Civettone
Tech Sergeant
People also tend to forget that the Italian DB 605s had 100 HP less than the original German engines.What seems to be somewhat surpising is the performance claimed by these "5" series fighters considering that they are a good 200hp down on power from the SPitfire while carring a very impressive armament. Granted the German guns are lighter in weight but the ammunition loads are rather large.
One of my main intrests is Italian aircraft and aircraft engines and it's a rather sad story all in all: a lot of great designs but the problem was the industrial capacity, especially when it comes to engines. Almost all of the 900+ HP engines were copies from the British/Americans/French/German and all of these were inferior to the original both in power as in reliability.
Kris