Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Why do they not sell them with the engines?

If you bought a 50s/60s era car, I thought they had the original engine, or am I wrong on that?

If you have to find an engine, how easy is it to find one that fits, size wise and mounting point wise?

What about the gearbox? If you don't get one, this would be even more difficult to find compatibility wise. If you do get one, surely that limits the options on engines that would match the gearing torque wise.
 
because back then the engines blew up almost every other race.

They might not actually "own" the engine either maybe they have to be returned to the manufacturer so they don't end up in other manufactures hands?
 
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El_Watcher said:
Why do they not sell them with the engines?

If you bought a 50s/60s era car, I thought they had the original engine, or am I wrong on that?

If you have to find an engine, how easy is it to find one that fits, size wise and mounting point wise?

What about the gearbox? If you don't get one, this would be even more difficult to find compatibility wise. If you do get one, surely that limits the options on engines that would match the gearing torque wise.
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The engines are both incredibly expensive and contain secret internal workings that the engine developers don't want in the public domain. I imagine they are taken back by the manufacturer and stored or destroyed.

Engines and gearboxes are structural in F1 cars, so the solution for retro fitting a different engine is to build a frame to take the structural loadings, and then just drop your own engine and GB combination into it. There are a lot of reliable single seater powertrain options out there.

That said, I do know of a speed hillclimb car that uses an Arrows V10 engine, so some obviously make it out into the wild.
 
Skeeter said:
Epic track day car!

Did that bloke who bought the old Honda ever get it running?
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Oh that reminds me, turns out they're friends of a friend and live pretty nearby... I'll try and remember to ask my friend what the latest is. It's not just him that drives BTW, Nadine is a pretty damn good driver too!
 
Seems as though Porsche agree with me about the F1 car construction ruleset, even if no other bugger does! :D

Wolfgang Hatz said:
Also, there is a lot of publicity around politics and tyres, but not so much about the engines and chassis. The aero, too, is incredible, but so extreme that it cannot result in any development in our road car understanding.
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Ah well. Maybe one day TPTB will wake up and realise what an opportunity they've been wasting with all these years of Super Happy Fun Time With Exhausts And Diffusers™....
 
The FIA don't want the likes of Porsche in F1 as constructors. They have enough trouble with the few big names they have. They want car makers as engine suppliers to independent constructors.
 
Skeeter said:
The FIA don't want the likes of Porsche in F1 as constructors. They have enough trouble with the few big names they have. They want car makers as engine suppliers to independent constructors.
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Yep. One little economic downturn and all the manufacturers that had arrived in the last 10 years and were attempting to take over the sport a few months previously scarpered for the exits. Look at other series that came to depend on works teams such as the BTCC and DTM in the late 90s. BTCC disappeared into the doldrums for a good 5 years and the DTM folded completely in similar circumstances.

You know what - I far prefer the "new" BTCC with the vast majority being a plucky army of privateer teams. F1 will do in it's current form too.

I guess JRS has always disagreed with the F1 rules, as it's always been a single seater formula. Sports cars are not single seaters, never have been.
 
MagicBoy said:
Oh what a pity. ;)
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:)

My position has always been that I want manufacturers to be able to use F1 as a testbed. Skeeter says that the FIA want the manufacturers to be engine suppliers solely - well that's just great, but they can't get a goddamned thing out of being an engine supplier beyond 'brand recognition' because they're locked into making a particular engine layout (standard bore and stroke, standard number of cylinders, standard angle of block, etc). So why would they get involved, when they can get just as much recognition out of doing well in a series that lets them design and build something rather more related to their road car operation?

The FIA might as well run the Grand Prix World Championship to spec-series rules if they want it locked right down. Would be cheaper, make it an 'overall best driver takes the title' job....and be dull as ditchwater. Then when the whole thing is killed off, they can sift through the ashes and come up with a set of rules that gets everyone excited again.
 
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