Specifications of 50 famous racing engines up to 1994

[Tommy Cookers]

1952 Küchen 2-litre V8

Ingenuity at its best. 1952 Küchen 2-litre V8 most powerful GP engine of its time. Just 3 were build for formula 2 by an engineer in his own workshop and as a hobby. Delivering 200 HP something that could only be reached 2 years later by the likes of FERRARI and Maserati.  

nice engine but sorry all the above is an exaggeration
ok its 'race-motorcycle-type' design had 8 inlet tracts (8 Amal carburettors) and iirc 8 exhaust pipes
so was everywhere 'tuned length' (even with the V8-conventional 2 plane crankshaft)
(Amal competition carburettors had asymmetrical fuelling - eg 2 Amals to 4 cylinders was disastrous, as Blydenstein found)

I knew S S's teaser was this engine - better known via it's user Alex von Falkenhausen's A.F.M. car
the V8's was slow and failed its only WDC race and it disappeared, AFM reverting to Bristol (improved BMW 6) engines
the V8 only won in a 1951 Grenzlandring (banked oval) national ? race - but the lap record went to Veritas (Bristol)

certainly the F2 Ferrari had 200 hp for 1952-1953
Ascari won every WDC F2 race he entered in 1952 but because of Indy missed the Swiss (Taruffi's Ferrari won)
(remember what many have forgotten today - F2 not F1 (plus Indy) were the WDC in 1952-3)
he won 5 in 1953 (and Ferraris of Farina and Hawthorn each won one)
this was of course the 4 cylinder Lampredi-designed engine with 4 'tuned length' inlet tracts
(replacing the road-type V12 whose power potential suffered because of inlet limitations, but made till 1973 at 4.4 litres)

for decades motorcycles (and a few NA cars) had 'tuned lengths' - amounting to 'free supercharging'
100 bhp/litre was available from 500cc cylinders eg Norton pre/post WW2 and more from 250cc eg Benelli
when car GPs used NA engines again the designers had to copy this idea

[saviour stivala]

Some links on the 1952 Küchen 2-litre V8:

https://www.velocetoday.com/wp-content/ ... V8-570.jpg

https://www.velocetoday.com/gauld-frenc ... erman-v8s/
The picture above is described in the link as a 1950 küchen. Let me know if the picture is wrong!

http://8w.forix.com/df2/hs-intltr53.jpg

http://www.dlg.speedfreaks.org/archive/ ... 2_1952.jpg

http://8w.forix.com/df2-afm.html

Can confirm that the engine in picture is the Kuchen 2-litre V8, with twin distributors and twin outlet water pump.

[saviour stivala]

1952 Küchen 2-litre V8

Ingenuity at its best. 1952 Küchen 2-litre V8 most powerful GP engine of its time. Just 3 were build for formula 2 by an engineer in his own workshop and as a hobby. Delivering 200 HP something that could only be reached 2 years later by the likes of FERRARI and Maserati.  

nice engine but sorry all the above is untrue
ok the 'race-motorcycle-type' design had 8 inlet tracts (8 Amal carburettors) and iirc 8 exhaust pipes
so was everywhere 'tuned length' (even with the V8-conventional 2 plane crankshaft)

I knew S S's teaser was this engine - better known via it's user Alex von Falkenhausen's A.F.M. car
the V8's race results were poor and it disappeared, AFM replacing it with Bristol (improved BMW 6) engines
there's extensive research in the F2 archives to this effect - iirc they concluded that the V8 was last used in 1952
logically for some races the entry would read V8 but actually the car had a 6 cylinder engine fitted

and certainly the F2 Ferrari had 200 hp for 1952-1953 - Ascari won every WDC race in those years
(remember what many have forgotten today - F2 not F1 was the WDC in 1952-3 so briefly became important)
this was of course the 4 cylinder Lampredi-designed engine with 4 'tuned length' inlet tracts (exhaust also)
replacing the road-type V12 whose power potential suffered because of inlet limitations (last made in 1973 at 4.4 litres)

A remarkable tale of ingenuity and improvisation in post-war German motor racing, this (the Kuchen 2-litre V8) tops them all, the four cam engine was by a good margin the most powerful GP powerplant of its formula and time, yet it was produced by a privet individual in his own workshop, primarily as a hobby, it delivered 200hp in 1951, a figure that FERRARI and Maserati were only able to reach in 1953.

