What was the best engine in CART?

[Robin Plummer]

What in your opinion was the best engine in the Indycar/CART/Champcar recent era of say the last 20 odd years?

1) 2.65 turbo?
2) 3.3 turbo stock block?

Mine are;

1) Honda HRK ? 1996 - Powerfull, Economical.
2) Mercedes 1994 - 1026bhp in Indy Qualifying! Enough said!

[enzo]

While both of those were great engines, my vote goes for both the original Cosworth, and the Chevy A motors.

The Cosworth had the greatest impact, as it obsoleted everything else & has won the most races. The advent of it & it's reletively cheap & reliable HP allowed a lot of teams to run competitively for many years while CART was building itself up as a series.

The original Chevy then obsoleted the Cosworth & started us on the path that has produced the current crop of engines. It can also be blamed as the start of the problems that has brought us the Idiots Requiring Lobotomys ( or Irrelevent Racing League as others call it).

Before this era, the old Offy ws without question the most awesome - a 50 year old 4 banger producing over 1000 HP in qualifying trim ! A design of the utmost simplicity that dominated for a real loooooong time.

[Franklin]

The Offy remains the most powerful engine ever used in American open wheel racing, although during the turbo era in F1 they were getting similar outputs (1,200+ horsepower) from engines of about half the displacement.

[Robin Plummer]

This offy engine can you tell me more about it Franklin? What's it's full name, was it an 3.3 OHV engine etc?

[floid2000]

Definately the Cosworth and Didn't those Chevy's have the coolest sound ? Kinda like the old IMSA Jaguars

[KC]

Much like the Cosworth DFV dominated in F1, the Offenhauser dominated for many years in the ranks of USAC Champ Cars and Indy cars. To this day it is the most successful powerplant in the entire history of Champ Cars and Indy Cars.

[Franklin]

Gordon White has written an excellent book simply titled "Offenhauser" about the Offy. It should be available through your local Borders or Barnes & Noble.

[Hyacinth]

Robin P -

The Offy was a twincam-4 that ran at and dominated Indy for almost 40 years. Originally about 4.2 liters, it was modified in the late '60s, I think, to a 2.8 liter turbo. Maximum displacement was later lowered to the 2.65-liter limit that CART still uses today. The engine builders loved it because it was almost bulletproof and could be modified to work with whatever layout the chassis designer required. I think a few were also supercharged, but the turbo was the hot setup in the late '60s and the '70s.

Contrary to an earlier post, the Offys never put out much more than 1000HP at Indy, and that only in qualifying trim. The last one ran at Indy in 1980.

Hope this answers your question.

[Franklin]

With over 140 inches of boost being legal in the early seventies (compared to today's paltry limit of about 40 inches), outputs of over 1,200 horsepower were attainable with the Offy (in part due to its integral head/cylinders block.)

[Jim Clark]

...the best engine was ostensibly banned (as in: ruled out of existence) as it is also not available to us in our street cars. Too reliable I presume, not good for "business". Anybody have an idea? Hint: Chrysler tried a small fleet of them for a bit. 'Nother hint: Ya' could burn just about anything in it.

[Green_man4421]

Last years Honda or the Honda before that?

[Hyacinth]

Jim Clark

Turbos are as close as you're going to get to the old Whoosh-Mobiles, I'm afraid. Keeping the turbines would have gone a long way toward solving the problems that many tracks located in expanding urban areas are having with nearby residents complaining about noise pollution, but, from a fan's point of view, they weren't much fun to listen to. It's hard to imagine going to a race and enjoying it on the same level we do now if the cars were almost totally quiet.