Engine ideas anyone?

Technical discussions
User avatar
chrislandy
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:33 pm
Location: Gloucestershire
Contact:

Post by chrislandy »

Bladerider wrote:People seem to be missing the point on the 2l restriction and turbos.
.......
Shame you cant have twin engines, as a pair of gixxers with chain drive to a simple axle and matched shifters and revs would make one hell of a rapid lightweight 4wd superslag !! Power commander, pipe and a bit of WD40 and you should see 380bhp from under 2.0 NA in a modded Locost or similar weighing less than 500kg sounds like a right laugh !!
yup, its 2000cc N/A or 1428cc forced induction or 900cc rotary.

I've been trawling over the regs for sprinting/hillclimbing (and spoken to msa) and it looks like my two options are:
1) Sports libre: Sports Racing Cars
2) Racing Cars

both are limited to under 2l until I can upgrade to my speed A or national A so, as this is my first propper racing car to build from scratch I want to keep the initial outlay down as I can always upgrade the engine(s) once I've got the handling sported and gained enough events to upgrade. (and lets face it, i'll probably stack it in the 1st season!)

The question is now: is there more scope for a single seater built to the hillclimb regs i.e. to no specific formula or do I build a 2 seater "sports racing car" which could potentially race in an allcomers type race, mid engined series and do trackdays in it.... the 2 seater sounds more practical but it would be considerably heavier due to the size

If I used a bike engine, I would probably have to drysump it from the off, these seem to be an extra

RPS13
Posts: 249
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:38 pm
Location: Norfolk

Post by RPS13 »

Pick a race series that you like to look of first, then design the vehcile to those regulations. (And dont pick a new series that might be gone next year before you finish the car. Been there and done that one)There are too many variations between series and championships for you to design a car first, then find something that it will work in, and the car still be the best design for those regulations.

Back to the topic of engines, depending on what race series you choose you will find quite a few will have a seperate class for bike engines if you choose that route anyway so the comparisons of advantages/disadvantages will become moot in those cases.

User avatar
Gerry H
Posts: 6967
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:12 pm
Location: On the Road to Nowhere

Post by Gerry H »

chrislandy wrote:yup, its 2000cc N/A or 1428cc forced induction or 900cc rotary.

I've been trawling over the regs for sprinting/hillclimbing (and spoken to msa) and it looks like my two options are:
1) Sports libre: Sports Racing Cars
2) Racing Cars

both are limited to under 2l until I can upgrade to my speed A or national A so, as this is my first propper racing car to build from scratch I want to keep the initial outlay down as I can always upgrade the engine(s) once I've got the handling sported and gained enough events to upgrade. (and lets face it, i'll probably stack it in the 1st season!)


If your engine constraints are based solely on your grade of competition licence, bear in mind that it's a simple process of competing in six events and getting the signature of each CoC to upgrade to Nat A and eligibility for >2l. You can use your shopping car to get those sigs. and can upgrade mid-season. In theory, you could be Nat A in a couple of months.

PS. Rotary n/a is 1.3x turbo is 2x.
Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can't eat it or hump it, piss on it and walk away!

User avatar
Gerry H
Posts: 6967
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:12 pm
Location: On the Road to Nowhere

Post by Gerry H »

Gerry H wrote:
PS. Rotary n/a is 1.3x turbo is 2x.

How about the RX-8 rotary with a Megasquirt ecu? 1300 x 1.3 = 1690cc

Compact engine, lightweight six speed box, longitudinal, low CoG. Once you can strip off the emissions crap it should actually start. 200+ bhp & 9K rpm standard. Cheapish rebuilds too

Coincidentally, I have a gearbox in my garage that's in GWO :)
Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can't eat it or hump it, piss on it and walk away!

markcivic
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:17 pm
Location: saxmundham

Post by markcivic »

b series honda engines are cheap and reliable,theres plenty of tuning upgrades for them.parts from the b series 1.6 and 1.8 are interchangable.Theyre revable and produce good power as standard.Just sort the breathing,upgrade the valve train and its a rapid little engine.The gear boxes are easy to get hold of.alot have diffs.you can buy various ratios and final drive.you can chip an ecu for a few quid then download crome software for free and tune it,or a Hondata s300 costs

Post Reply