[hollus]

1953 Ferrari 500 2-litre four

1953 FERRARI 500 2-litre four: Inside a couple of hours of agreement being reached with Enzo Ferrari as to what engine to use for the 1954 season Aurelio Lampredi had sketched the essentials of the tipo 500, his first Ferrari engine he designed from scratch and what was destined to be one of Ferrari’s most successful engines.
With cylinder head unified with block in an aluminum alloy casting that extended down ¾ of the length of the cylinder. Cast iron cylinders having a castellated flange at its lower part were screwed into this head/blog unit, reaching up to its combustion chambers by a special wrench. 2 grooves bellow the flange had O-ring sealing the bottom of cylinder into top of crankcase, which was a separate casting.
2 valves per cylinder equally inclined at an included angle of 58 degrees. Narrow lobe camshaft working against roller followers, valve return by hairpin springs. Hollow camshafts running in 5 babbited bearings.
Very thin and light front gear train drive to camshafts. 2 Marelli magnetos driven from front of engine firing 14mm Champion plugs.
Dry sump lubrication system with gear-type pumps also driven from of engine, triple-gear scavenge pump with inlets for 2-pick-ups at front and rear of sump. Shell oil under pressure was delivered to all 5 main bearings through pipes in the sump to each aluminum main bearing cap, from the mains oil flowed into crankshaft drillings to the rod journal.
Machined from solid, the steel crankshaft had the rod journals internally drilled and sealed by plugs. Oil drillings on con-rod journals were at 90 degrees to the radius of the throw to reduce pressure reducing effects of centrifugal force at high revs.
Forged from GNM-alloy steel the I-section con-rods had caps retained by 2 bolts. Aluminum pistons cast by Borgo had 2 compression and 2 oil rings, 1 above and 1 below the gudgeon pin, with pin retained by aluminum buttons.

Specifications:

Cylinders l4.
Bore 90mm.
Stroke 78mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.87:1.
Capacity 1985cc.
Compression ratio 13:1.
Con-rod length 142mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.6:1.
Main bearing journal 60mm.
Rod journal 50mm.
Inlet valve 48mm.
Exhaust valve 44mm.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 185kg.
Peak power 185BHP@7500RPM.
Piston speed corrected 20.6m/s.
Peak torque 206Nm@5700RPM.
Peak BMEP 190psi.
Engine BHP per litre 93.2BHP per litre.

[hollus]

Some links on the 1953 Ferrari 500 2-litre four:

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/724 ... 00-F2.html



https://www.idnes.cz/auto/historie/preh ... jetiny_fdv



https://www.kidston.com/kidston-cars/12 ... 00-mondial



http://www.grandprixhistory.org/fer500.htm

[turbof1]

thumbs up for this great topic, Hollus and Saviour Stivala

[hollus]

