Will we ever see engines larger than a V8 in F1 again?

Me too. I stood along the armco in Montuich Park at the Spanish GP in 1971, and you could hear the Matra V-12's coming from wayyyy off. They sounded like air-raid sirens on steroids!

 

A couple of lucky dogs no doubt!

 

Spoil sport!

The "full" story: [With thanks to Rifledriver who originally forwarded it to me.]

Not sure I completely concur with his last point, but it is very, very cool IMHO.

Cheers,
Ian

 

That's what I'm talking about!..... They didn't so much "scream" or "wail" as, well, blow your eardrums out! - "Air raid sirens on steroids!"- I'll go with that - Very good analogy!

Cheers,
Ian

 

I have been to tons or F-1 Turbo races... you name it in the 80's and I was there.... the sound was not as piercing, but they were loud... lots of backfires lots of booms... and big flames out the back! Alfa Romeo's used to spit huge flames ... as well as the BMW's... sometimes catching the bodywork on fire.

 

When I was a Kid... Matra was my favorite car / Team... more so than Ferrari becuase of the noise... it was a deeper scream than the Ferrari... I remember them at Watkins Glen, and the last time I saw them was in 1982... with Liger / Talbot... Canada.

too bad they are gone for ever...Renault now owns them... they do aerospace & some auto design work...

 

+1 - The "pops", "bangs" and flames were quite something! [Although, I still love the crackling from a DFV on the overrun - Yep, I'm an old fart!]

Maybe they should run turbos in the stupid night race! - It would *look* very cool!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Totally agree on the DFV... great sound especially on the overrun! I agree!

 

In the later years, the turbo F1s sounded great! A different kind of engine tone as you'd expect with less cylinders and less revs, but a great sound nonetheless. The difference was the insane amounts of boost being forced through the engines in the later stages. As an owner of a considerably breathed on turbo car myself, it is really easy to hear (and obviously feel) the difference at higher boost levels, it becomes more and more like driving a F-16 on the ground! Even light throttle gets the turbine (and your blood!) flowing.

If they were going to allow the teams to push the envelope with today's technology, maybe they'd need a 1.0L engine to have any chance of keeping HP under control. The more practical solution would be octane restrictions. That will cripple a turbo engine faster than you can say "knock".

There is no doubt turbos are still very much viable for road cars and even making a comeback under the guise of alleged better fuel economy. Sure you can use a smaller turbo engine for the same peak power as a big NA and it will tend to use less fuel off boost, but who wants to drive like that? F1 could once again improve turbo tech for road cars. Just think of all the gas we would save, ok?