fuel map with ease, F1 development groups understood the only route was electronic fuel injection. Within a few short years of introducing electronics to
fuel injection systems, a number of F1 engines were producing close to 1250 horsepower from the same 92 cubic inch turbocharged power plants (a remarkable 13.5 horsepower per cubic inch). The teams used roughly 1,000 horsepower on the track for qualifying sessions and further softened the tune-up for the actual race. Need more grunt? It was a simple matter to crank up the power wick at will. The truth is, this marked the viability of race quality electronic fuel injection systems.
