Say you have a 2.0 VTEC motor that revs to 8000 rpm and makes 240 whp.

No you have a 2.0 VTEC motor that revs to 11,000 rpm and makes 240 whp.

What are the advantages of reving higher on a road racing car?

 

I don't know if there is a huge advantage. What is really going to matter is where the power is. On a road course I would say that you'd want to have power where your driving. You'll want mid range power, and torque. Let's say that you get peak power @ 9k+ (reving to 11k) but below that you're pretty dogged, and let's compare that to having power from say.... 5k+ (reving to 8.5k) obviously you're limited by RPM. Coming out of a corner you're more than likely to be in the sub 9k range which is where you'll need power. It doesn't hurt to have high rev motor though. If you can sustain power in the higer RPM band, then you'd have a really killer setup. Here's some food for thought. The B16B is made specifically for road course, and it shows... why? B18C block (basically) that was de-stroked to 1.6 specs. This gives you the RS ratio of a B16A and the torque of the B18C (with a little room for error). By that example you can see that it is both high rev and power that make the difference. I personally think that a high rev motor is good for drag/street use. I will tell you this- I've got a 2l in my car (1950lbs) and when I step on the fuel during a race the car will break traction if I'm in anything lower than mid second. That's too much power, or too little tyre. Driving is more important than anything- which has been a hard lesson to learn.

 

I understand what you mean by the useable powerband; I was just wondering if it had an advantage in some way, like creating more overtsteer because you have more RPMs to work with, but I wasn't thinking completely.

I'd love to get my hands on a b16b, but I have a b17a. I'm thinking somewhere around 9000 rpm for my motor.

I'm not really too interested in drag racing, except to compare my car's straight-line acceleration to other cars.