Ken Duttwieller, I saw his old GN this summer at the DSM shootout in Norwalk Ohio. Dave Buschur has been the driver of this car for 2 years now. Runs high 7s, but that day, he had boost problems and was only running some sorry low 9s, high 8s...
BTW, Dave ran 8.1 with his Talon. OK, the car is a RWD funny thing with a glider 2 speed and a Ford rear-end, but still, it's a DSM engine. Stock block, crank, head.
In the DSM world, we go as high as 9.0 to 1 when we go forged. I personnaly have a set of 9.0 to 1 in my car, but the metal gasket brings it down to about 8.8 to 1. Even with only a 0.3 compression raise from the stock 8.5, my car will run like a dog with anything but 94 octane (we have a knock sensor). If there wasn't 94 octane at the pump, I'd be a sorry camper. THIS IS AS HIGH AS I WOULD GO ON AN ENGINE THAT RUNS ON THE STREET!
In the rally world, with the big restrictors they have in the turbo inlets, they go as high as 11 or even 12 to 1! Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but Barry Latreille from Cornwall ran the same engine for like 2 years, without opening it. He can build FULL 27psi boost at about 2800rpms. I rode in his car and WOOHOO! A torquey and responsive 4 banger (he also has antilag) is really something. He also has a closed ratio "dog box" and hits 6-7k rpms at like 140km/h.
But running a turbo on an 11 to 1 Honda engine is a big @#%$ joke. Personnaly, having seen Honda "blocks" (those aluminium thingies with sleeves) I can't even understand how they could hold turbocharging at all! Obviously, they do ... but hey, I'm surprised.
I mean, compare a dodge or DSM or Mazda iron block to one of those tiny thing and you'll understand what I'm saying...
Am I the only one who thinks that?