Let me try this again: Has anyone explored whether any current 4-stoke snowmobile engines of comparable power to our current engines would fit in our cars without major mods?
I think CVT only makes sense in a smaller, more simplistic, and cheaper, race car. It's perfect for autocross, where you hardly have time to shift, and in road racing it allows you to keep even peaky engines at their optimum RPM. It has to be lighter and less expensive than a gearcase. But it becomes problematic with higher HP. A few years ago, Bill Goodale used a 3-cylinder 2-stroke in his AM car, perhaps 250 HP, and i recall many cases of CVT belts failing. But it's part of the snowmobile drive train theme that has been the essence of F440/500. Following that through as more sleds go 4-stroke seems to be a good path forward. Regards, Tony Jagodnik [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Mar 12, 2007, at 7:39 AM, Chris Reinhardt wrote: > Anthony, I would have to disagree with the redundancy theory... > The cars are smaller, more simplistic, and cheaper, regardless of > the power plant.. A CVT makes them the only road racing class in > the world with that type of drivetrain. Wonder why it hasn't > caught on...... > > CR > > Anthony Jagodnik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I like the idea of evolving to a 4-stroke with CVT, as suggested by > Bobby J and others. Without the CVT based snowmobile drive train, as > others have pointed out, our class becomes redundant with other > formula cars. But a 4-stroke would need more displacement, hence > probably more cylinders to make the same power. For example, "In > 2001, Arctic Cat had the first modern 4-stroke sled on the market. > Essentially, it's a Pantera 2-stroke touring model fitted with a 4- > stroke, 658cc, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected 3-cylinder. Thanks to > intake and exhaust improvements, it's rated at 53 hp for 2003, a 17 > percent increase. More recently, from Yamaha "The new RX-1 snowmobile > is powered by the same 4-stroke, 998cc, 4-cylinder, DOHC, 5-valves- > per-cylinder, liquid-cooled Genesis Extreme engine that powers the > award-winning Yamaha YZF-R1 sportbike. The biggest difference is that > the motorcycle engine is now fuel-injected and develops 152 hp at > 10,500 rpm, while the snowmobile version uses four Mikuni BSR37 > carburetors for a peak of 145 hp at 8300 rpm." > > Has anyone explored whether any current 4-stoke snowmobile engines of > comparable power to our current engines would fit in our cars without > major mods? > > Regards, > Tony Jagodnik > NER SoloII FM 6 '87 KBS Mk3 F440 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------- > The fish are biting. > Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. ________________________________ FormulaCar Magazine - A Proud Supporter of Formula 500 The Official Publication of Junior Formula Car Racing Subscribe Today! www.formulacarmag.com or 519-624-2003 _________________________________ _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
