62 replies to this topic

[paulstevens56]

They run ridiculous boost I think, there are a couple of categories for highly tuned diesel tractors, one where they use diesel another whey they use methanol.  Most are 6 cylinder, but there are a few V8 motors too!

 

The boost is so high they have the quickly blip throttles to build up boost and then try and release so it is on boost, or they just bog down!

 

Bonkers for such a small sport, but there are proper factory tractors, and bigger crowds for most meetings than you would think!

[Lee Nicolle]

As we are talking about the 1986 Benetton BMW, its worth noting the the Pirro car just took out the lap record at Baskerville in an epic race with a CanAm McLaren... Very cool.

 

https://youtu.be/kzSD-CiG5qQ

And near certainly using probably 500hp! As I am sure they do not want to grenade the engine so have it screwed right down.

[Lee Nicolle]

I would suggest some the diesel tractor pull engines are pushing out well over 2500hp.

 

And they blow up frequently due to the ridiculous pressures they are put through, sound great though!

 

But really they are the same as drag engines, very powerful but run for so few miles it hardly counts.

 

I would think some of the GroupC engines run by Toyota, Nissan and Mercedes and the IMSA motors run by them were wound up occasionally to very high power fuels using special fuel

Tractor pull engines are rediculous. They literally blow the entire crankcase off the crank, or leave the crank on the ground.

This also describes diesel drag engines which generally blow that much black smoke that it becomes night!

They make stupid amounts of power though. 2500hp was 20 years ago. Double that and more but in reality have a few hundred metres engine life. And this with billet blocks as well.

[Lee Nicolle]

Getting back on subject though, most race power would be shared between a 410 Sprintcar engine or a 358 Nascar with reputed 900hp. And delivered in very different ways. Nascar on special petrol with a 4bbl intake and 9500 rpm and do 500 mile races.

Sprinter with 2 9/16 intake trumpets by 8. Methanol fuel and use these days around 8500. And with a bit of luck and regular maintenance will do 6-8 shows before being freshened up.

And both 2 valve pushrod engines. 

And ofcourse thousands of drag race engines with bigger hp numbers and the bigger the number the shorter the service life!! Freshened up every 1/4 mile of racing,, that is if it has not blown the blower off!

[Wuzak]

I can only agree with everyone. The 1935 Blue Bird, that attained 301 mph is often stated to have 2370 HP from it's 37 litre Rolls-Royce R Type, but 2370 was the highest figure ever attained by an R Type (R27), on a special sprint cocktail of fuel, and with a 400+ mph head wind down the supercharger intake, on a test bench. Campbell's engine (R37) was running "normal" fuel, and obviously wasn't going to get a 400 mph head wind, so it probably was producing 1350 HP maybe 1800 at a peak, but every book says over 2000!!

 

The R was tuned differently for air speed record runs than for Schneider Trophy races.

 

Wiki says 2,530hp in specifications - this would have been the higher tune for the air speed record.

 

Also: R9 "Back at Derby with new design crankshaft. 2,350 hp (1,750 kW) at 3,200 rpm for full hour". That's on the dyno, no 400mph wind.

 

https://en.wikipedia...l_history_table

[Wuzak]

On the subject of dynos, surely they built them to test and measure performance of big engines like the R-R Merlin?

 

Yes, to certify the power settings the engine had to go through a type test, which involved 100h+ of running at different settings. For the UK it was 114h and the US it was 150h. The engines would do mostly cruise settings and then do short bursts at higher power settings, several times during the test.

 

The highest power recorded by a Merlin in WW2 was 2,620hp, for the RM.17SM. It's official rating was 2,200hp in low gear (MS) and 2,100hp in high gear (FS).

 

Once the rating had been set, all production engines had to be tested to within a set tolerance of the rating.

 

In at least one Pratt & Whitney R-2800 production plant there was a bank of dynos used for testing. These dynos would generate power to be used by the facility.

[Wuzak]

When the Pirellis were switched on the Benetton BMW looked a very capable machine. Dubious about the power figures even in qualifying trim. In regards to the Toyota TS050 I was watching the F1 practice on sky earlier this year with Ant Davidson doing the commentary, he said the Toyota had a button on the steering wheel which game them a 500bhp boost, that thing must have some power!

 

The 500hp boost was the electric motor.

[Wuzak]

These days with mid 6 second 'street cars' I suspect they too would blow off those BMWs. And they are able to tow a trailer as well!

Cornering is a little better!

 

A McLaren MP4/4 did low 8s for the 1/4 mile with 650hp and Suzuka gearing.

 

Wonder what they could do with a drag specific set up.

[Wuzak]

Getting back on subject though, most race power would be shared between a 410 Sprintcar engine or a 358 Nascar with reputed 900hp. And delivered in very different ways. Nascar on special petrol with a 4bbl intake and 9500 rpm and do 500 mile races.

Sprinter with 2 9/16 intake trumpets by 8. Methanol fuel and use these days around 8500. And with a bit of luck and regular maintenance will do 6-8 shows before being freshened up.

And both 2 valve pushrod engines. 

 

That is probably true.

 

Partly because most series have tight restrictions.

 

F1 and LMP have fuel flow restrictions.

 

Other series have air flow restrictions.

 

That said, LMP1 has combined 1,000hp in the hybrid category (500hp engine, 500hp electric motor) and Ferrari and Mercedes F1 power units would be close to 1,000hp in qualifying, though closer to 900hp in race trim.

[Duc-Man]

Blimey, that's diesel locomotive territory isn't it? Why on earth would they need that much power? Huge torque figures no doubt, but not much need for high revs.

 

Just a side effect of a big, highly charged engine I guess. ;-)

[D-Type]

I know it's Land speed Record and not racing: how much power did the Liberty aero engine produce.  In particular I'm thinking of the White Triplex that had three of them totalling 81 litres.  Was that the biggest of the LSR monsters?

[Bikr7549]

The WW1 Liberty engines were produced in two versions;
-army with high compression pistons rated at 350-400 hp
-navy lower compression at 320-340 hp

I dont have info at hand on the actual CR.

[Wuzak]

WIki says that they claimed 1,500hp total for the three engines. 

 

https://en.wikipedia...i/White_Triplex

 

It makes sense that a racing engine, particularly for a car, could be pushed further.

 

The Napier Lion could be tuned to well over 1,000hp for racing, while standard ratings were about 400-500hp.