Judd

[Tim Northcutt]

It's the 3.5 L Cosworth Turbo...in the original announcement of the Team Nasamax effort, in its own informational materials, the team even referred to the engine as being the Cosworth engine that is used in CART racing...

To Dani Filth:

I think that there are various options out there...I just dont think that many people are willing to "look outside of the box".....plus, there would be certain developmental costs and growing pains associated with developing a new engine option as it is adapted to sportscar racing....

Teams may not want to take that approach with the $$$ they have to race with and sponsors may not have the patience to stick with a developmental effort...so they go with the safer and proven commodity...

But like I said, running a Judd may only ensure that you're going to be the "Best Non-VAG"....I'm just trying to encourage others to look at other options and be open-minded...because alternatives ARE out there...cost-effective ones...

I think that by going to an established builder like Ed Pink (who has built cosworths for CART in the 1980s, 962 Porche engines for sportscar racing, and now builds sprint car engines for J.J Yeley) could easily adapt a sprint car engine to sportscars with great success....

BTW...a Sprint Car package costs about $80,000...the whole package...tell me that the engines, as part of that package, arent cheaper than a Judd lease...

One other note:

I also feel that the Panoz Elan engine is "on-par" with the Judd GV4...after all, Panoz has beaten the Audis twice in 2002 (granted, it was on circuits that favored that package and did not favor the Audi -- Sears Point and the DC circuit) and this year, the Panoz was "Best Non-VAG" at both Sebring and Le Mans, and beat two Judds in close action in the final hour of the race last June....

Like the Judd, it took a couple of years to develop the reliability of the engine in the longer races...but I would certainly argue that the Elan is at least equal to the GV4 and on North American circuits, I would think that it's higher torque curve makes it a better engine than the GV4 as an option for the ALMS tams to use...