1954 Jaguar XK 3.4-litre six

Like Alfa Romeo and Lagonda among others the XK six 3442cc were inspired by racing advances and became one of the great engines of all time. It had a sound base for development for racing.
Cast iron block, 2 bolt I-section forged-steel con-rods drilled to lubricate gudgeon pin, forged EN16 steel 7 main bearing crankshaft, aluminum alloy cylinder head, Renold duplex roller chain driven twin overhead camshafts, Vandervell indium-lead-bronze plain bearings, steel-mass vibration damper, fully-floating gudgeon pin retained by circlips, fully skirted Aerolite pistons, centrifugally cast Dykes compression piston rings, maxilite oil control ring.
Valves symmetrically deployed at an included angle of 70 degrees were returned by double coil springs. Champion spark-plugs at side of hemisphere chamber, Lucas single-breaker automatic advance conventional ignition distributor + Lucas HV12 coil. 3 twin-choke 45DCO3 Weber carburettors with 38mm Venturi supplied by 2 SU fuel pumps. 2 fabricated 3-branch exhaust manifold.
Dry-sump oil system, a transverse shaft at front and skew-gear-driven from the crankshaft, turned the scavenge pump on the left and pressure pump on the right. The steel diver gear of the scavenge pump engaged with 2 cast iron idlers so that it could draw separately from 2 oil pick-ups at front and rear. Oil was pumped at 45-50 psi through an oil cooler and back to transfer block which supplied the main gallery along the right side of crankcase.

Specifications:

Cylinders l6.
Bore 83mm.
Stroke 106mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 1.28:1.
Capacity 3.441cc.
Compression ratio 9:1.
Con-rod length 196.9mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.7:1.
Main bearing journal 69.9mm.
Rod journal 53mm.
Inlet valve 47.6mm.
Exhaust valve 41.3mm.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 241kg.
Peak power 250BHP@6000RPM.
Piston speed corrected 18.5m/s.
Peak torque 328Nm@4000RPM.
Peak BMEP 174psi.
Engine BHP per litre 72.7BHP per litre.
Engine weight per BHP 0.96kg per BHP.

[hollus]

Some links around the 1954 Jaguar XK 3.4-litre six:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_XK6_engine







https://www.jaguarheritage.com/jaguar-h ... xk-engine/





https://motor-car.net/innovation/engine ... -1949-1968

[saviour stivala]

A senior administration member of this here community ‘R’ but known as ‘A’ is one lucky owner of a 3.8 road going version of this iconic family of XK engines, until recently he also owned a beautiful Healy 3000, and in the old days this ‘old British solid oak’ used to race an eight port head with amal carburettors racing Mini.

[Tommy Cookers]

in the 1950s the USA had Elvis .... and Marilyn ........ Britain had Jaguar ....

Jaguars were large heavy separate-chassis cars with ageing 3.5 litre pushrod engines - a 'bargain price Bentley' type
so the XK was stroked to 106 mm (its alloy head saved 70 lb and Weslake improved the porting design)
in later road sportscar use (especially the linered to 87 mm bore 3.8 litres version) it ran at notably high rpm
clearly high piston speed isn't a killer

the 3.8 engine in the version associated with the 'E' type originated in the XK150S road car
it gave at 10 mph in 3rd gear (617 rpm) 176 lb ft net ((c.202 gross) crankshaft torque
186 net at 20 mph, 200 net at 40 mph, peaking at 211 net at 80 mph (4936 rpm)
210 net at 5610 rpm and peak power at around 6300 rpm
a 3600 lb 150S giving in 3rd gear, 10 to 70 mph (617 rpm to 4319 rpm) in 14.6 seconds (the road 'E' type was c.2600 lb)

the 3.8 was originally in the big heavy cars the Mk VII and Mk VIII racing eg Sears vs Hawthorn on TV many times
Sears became the first (1958) BTCC winner in a Austin A95 'Weslaked Westminster'
(a late friend's father had as his daily driver an A95 Westminster - his neighbour was Weslake and offered to BTCC it)
(another friend's father at BMC competition dept did tests with Timo Makinen in 220 hp A-H 3000 rally cars)
later XK bore became 92 mm for 4235 cc (92 mm bore spacing was different to 87 mm combustion chamber spacing)
btw Hawthorn gave 2 of his best years to driving British F1 BRMs and Vanwalls when they were useless

the D type had a heavy live axle and so was a menace except on smooth circuits - it was intended only for Le Mans & Rheims
but the axle never failed
the rival 4.5 litre Ferraris live axle was Fiat 1.4 litre type - it could break halfshafts and lose wheels
journos followed M H testing his - from the factory gate it left a black line for more than a 1/2 mile

[hollus]

