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NEWS
MOTORSPORT: Dinosaur V8s proving hard to beat
Fuel burn parity sought for Nissan and Benz as endurance races and Bathurst loomThe two-valve per-cylinder pushrod engines that power Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore V8 Supercars are derided as dinosaurs by some, but their fuel efficiency is emerging as a major headache for the new Nissan and Erebus (Mercedes-Benz AMG) teams and their sophisticated multi-valve DOHC powerplants.
The 5.0-litre versions of the Nissan V56DE and AMG M159 engines are struggling to match the Ford and Chevrolets for horsepower in the sprint races, but they are also said to be as much as 13 per cent thirstier.
And that means they will be simply uncompetitive in the longer distance races which start with July’s Sucrogen Townsville 400 and include the Supercheap Auto 1000 at Bathurst in early October as their centrepiece.
“We don’t have quite enough straight line speed and too much fuel consumption and that leaves us fairly well snookered going into the enduros,” admitted Nissan Motorsport co-owner, driver and technical director Todd Kelly.
“We could run the engines leaner to gain back a bit of fuel consumption – but everyone will do that so we don’t actually gain anything. And it would come at a massive power cost. So we need to have a good think about how we might be able to equalise it for the enduros.”
That ‘equalising’ measure could take the form of an insert for the fuel tanks of the Falcons and Commodores, reducing their capacity from the mandated 120 litres for long distance races. It would be a relatively simple solution as long as fuel flow rates were equalised.
Such a move is supported by V8 Supercars commission chairman Mark Skaife.
“I am not saying the commission is endorsing this or the whole industry is endorsing this – but as a personal view I believe it is unfair to penalise them [Nissan and Erebus] with a double whammy, meaning if they are not quite fast enough and they use more fuel then they will have to stop more times or stop for longer,” Skaife explained.
“I think that is a double whammy penalty.
“I have asked both AMG and Nissan to put together status reports of what their research and development plan is now, what they believe they can achieve before the enduros and what they think from their side the fuel economy deficiency is and they are preparing those documents,” he said.
The move is sure to create some controversy among Ford and Holden fans who would see the reduction in tank capacity as an unfair handicap in the category’s most important and famous race. However, V8 Supercars is a parity formula and equalising fuel burn falls under that banner.
“All we want to do is be able to go racing and be able to do that in the way V8 Supercars is intending – which is competitively,” said Erebus Motorsport CEO Ryan Maddison. “We are not saying the playing area is unequal but clearly there are some areas that need discussion for new manufacturers coming in to be considered.
“The rule book has evolved over the years around the two-valve pushrod engine and those engines are unbelievably successful for the configuration that they are in,” he added.
“There are only certain things that can actually work to your advantage to find performance gains inside the engine and when we have got more than twice the amount of moving parts in a multi-valve engine ... you have got a fairly big barrier.”
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Written byBruce Newton
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