future of Zytek...

[tblincoe]

because of the nature of the Zytek's power to weight ratio, it could still be as competitive next year with the restrictions by just getting the weight of the car down to the minimum of 720 kilos. this was stated by creation in their announcement for plans in the off-season. this means to me that we won't ever see a hybrid Zytek, but rather we will see a brand-new LMP1 evolution of the Zytek in 2006.

the interesting thing to me will be how they the turn the current 3.4L into a LMP1 engine. if you remember back, the current Zytek engine is a decreased displacement version of the 4.0L engine that was in the failed Panoz LMP07. i would think the Zytek boys would use this engine in the new LMP1, and it should be a great engine as the main problems with it in the LMP07 were caused by the front-engine design of the panoz.

what do you guys think?

[Edmonton]

If I was them I would try both out just to see how they perform. The 4L should be a good engine-a ear spliter I understand and the chassis looks very good aswell.

[pirenzo]

The thing is I thought the engine had been designed with front mounting in mind. Otherwise Panoz would surely have used something better, and cheaper...
Wasn't the gearbox also a lot of trouble on the Panoz too?
I wonder if they could stick a couple of turbo's on it too. Its probably no an option, but then you're only 200cc off an Audi type engine (minus direct injection etc)

[jhansen]

The Zytek that Panoz used for the LMP07 was designed for a rear engine car and not for front engine use. There is a lengthy discussion with Andy Thorby on Mulsanne's Corner where this issue is described in detail.

[tblincoe]

the problems as i understood it were because of cooling and venting issues caused by the front mounting of the engine. it would seem to me that the best way to get an engine that produces more HP (remember, as it is the Zytek 3.4L produces about 550 HP, so not much more is needed to make it competitive) would be to increase the capacity of the engine to the original 4.0L. with the new restrictors and the increase in displacement, i could see the 4.0L pumping out somewhere around 650 HP.

[Edmonton]

Cooling has been a problem on every Panoz ever built.

[tblincoe]

hahaha good point edmonton

[nicos935]

on Radio Monte Carlo, it was announced that Arena Motorsport was almost ready to launch a LMES+Le Mans+Sebring program with a Zytek car, Patrick Le Marié and a F1'04 Driver without F1 in 05.

[tblincoe]

so wait a second, does that mean that Arena was planning on announcing this, but it has abandoned this project?

[BSchneiderFan]

Which F1 driver, do we think?

David Coulthard, Antonio Pizzonia, Christian Klien, Nick Heidfeld, Giorgio Pantano, Timo Glock, Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner are the only ones I can think of, unless it includes testers.

[marcush.]

arena seemed to be in the final stages before an announcement of a Zytek deal months ago,but nothing happened.
Creation announced they´d make an announcement of a Zytek deal at laguna but nothing happened.
It looks like the black widow of Zytek just doesn´t bring luck to anyone trying to run her....very unfortunate ,as it surely is the car to beat in 05

[Fieldgate]

The Zytek 3.4L is a carbon copy of the Judd engine (right down to service packs) - with the limitation that it doesn't rev as high. So much so in fact i'm surprised there aren't court cases galore.

They would not be able to easily extend it to 4L - which is why Judd has the V10. A 10cyl engine will more readily produce more power than an 8 of similar capacity

[marcush.]

please correct me ,but i seem to remember Zyteks v8 was born out of their F3000engine programme...which started life as a judd engine in a time when Zytek was only electronics specialist....or do I mix up things ?