Jeff Lamb

Did any of you guys see Bob Norwood featured on a drag racing segment that was shown on the History Channel? He built a 4 cylinder, twin turbocharged engine that produces 1,400 hp to run on the import drag racing scene. The engine displaces 4.8 liters (that is MASSIVE for a 4 cylinder engine) and is machined out of a solid block of aluminum. From what I could see, the cylinders use steel sleeves and it runs on a staged mix of methanol and nitromethane with nitrous to spool the turbos. The body I believe is based on the styling of a Honda Integra.

Since this engine does not run balance shafts and is solid mounted to the chassis, I wonder what kind of vibrations the driver will feel?

I'd like to see this car run the strip some time.

Jeff

Landjet

Yes I saw it in his shop last year when I was down there checking on some engine work. The turbo's are huge.

86944turbo

Sorry I missed it. I know very little about Norwood or his work. What I have heard (this is not neg. or poss. is that he is not afraid to take calculated risks w/motors). BTW, I recall a Honda engineer commenting that they (Honda) were on the verge of 1500 h/p from there turbo, F-1 motors (probably a qualifying motor, referred to back then as grenades), when FIA Ballestre?(I think this was pre FOCA) banned them. They were 1500cc. One h/p per cc. Different fuels, of course. Each yr. the governing body reduced and reduced the amount of fuel that turbo'd motors could use for the race. The development was on such a furious pace, that N/A motors never could match (I think 3L was allowed for N/A). Turbos banned. BTW2 When 1st intro. by Renault, no attention was paid, until at Kyalami, Prost was 25~+ mph faster down the straights than anyone.

Jeff Lamb

After thinking about this a bit more, it sort of surprises me that the estimated horsepower is only 1,400. Considering that the displacement is a rather large 4.8 liters AND this thing is running nitromethane / twin turbos / etc, I would think the horsepower would be closer to 5,000.

This leads me to wonder if he is really optimizing the engine for HUGE torque numbers that are masked by quoting relatively low horsepower numbers. Or, maybe his goal is an engine that can last for a full season at this horsepower level?

I still stand by my earlier comment -> What I DO know is that I would like to see the car run the strip sometime!!!

Jeff

sweanders

BMW made 1500 hp from 1.5 liter F1 engines for qualifications and 1200 during race.

I believe that they had the boost up to 12 kilos, about twelve times more than on a chipped 951..

The engine was based on the 1502 engine.

Water944t

I read that the Honda F1 cars ran 1500HP+ on race days, and could go over 1800HP for qualifying. Something like 76ft/lbs of boost!