Engine Rumor!

[The Snout]

I loved the V6 Buicks, they were a good wildcard. Now, I heard in a broadcast a long long long time ago that the reason Buicks or Menard didn't race more was because they wanted the boost they ran at Indy (55inches) to be available, however the rules said that they were only allowed 50 inches everywhere else. Probably USAC rules were at Indy and Cart rules everywhere else. I just remember hearing that somewhere when I had more hair and less women

[The Snout]

...........what my last post has to do with anything is anyone's guess. But there it is.

[indycool]

In looking at this thread, a whole lot of people know more about engines than I do.

But a few things:
1. Lopes throws out a Pookie and has everyone speculating on who's going to play. Truth is, nobody has announced they're going to play yet.
2. Ford's making a pitch to keep the formula the same for '05.
3. The specs aren't done yet.
4. Whatever they're contemplating doing with F1 isn't done yet and with the problems F1 has right now, its own engine specs for '05 aren't locked up tight.
So what is a done deal for '05? Zero

[Lee Janotta]

Exactly indycool, that's why this is the time for public debate.

The 2.65L variant of the venerable 911-derived air-cooled flat six was overly handicapped by USAC at the insistence of team owners. The engine wasn't really that far removed from the Porsche 935's motor, and fit nicely into the 936 Group 4 prototype (Porsche's suprising challenger in a class which the ACO had created solely to give Renault the overall victory).

The Buick engine did tend to detonate between 200 and 450 miles. But consider, the design of that engine dates all the way back to 1955, when Chevrolet first brough out the small-block V8. The V6s which spread throughout GMs products and still appear today came about in the mid '70s... Little more was done to than simply chopping two cylinders off the small-block V6 to create V6s of 2.8, 3.2, 3.8, and 4.2 liters. Much as I love it, the basic engine was obsolete decades before it went racing at the Brickyard.

[evo]

I think the turbo V6 is a good idea for an engine for Champcars, but for one thing... V6 engines sound terrible. Watching the Barber Dodge race in Vancouver last year i noticed it. I love that series and those cars, but that V6 is a plug-your-ears-in-pain kinda sound. Maybe the turbo would change the exhaust note. I personally never heard one of the Buick Indy V6's.

[Lee Janotta]

The hemispherical 4 and 5-valve combustion chamers and overhead cams would change the sound. It'd be much more like the old F1 turbo engines in tone, but more like the current CART engines in volume.