I can't stop listening to this engine!

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lessie...

carbourated, small bore, 7-8000 redline, V8 minimum, may be V10 or 12, possible small block ford, aluminum heads minimum, possible aluminum block.
 
BRM V16

From the site
The is one is the full recording of the BRM running around the track, but with *slightly* less audio 'detail' to keep the size down. It has the car being push started (they have no on-board starter) then doing two laps before returning to the pits. The same thing is then played from a microphone inside the cockpit. Note that while the car is running around the track, as soon as it starts to warm up, the engine begins to miss, unfortunately ... Here's a quote from the driver - "Once the needle reaches six, it is as if you have just pulled away from the start like any other car, because six is where the BRM begins to work,. From there until 12,000rpm, the power almost doubles with every 2,000 revs. Or at least it did. I could get to about nine by gently coaxing and tickling the accelerator. Then the engine would cut dead as if someone had switched it off. Pull my foot gently from the pedal and the 16 cylinders come back to life one by two, by four by twelve. Accelerate again and they cut. Too much pedal too soon and they cut. Various theories abounded. Perhaps the methanol from the big carburetor that feeds the supercharger, designed and made by Rolls-Royce, was freezing somehwere between the blower and engine. Maybe the vegetable oil that burns with that unique, savoury tang was oiling the plugs. Maybe one or two or three of the four magnetos were shorting inside themselves once the sparks grew too frequent with rising revs. Maybe ..." And later this - "We would try just one last time. The engineers removed and soaked the rows of spark plugs in petrol to remove traces of oil, replaced them and gave me an immediate push start. I was to drive off with the engine under load in the hope that this would make the fires burn hotter and keep the plugs clean. It worked for just half a lap before the stalls started again, but it was enough to see how fast this car could be. So powerful was the engine even in this hesitant half-throttled state that the rear tyres would light up every time the engine passed 6,000, whatever the gear. Every time they smoked and spun, the rear end would dip on those oleo struts and the car would snake and slither. The engine is vastly, ludicrously powerful for a pair of tyres just ten inches wide."
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http://gpl.krej.cz/mp3.html

Without listening to it (I'm at work and can't listen to mp3 files) it'll be from, Into the red by Nick Mason and Mark Hales.
 
This engine was of 1.5 litres displacement. Tiny cylinders. The power it produced was 600hp at 12,000 RPM. Think of it as a pair of really awesome sounding straight 8s.

Really unreliable though, and downright scary power for 1950. No wonder why Stirling Moss refused to drive it.

1950_brm_v16-p15-mk1_640x420.jpg
 
I think my headphones just broke. Awesome.

Also, wow. The only other place I've heard of 400hp/litre is in the modern 4WD Pike's Peak cars! (Fiesta, to be precise)
 
really, a needle bore V16? hell it sounded like a small block V8 to me, but with a higher rev limit. n and I thought Honda's 1.5 V12 was a needle bore engine.
 
Grand Prix
Really unreliable though, and downright scary power for 1950. No wonder why Stirling Moss refused to drive it.

1950_brm_v16-p15-mk1_640x420.jpg
Click to expand...

Lol, no wonder he didn't want to drive it, 600 HP but the wheels are the size of the ones on a toyota tercel. :lol:
You had to be a mad man to drive that.👍
 
Sniffs
really, a needle bore V16? hell it sounded like a small block V8 to me, but with a higher rev limit. n and I thought Honda's 1.5 V12 was a needle bore engine.
Click to expand...

Here's some engine specs from wikipedia. Veddy interesting indeed.

- Bore 49.53 mm (1.95 in)
- Stroke 48.26 mm (1.90 in)
- Fuel system Rolls Royce two-stage centrifugal supercharger with two 3 in (76 mm). SU carburetors. 5.7 bar maximum boost.
- Fuel Petrol/alcohol fuel
- Ignition Lucas coil, later four Lucas magnetos. One spark plug per cylinder
- Valve gear 2 valves per cylinder @ 80 degrees with twin overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, via gear train from the centre of the crankshaft. Hairpin valve springs.
- Inlet valves 1.25 in (32 mm)
- Exhaust valves 1.09 in (28 mm)
- Crankshaft Counterbalanced two piece with 8 plain bearings & 2 main roller bearings. (Later 10 plain bearings)
 
mafia_boy
:eek:

No wonder it was unreliable, it was just off 84lbs. of boost going through that motor!! That's insane, making a time bomb out of a V16! :D
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That's BRM for ya. They always tried to do things differently. Or insanely. Turbine cars at Le Mans, H16s, and 1.5L V16s. :lol: :lol:
 
Actually the reliability trouble with these had nothing to do with the electrics, it was an engine far ahead of it's time, especially for 1947 when it was first designed.
The engine troubles were due to the wet cylinder liner used, when the engine was run at high boost the liner was pushed down onto the bottom seals that would flex and let a gap between the liner and the head open. Upon closing the throttle this gap let in small amounts of the cooling water that had destructive effects on the inside of the hot cylinder.
After this fault was fixed the V16 BRMs were used with resonable reliability but little success for a further few years, until 1955.
 
Nice find!

Leonidae
The original prince of darkness :lol:
Click to expand...

As well as the BRM H-16, the Master of Confusion:

764px-BRM_H16_engine.jpg


Grand Prix racing used to be so wide open for the development of crazy ideas. Now, the crazies ruin the sport.
 
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that reminds me of certain Napier aircraft engine.. what kind of crank arrangement does this one have, seeing that it's practically two boxer 8's welded together?
 
Leonidae
that reminds me of certain Napier aircraft engine.. what kind of crank arrangement does this one have, seeing that it's practically two boxer 8's welded together?
Click to expand...

I believe it was the same arrangement as the Napier aircraft engines.

Now, Deltics, those sounded mean in the vein of Detroit Diesels...
 
Same arrangement as in Napier? :scared: Crikey. Think about a car that has "Powered by Napier" on the rear window..
 

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