View Single Post
Old 26 Jun 2003, 08:18 (Ref:643438)   #21
pirenzo
Veteran
 
pirenzo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
United Kingdom
London, UK
Posts: 10,241
pirenzo should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridpirenzo should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridpirenzo should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Another thought i had was that since you are restricted to 600hp, the engine is no longer all for going down the straights anymore. Since you can't ever have more power than that, all your top end speed is going to come from the aero (how slippery the car is), the focus of development on the engine becomes how usable it is in the corners, how hard you can accelerate out of corners, how much engine braking you can get, how usuable the engine is mid corner, poarticularly some of the faster corners like the Porsche Curves and the Esses. It seems V8's are the way to go here. We've seen a gradual progression in the past few years towards V8's, especially as now, designers are no longer solely catering for LM, but for some of the twistier US tracks too, like Mid-O, Road Atlanta, Sears Point, Sebring... Look at this years cars. the top 5 cars were V8's... And V8's have won LM, and the ALMS for the past 4 yrs now. It seems to me, that the best comprimise for sportscars these days is the Turbo V8, found in the Audi, Bentley. So Fords options to me are to continue development of the 6.0l V8 pushrod, or taking the 4.6 and taking it down to 4.0l, and sticking a couple of turbo's on it
pirenzo is offline  
Quote