1954 FERRARI 553 2.5-litre four

From Aurelio Lampredi’s tipo 500 of 1953 evolved the tipo 625 once again the designation referring to one cylinder capacity. The car type was 553 nicknamed ‘SQUALO-SHARK’. The goal was for an oversquare that would be able to run reliably 7500RPM.
Cylinder head + water jacketing + the housing at front of camshaft drive were cast in Silumin alloy in 1 piece, cast-iron cylinder liners were screwed-up into combustion chamber, and hung down below the bottom edge of water jacking with the head/jacket unit being bolted down to top of a deep crankcase with liners a close fit and water-tight by rubber O-ring; bolting down to top of crankcase was by 8 long studs which emerged between the cam-boxes in center of engine.
The crankshaft ran in 5 Vandervell thin wall shell bearings. Full skirt and carrying 1 of the 4 rings bellow the gudgeon pin was an aluminum piston. At lower right and left side bolted to front of crankcase were the scavenge and oil pressure pumps.
A Fimac mechanical fuel pump was used. At both sides of the crank nose were the 2 Marelli magnetos resting horizontally pointing forward. Above the magnetos driven by a bevel gear was the water pump delivering water to engine through the center of the side of crankcase near the heavily loaded center main bearing.
A train of narrow gears from crank nose drove the twin camshafts. Large diameter camshafts were hollow with narrow cam-lobes working on shaft mounted rollers acting on upper face of a mushroom tappets, a single spring exerting 57kg compressed tappets against cam. 2 182kg-force compressed hair springs closed each valve.
The Squalo valve gear was tested as safe for 10000RPM. Inlet valves were inclined 40 degrees from vertical and the exhaust at 35 degrees. Tapering ports with 2 twin chock 58mm bore Webers being mounted on a small steel framework which in turn was bolted to the chassis to reduce float bowl frothing by vibration of engine, the carbs being connected to manifold by lengths of flanged rubber pipe.
Exhaust was collected from pairs 1-4 and 2-3 before merging into single tail-pipe. The magneto ignition of the time acted as a rev limiter limiting peak speed at 7600RPM. Lampredi’s liberties with piston speed limited piston reliabilities on the Squalo.
For 1955 the tipo 553 engine became the tipo 555 through detail changes and became the standard FERRARI racing engine installed in both the 625 chassis and the type 555 Supersqualo. It was at that time acknowledged that the magneto ignition provided would not allow the four to exceed 7500RPM.

Specifications:

Cylinders l4.
Bore 100mm.
Stroke 79.5mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.8:1.
Capacity 2496cc.
Compression ratio 12:1
Con-rod length 138mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.5:1.
Main bearing journal 60mm.
Rod journal 50mm.
Inlet valve 50mm.
Exhaust valve 46mm.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 160kg.
Peak power 270BHP@7600RPM.
Piston speed corrected 22.2m/s.
BHP per litre 108.2BHP per litre.
Engine weight per BHP 0.59kg per BHP.

[hollus]

Some links around the 1954 FERRARI 553 2.5-litre "Squalo":

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/122 ... qualo.html





https://simanaitissays.com/2017/03/06/g ... liter-era/



http://forix.autosport.com/8w/intltr54.html

[hollus]

A little mid-thread reminder that the content of this thread is essentially a shortened version of the content of the book “Classic Racing Engines” by Karl Ludvigsen:
http://www.bentleypublishers.com/automo ... tents.html
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Racing ... +Ludvigsen

Further explanation in the first post of the thread:
viewtopic.php?p=805009#p805009

