Dean,
Thank you for your kind words!
I love your quote,
It's better to shoot for the moon and miss, than to aim for the gutter...and hit it.
I just hope I don't miss too often. But when I do, I get back up and try again.
David,
Thank you for the link! GREAT reading!
Evan,
Who knows? Maybe after you drive one of these babies you will convert to the dark side of modern technology to make things better?
Cobra Ed,
An FE crank is 79 pounds--not sure what a small block crank weighs.
An aluminum 427 flywheel from McLeod weighs 17 pounds.
A complete aluminum (block and heads) 427 engine weighs 558 pounds.
An complete iron (block and heads) 289 engine weighs 542 pounds.
Most people can't believe the big blocks of today are only 16 pounds heavier than the small blocks they raced with in the 60's. Technology is amazing...Evan...are you listening?
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I'm trying to convert you to the dark side...
Certainly the rotating assemblies of an FE are heavier...but not by much. And they are getting lighter every day...
Ryan,
Thanks for the post. Ryan was actually one of the engineers we spoke with on the project. Thanks for the help!
mrmax,
What most people don't realize is if you take a piece of steel (for example) and load it to 99% of it's ultimate tensile strength it will not break--obviously. BUT if you load it to 99% of its tensile strength a second time, it very well might break--EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE NOT EXCEEDED ITS "MAX" TENSILE STRENGTH. You see, it fatigues. Fatigue is the enemy of all mechanical things. But if you load a piece of steel to 50% of its UTS (ultimate tensile strength) you can load it millions upon millions upon millions of times. You are below what is called the "endurance limit" of the metal. At 20,000 rpms in an F1 motor, the piston is going up and down 333 times/second! It doesn't take long for things to fatigue and break at those unbelievable speeds/loads. Frankly, I can't for the life of me see how those engines stay together for even 1 lap.
Gatorac,
The new V-8 must be incredible. That much power out of only 2.4 liters!
Sizzler,
Even if it could be done, I doubt it would be cost effective. The girdle is 100 pounds of raw aluminum. Our girdle bolts around the caps. We do not have a wooden model...yet. But we will soon!
David
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