Detuned Old Engines?

[JoeBob]

Don't tell Bruce Wood of Cosworth that!

http://www.speedtv.com/auto/?lvl=3a&cat=20&id=5064


"Some people figured we'd just take our existing engines, dust them off and drop the peak RPMs," says Bruce Wood, Cosworth's Champ Car program director. "That's not quite true. The whole concept of the spec engine formula would fall apart if our engines failed regularly. So, it was critical to the success of the program that there be no engine failures.

"From a cost standpoint, it certainly would have been cheaper to re-use the blocks and most of the major components from last year. But when you're talking about the life of major components, how does 800 miles with a rev limit of 16,000 RPM compare translate to 800 miles at 12,000 RPM?

"We're not clever enough to understand that, so about 80 percent of the parts on the XFE have been redesigned - essentially, anything with a mileage limit. Things like the oil pump gears are being used again, but the common parts on the XF and the XFE could probably fit in a showbox. Everything else - blocks, heads, crankshafts, rods, pistons - is brand-new."

[sundaydriver]

Ford is doing a great job with the engine this year. More torque, better reliability, and more boost.

A lot of people were critizing CART for becoming a "Spec" series. It might be in the sense that they all have the same engine, but that's where it stops. Ford has done a lot of new engineering and the XFE is still very high tech.

This should be an excellent year for racing! I'm looking forward to more passing and putting the driver back in control.

:)

[Wheel-Nut]

So what is he saying, this years XFE motors are turning 16,000 rpm's.?

[JoeBob]

It sounds like they're turning 12,000 RPM, with 41" of boost (compared to 34 last year) Ian Bisco is quoted as saying they had 780HP last year, and 750 this year (with 25% more torque).

[rabbit]

I read somewhere else where Wood or Davis said more than 75 percent of the parts in this engine are brand new.

[RARules]

I know this sounds stupid, but with a rev limiter, how are we going to get around the issue of the nasty sound of engine "farts" when the rev limiter kicks in? In the old days, one avoided the rev limit because the engine would self-destruct. Now drivers are going to be (somewhat) more encouraged to ride the limit.

Anybody have any good data on how the rev limits are going to be "managed" this year?

[oddlycalm]

Originally posted by RARules
I know this sounds stupid, but with a rev limiter, how are we going to get around the issue of the nasty sound of engine "farts" when the rev limiter kicks in? In the old days, one avoided the rev limit because the engine would self-destruct. Now drivers are going to be (somewhat) more encouraged to ride the limit.

Anybody have any good data on how the rev limits are going to be "managed" this year?

There has always been a rev limiter on CART engines, regardless of what speed the engine turned. Not to have a limiter would be insane, as it wouldn't take much of a mistake for a driver to kill an engine. This year there is a lower rev limit, but with more low end torque, so with the gear ratios adjusted accordingly, the drivers are saying that shifts are coming at the same points on the track. I don't really see much that's different. If you are asking if they will sound like NA engines with a 10,000Rpm hard limiter, the answer is no, they will sound like Champcars have always sounded.

Bear in mind that there is also no traction control, so they will have to drive like they have an egg under their foot coming off corners or they will go agricultural in a heartbeat. It will take serious skill levels, so look for the steady experienced drivers to do well.

[ChrisB]

I know this sounds stupid, but with a rev limiter, how are we going to get around the issue of the nasty sound of engine "farts" when the rev limiter kicks in?

In addition to what oddlycalm said, I think there's also a fundamental difference between road-racing, where the rpms are all over the place, and oval racing where the game is to drive at the top end all the time... which would make for a lot more of hitting the rpm limit. The revlimit f@rting sound is probably not going to be as common in road-racing as it is in oval racing.