******************************************************************

1955 Lancia D50 2.5-litre V8

1955 Lancia D50 2.5-litre V8: Double-roller chain drive for each twin cams. A 1 piece high silicon aluminum alloy block and crankcase. Ferrous inserted wet cylinder liners with a flange at top which met the head through a gasket, 19mm down below the top was a notched flange that butted against a counterbore in the block casting.
Sealing at bottom of cylinder was by 2 O-rings. Water pump driven from nose of crank. The bottom of block was machined off on centerline of crank, 5 main bearing caps were attached by 2 big studs close-in and 2 smaller once further out.
An alloy-steel fully machined crankshaft with as low a mass as possible was used. Light-alloy sump with scavenge pump mounted low in it and picking oil through a series of collectors. A pressure oil pump to the right of crank and integral with top of oil filter housing. All oil feeds were incorporated in the block casting.
Con-rods caps were split diagonally so they could be inserted through the cylinder. High domed pistons with full skirt with 5 rings each, with 1 bellow gudgeon pin, very shallow cutaways for valve-head clearance. A simple mushroom tappet screwed directly to valve stem, same system Jano developed for Alfa. Valves were symmetrically inclined at 80 degrees included angle. 4 twin-throat 40PII Solex carburetors and 2 Marelli magnetos were used, magnetos were driven from back ends of inlet cams.
The D50 V8 made a major structural contribution to carrying the front suspension loads. The cylinders and crankcase hung suspended between the cylinder heads mountings to the chassis sub-frame, this was a unique and pioneering installation.
Lancia’s experiments with direct fuel injection were abandoned because of a tendency for fuel finding its way down the cylinder walls and into the oil.
Assisted by Jano, Ferrari commenced development with the D50 2.5-litre V8 after he was given the cars in 1955, one first such development was the use of Weber carbs with 10 more HP being the result, but the Webers gave weak results in middle rev range, further developments have seen the output rise to 265BHP@8000RPM.
The cars were geared for 8200-8600RPM on any of the fastest straights of a given course but drivers were asked to stay under 8100RPM in the gears, further development resulted in an engine that stayed together at 9000RPM.

Specifications:

Cylinders V8.
Bore 73.6mm.
Stroke 73.1mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.99:1.
Capacity 2490cc.
Compression ratio 11.9:1.
Con-rod length 135mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.7:1.
Main bearing journal 60mm.
Rod journal 50mm.
Inlet valve 46mm.
Exhaust valve 44.5mm.
Inlet pressure 1 Atm.
Peak power 250BHP@7700RPM.
Piston speed corrected 18.5m/s.
BHP per litre 100.4BHP/L.

[hollus]

Some links around the 1955 Lancia D50 2.5-litre V8:

http://www.grandprixhistory.org/lancia.htm



https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/243/Lancia-D50.html



https://silodrome.com/lancia-d50/ (includes an onboard video of Fangio on in the 1956 Ferrari version)

[Tommy Cookers]

....... Lampredi’s liberties with piston speed limited piston reliabilities on the Squalo.

what liberties were those ?
the piston speed was lower than the F1 WCC-winning Vanwall's
and lower than that of motorcycles eg Norton 'Manx' and road BSA 'Gold Star' than won about 10000 races
and lower than that of the 15498 3.8 litre E-type Jaguar road sports cars

engine problems are largely related to piston acceleration, not to piston speed
stresses eg in pistons and rods rise (for any given stroke) with the square of the rpm
and fatigue life falls

the 625/550 power claim is famously optimistic
185 hp for the unbeatable 2 litre 500 car
but 270 hp for its mediocre and undistinguished 2.5 litre brother ?
the ex-Manzon 625 car was measured by Healey at 180 wheel hp

Lampredi enlarged his Ferrari engine to 3 and to 3.5 litres - with a 4.4 litre 6 cylinder version
and btw made a 2.5 litre twin cylinder (118 bore 114 stroke) F1 engine with 4 valve heads and 184 hp


re the Lancia D50 and its development by Ferrari .....
'a weak mid-range' may have been caused (as in the abandoned 1954 Coventry-Climax 2.5 litre F1 V8 ?) by ...
having the conventional 2-plane crankshaft the exhaust system couldn't get proper 'tuned length' effect in all cylinders
to remedy this Ferrari fitted 8 separate pipes (as crossover exhaust system don't fit front-engine cars)