Originally Posted by TQ29m:
Chris, my TQ came very close to having an electric motor in it, about 5 yrs ago, I was approached by a long time motor builder to put one in, they would furnish everything, engineering, batteries, anything, then the economy took it off the table, and I was ready and willing, wish it coulda happened! Bob
Bob
It will happen. The problem is that when anyone in racing sees rule changes the only person they think about is themselves and how will the rule affect them. A 10 pound weight adjustment will cause many racers to go off on a mad rage and predict all kinds of dire consequences because of the change. Then throw in the outside influence from people involved in the racing industry pushing for favors by the organizers by giving these organizers favors and you begin to realize how hard it is for a race organizer to stay true to his own beliefs and make rules for the good of the sport.
Best I can remember Casey Shuman tested an electric Midget a few years ago. Must not have been ready for prime time yet, but I believe yep electric is on its way in to racing.
In 5 years it will be hard to find an Ecotec to put into a race car. So I would bet on it and it will probably take a lot of development just to get it working. When a car goes to a scrap yard today the policy of most recyclers is everything over 15 years old gets crushed.
Why is it when you get old you see things so very different than you did as a kid. I remember guys racing Flat head fords thinking they would never die "Flat Heads Forever". Then the little Chevy came along>>>From 1932 to 1956 the Flat Head was king that was 30 years WOW ! But then the little Chevy goes from 1956 til today that is almost 60 years Double WOW. The Chevy is now being phased out of production and all kinds of neat motors are out there just waiting to be used and racers are setting on their hands. I really don't see any motor living longer than the Chevy. With today's concept of improvement and development 10 to 15 years will be max.
V8 60 debuted on 1937 fords & was only made in USA until 1941 model year. Met engine of choice for 1938-1962 less war years [4] for 20 years of service. Chevy II & derivatives debuted 1962 & in use still [Fontana & various V-8 head adaptions.] for 53 years of service. There was a cylinder head of the month club for a while.
OEM motors are evolving with emissions & CAFE laws. I was told the Ecotec as we know it is already obsolete. Some of the changes will not be racing friendly, such as the new Honda 2.4 with a single big rectangulat exhaust port in place of the nice little factory 4 into 1 tube header.
Rules shouldn't be written to favor a specific motor. Decide how much horsepower is "good" and write rules to keep builders from exceeding it.
The turbo/NA equivalency is certainly NOT 2.0 to 2.4 liters. There was a turbocharged 1.6 liter Dodge/Mitsubushi colt that kicked butt in the Chicago area in the 1970s. [Bill Cooper owner, Dick Poole driver] and turbos are much better now.
I think what Wayne is figuring on is we no longer have engines that stick around for decades, infac a decade is pretty much the limit now. Car makers are always trying to develop smaller and more efficient engines almost yearly. Setting an arbitrary displacement or outlawing aspiration or for that matter fuel is counter productive. They are building some pretty efficient small Diesels today. The rules need to be fluid and the rule makers need to stay on top of developing technology. At one time when racing was composed of back yard mechanics change was considered good today in the cookie cutter mentality racer change will make my equipment out of date and they react against the same development that was once at the core of racing.
By the way the USAC Honda Midgets class use the 2.4 Honda with the exhaust manifold cast in head design and they are pretty tough. They sound more like a Cummins diesel truck, and Exhaust routing is a piece of cake. The supercharged Kawasaki H2 1000cc motorcycle is rated at 320+ Horsepower Stock.
