The entire racing powertrain, from the engine, through the clutch to the transmission, is littered with threaded fasteners. Studs and bolts are responsible for holding together everything from the most mundane unstressed cover plate to the most highly stressed cyclically loaded fasteners such as those found on con rods, crankcase main bearing studs and cylinder head studs. For every bolt there is a corresponding female thread, and for every stud there are two female threads. Greater...
It seems strange to think that 30 years ago electronic fuel injection systems as we know and understand them now were really only in their infancy. Computers of course were really only for the ‘nerds’ in our midst, and anyway were generally too large, not sophisticated enough or too slow to handle the information needed to process them. If you can remember back that far, the carburettor was king, and some pretty sophisticated versions were available. But the theory was simple....
Viewers of Grand Prix in recent years can’t fail to have noticed the increasing amount of debris littering the sides of the track as the race proceeds. Clearly this is the inevitable result of the high rates of tyre degradation and wear during the race, designed to ’spice up’ the on-track action. However such debris can be a serious hazard to the internals of an internal combustion engine. And where perhaps I can think of many applications in the past when racers...
The concept of using a motorcycle engine to power a small racecar or sidecar outfit is well established and very effective - bike engines are small, light and very powerful, giving excellent straight-line acceleration and weight-saving potential. There are, however, some fundamental differences between the bike and car-sidecar applications that can lead to oil surge and potential engine failures. The biggest differences in lubrication needs between an engine fitted in a motorcycle and one...
It is often said that the combustion chamber is the heart of any internal combustion engine, although the lungs might be an anatomically more accurate analogy. What is in no doubt though is that it has a fundamental bearing on the efficient operation of the engine; it is where we convert our chemical reagents into other substances and release energy in the process. The piston is an important part of this in any race engine. In a diesel engine, the combustion chamber is mostly formed in the...