As a diesel ignoramus I'd be very interested if someone could explain what it is that makes the engines that power current Le Mans winners so powerful and still light enough for racing.
I also wonder why the manufacturers of auto conversions all go for heavy steel four and six cylinder engines and not, say, the VW ten cylinder aluminium engine. If I read the advertising right it puts out 300 hp. at about 3,500 revs. If it was derated to 200 hp it would be right in its best torque range and might not even need a gearbox.
Granted it is complicated, (four stroke, twin turbo etc,) but then twelve cylinder 27 litre twin supercharger engines were reliable enough just after WW11, surely we could use a ten cylinder engine today and with those small pots and small crank offset the vibration might be less too.
Last edited by ChrisVJ; 21st Jun 2014 at 23:47.
Reason: Diesel ignoramus might learn to spell diesel