Hi Guys. What do you think is the ultimate engine for a locost? Power and speed wise?

I'd like a nice new Ford Duratec, tuned to nuts.

Check out Mountune's 280bhp model. Not cheap I'll grant you, but light (all alloy) and powerful (not even turbocharged).

What do other people fancy in their chariots??

That 2l R1 derived V8? 302bhp @ 11,500rpm or so and 170lbft. Pretty nice, and suited to such a light car.
I forget who makes it but price was around £15k, so about the same at a tuned to the hilt duratec.

I'd prefer one of those all alloy 1.6 Zetec SE engines that ShawSpeed are doing. Lighter, smaller and cheaper than a Duratec. Better power to weight ratio than a Duratec-upto 230bhp possible. They have a 205bhp demo car running now. The standard engine put onto carbs gives over 150bhp!

I'd quite like the Vtec engine out of the Honda S2000. Blink Motorsport have done alot of similar conversions

http://www.blinkmotorsport.com/cgi-bin/site.pl?honda

If money no object, then two turbo'ed Busa engines, and four wheel drive.

Should be good for 1600bhp/ton.

Otherwise I'll stick to my 155bhp (@ 5500rpm/200ft lb (at 1000rpm) Rover V8.

Saying that, I happen to have two Rover V8's.

Maybe I should weld them together, for a 7 litre V16

ATB

Simon

if money was no issue then it would be either the busa lump(s!) or a well tuned high boost turbo, probably two litre to keep weight down a bit.

thinking about it, i'd go for the skyline lump pumped up, 70psi style...!

probably complicated to fit a locost - but the 2.0 fitted to the civic type r i drove at the weekend wasnt exactly shabby.

197hp and big power band from 6 - 8k revs

atb

steve

the s2000 engine is ideal i was quoted for a low mileage engine for £3500 with 6spd and lsd not bad for 240 bhp!!

I think you all meant to say 3.5 straight six BMW engine....

...didn't you?

Yeah not too shabby James but I don't like the boil in the bag factor.

4AGE for me. Maybe not the most powerful engine around but a lot of people reckon it's one of the best engines you can fit in a seven.

How about a Big Block Chevy V8 with pipes down both sides, Cobra style ?
Obviously let Shelby tweak it and slap a Supercharger on it.
Raise the bonnet hump about 10"...
Get a mortgage for you fuel bills.
Never have to get rid of your grin though.

Cant be that long until some loon twin turbos one of them bike V8s can it. 700bhp? 800? If you look at it as a slightly less powerful but more practical alternative to a Formula 1 engine, the 25K or so it would cost seems a bargain.

Failing that you definately can't beat 2.7 Honda V6's from old Rovers.

Hippy - not a bad shout by any means. You do have the correct number of cylinders, but unfortunately Herr BMW got the arrangement all wrong and put them in a long line. Those crazy Germans!

Three letters :

B.D.A

Kingr

Big Dog's Arse?

I don't see the relevance...

IMHO BMW S52 3.2l engine from M3 would be just right With supercharger

Apart from the fact it weighs about 1/2 ton

ATB

Simon

well no i think about it some more, i reckon that the old renault 1.5 turbo from the f1 cars of old should do the trick, apparently 1500bhp on full boost and a 1.5 litre cant weigh much can it?!

I'd have a supercharged honda vtech@ 400bhp I'm told.

Ned.

Ned

Turbo'ed 'Busa engine will give you that, be half the weight and come with seq'l box!

ATB

Simon

Simon,

I thought turbo'd busa was only 300bhp. I think a vtec would be more reliable at that bhp too and more torquey.

Ned.

turbo'd rover 6r4 engine running unresticted. converted to rwd only

sounds superb, goes like SOAS

quote:

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Originally posted by JoelP
well no i think about it some more, i reckon that the old renault 1.5 turbo from the f1 cars of old should do the trick, apparently 1500bhp on full boost and a 1.5 litre cant weigh much can it?!

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Ned

Have a read of

http://www.holeshotracing.co.uk/index.asp



ATB

SImon

The 2.1 BDT from an RS200 anyone?

700+ BHP, reliably...

plus loadsa flames

According to a top cosworth man, they developed an engine with gas turbine turbos (he didnt go into this too much ????) for f1 pushing out around 2000 bhp. But it was banned...

Also turbo 6r4? i might be wrong but isnt that a xj220 engine?

Talking of RS200's i was watching rallycross on the telly the other day, its basically the final resting place for 6r4s and RS200s, throw in a couple of focus WRXs, a metro and a nova that somehow almost keep up with the top cars (????) and you got racing brilliance.

P.S. My choice of engine would be somesort of twin turbo beast, havent decided which yet.

[Edited on 10/12/03 by greggors84]

well they have a 850+BHP cossie drag car, with a probe body (kind of), but then you start talking about methanol injection, and aviation fuel, which is another world.

anyway, I think the ultimate locost engine has to be naturally aspirated... anyone agree?

theres no way 2wd locost can get the grip necessary to keep a 20 psi turbo'd lump powered car on the black stuff coming out of anything resembling a corner. It doesnt have the weight.

A sierra cossie is bad enough for grip in a straight line

so, N/A is my preferred choice

........or supercharging, which at least gets rid of the 'elastic' effect from turbochrged systems, of flooring the throttle, and sometime later (depending on how much lag there is) the car accelerating.

But there is only soooo much power that can realistically be used. So if the lottery comes up this week (it's gotta be my turn soon!) I will be having a VX engine built with an alloy block to around 275bhp, fed through a Quaife sequential gearbox. Then I will spend a shed load more money on getting the car as light as possible.


And then I woke up......

I'd have one of the new Renesis rotaty engines out of the RX-8 - nice and light with lots of potential.

I also believe the successor to the Suzuki Cappuccino has a 1400cc V-8 - don't know very much about it though, might be worth a look.

And I agree with 9904169 that it should be naturally aspirated.

Mark

Cosworth DFV- 500 BHP V8
Naturally Aspirated!!

What do you tink?

[Edited on 11/12/03 by liam.mccaffrey]

How about a JATO rocket?

these are the things strapped to heavy lift aircraft to help em take off faster.

there is a modern myth about such a car, and im sure its been posted here before, but for tose that havnt seen it before....



http://siri.uvm.edu/ppt/humor/darwin.html



atb


steve

quote:

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Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
Cosworth DFV- 500 BHP V8
Naturally Aspirated!!

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na there were only about 500 made I think.

I would probably have gone for the brand new RS500 engine that was recently on ebay (one of the last new ones out), it was at £7k with a couple of days to go on it.
I must admit it is heavy but what a grin factor.

quote:

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Originally posted by welshy
I would probably have gone for the brand new RS500 engine that was recently on ebay (one of the last new ones out), it was at £7k with a couple of days to go on it.
I must admit it is heavy but what a grin factor.

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Its got to be the mazda 20b - a cambridge company does a 1000bhp version !

can't remeber the company though

Dave