Zakspeed 891

Hi Guys

Looking for info on the last F1 Zakspeed. The Zakspeed Yamaha 891. I know the engine was lousy but I heard that the chassis was actually pretty good jus that the car was never on the track long enough to develop it?

Also what was actually wrong with the engine apart from it blowing up after 5 seconds?!?!?


I read that it had good top end but no power curve? It was always fastest throught e speed traps in pre-qualifying.

Bob
I think you're exagerating the short longevity of the Yamaha engines in the Zakspeed...........I once witnessed one lasting more than one lap before dying (but less than two laps). However, I also think you asked a rhetorical question........... If an engine blows after 5 seconds, there is little opportunity for anything else to be 'wrong' with it!
It was sad to see Zakspeed struggling at that time, as his reputation before that, and of course after that time, was notable for extremely competitive and well-engineered machines. I fear the decision to use Yamaha power was forced, firstly by the reluctance of any competetive engine manufacturer to supply the team, and secondly by the Zakspeed preference to 'go it alone'.

I recall during the build-up to the 1989 season, they lost so many engines as the Yamaha engines keep blowing up to bits and pieces.

I do seem to recall reading in the Autosport 1989 review that thr record for a Yamaha engine blowing was 5 seconds. They literally switched it on to warm up and boom!!!!

Was a shame as it ruined Bernd Scneiders F1 career.

Ironically at the end of the season and before they withdrew for 1990 the car was quick and the engine woes looked like thye had been solved - however they had lost West by then... If only they had gone with a DFZ instead - look at how well Rial did initially with one for instance, or AGS.

Yamaha began a collaboration with Cosworth in 1987 and produced the OX77 engine which won the second race of the Japanese F3000 series with Jan Lammers and took the championship in 1988 with Suzuki. It subsequently produced the OX88 V8 F1 engine for Zakspeed. The 891 was the first (and only) Zakspeed designed by Gustav Brunner, so one can assume the chassis was not that bad. Zakspeed had been building its own 1500cc turbo engine (I was told that originally Zakowski had hoped to be contracted by Ford - with whom he had worked together for years of course - to produce its new F1-turbo engine in 1984 and that when Cosworth got that deal he decided to go into F1 on his own) but the team did not have the money nor the people to build a 3500cc normally aspirated engine for the new regulations for 1989, so the Yamaha deal (of which Aguri Suzuki was part) was warmly welcomed. In the summer of 1989 Reemtsma (West) told the team it would end its sponsorship and that was it.

Yamaha returned to F1 1991 with the OX99 V12 for Brabham, scoring 3 points. Same engine was used by Jordan in 1992, before John Judd got involved to produce the OX10A V10 engine, a development (the OX11) of which nearly won the 1997 Hungarian GP in the back of Damon Hill's Arrows.