First batch of Cosworth engines shipped...

I am just curious to see how the Cosworths will fare compared to Ferrari, Renaut or Mercedes engines.

Cosworth has been out of GPs for a few years now (3 maybe) and surely had to catch up.

 

Sounds rather late to me....

 

And Mosley is not around (I hope) to address that.

 

I can hear the sound of the dock door being banged on by some trucker at the hollow USF1 "factory".
Maybe someone with cash in hand could intercept the driver, pick up the COD tab and have their very own Cossie F1 lump.

 

the folks that buy vintage F1 cars with cosworth powerplants, do they run the original engine or swap it for something else?

 

Cosworth may actually be in the catbird seat. The teams all have things they would like to change on their engines, but have been unable to do so. Ferrari was granted an exception for "reliability" reasons and suddenly picked up a few tens of horsepower. Same with Renault.

Since Cosworth are developing a new engine, they can incorporate all the various recently-learned-tricks and while being in the boundaries of the rules, possibly have the most powerful engine.

We shall see, but I imagine there is a good possibility that the Cosworth may actually end up being the most powerful engine next year. I am sure the FIA would love that since it would partly make up for the lack of technology in those cars making them faster than they ought to be.

 

Mousecatcher : The DFV is very much still available and rebuildable - indeed a year or two ago they laid down a batch of new ones because of its use in historic racing

 

If they've gotten their sums right they should have an advantage. Its more likely that like any new engine competition will show some design weaknesses. My question is how much slack will the FIA allow when it comes time to address those inevitable issues and do some redesigning?

 

Exactly!. The downside to a new engine design is that unlike all the rest, it's untried and untested to the same degree. There's a possibility that it could be an unreliable pile of junk! (unlikely with Cosworth, but you never know!).

 

Today's Cosworth is not the same outfit that created an instant winner in 67 and todays designs are so much more complex that its very, very unlikely that there will be a repeat.

 

It should be noted that all the engines have been dyno tested to assure they put out similar power. Does anyone really think Cosworth would not have been afforded an opportunity to do the same? Further, does anyone really think Max and others from the FIA would not have made sure the Cosworth was up to the task? They really don't want every new team dropping them at the end of their first year back. The idea was to push teams to a standard engine, not drive them away from it.

Mark

 

The FIA requires dyno testing. That's news to me.

 

When the FIA forced all the teams to homologate their engines right before the freeze, all the engines were dynoed if I remember correctly. Also, I think they are dynoed to makes sure they are not being tampered with. If am wrong, someone please correct me.

Mark

 

I'm not talking about power output though, that's the (relatively speaking), easy part. How many thousands of miles have the other engine builders put on their engines in races?. This gives alot of experience of how to manage the stresses on the engines that cosworth, with a brand new engine, cannot match. This is the biggest gamble with the cosworth engine.

 

My point in a nutshell.
If (most likely when) reliability flaws are found, how much latitude will the FIA allow Cosworth in fixing them?

 

There is a clause in the engine freeze rule that says updates are allowed for safety and durability. As spec engines are the pet of the budget minded FIA, I bet they are going to get all the leeway they need.

Mark

 

You have to assume that accommodations will be made but spec engines were Max's baby and may not get the same unconditional support from Todt.

 

Correct, and thats why the new teams had to run with them, more Mosley dictator scum ship.

I hope Todt realizes this and keeps the mess he inherited run as fair as it can be from now on.

 

Another legacy from Max. How this is handled will provide an interesting subtext to the season. Personally I don't see Todt maintaining the loyal lock-step he had with Max during the campaign.

 

How could they have, if they are only just now being made?

 

Prototype engines that have been dynoed. The first batch of customer engines is now shipping, not the first spec engines made.

Mark

 

That's fine so long as you have a single component failure that's easy to detect and cure. The problem is they could spend half the season having to use races to iron out defects and keep having to redesign parts in the engine that suffer fatigue due to resonance, vibration etc., which the other teams have already done, due to the previous testing and racing KM's they've already racked up.

I'm not saying it's going to happen, but it could be a possible problem for them, afterall, some of the established engines still suffer the occasional failure, despite all the wealth of information that the manufacturer's have gathered from testing and racing.

 

how much does a new f1 engine cost?