>
>Ask me what I think of a front-engined Mallock U2 Formula Junior passing
>Cooper F1 cars. ;=( It sure impressed Ken Tyrrel. The way those things
>buzz the motor, they must be turning 8-9 grand. You can't do that with
>3 main bearings and 1958-63 materials, can you?
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Yes you can and yes they did!
An article that I have at home, Autosport in 1962, by Ted Martin, discusses
the state of the art in Formula Junior engines. They ran custom cranks,
rods, dry sumps, pistons, gear drive cams, reved to 8500 - 9000 rpm, and
were using electronic (transistor) ignition (although they found it didn't
give more power, and they doubted the reliability). Anyone who was racing,
as opposed to just showing up, ran the motor hard enough to win and then
figured out how to make it last.
He also said that the previous season, when they didn't run specially made
rods and cranks they replaced them with NEW parts every 3 -4 races. When
British Leyland was supporting the local racers in the early 60's here in
Canada, they came to the track with a truck loaded with cranks and other
parts because A-series cranks (those Cooper-S ones that people go nuts over
now) were deemed to have an operating life of about 10 hours in a race
motor! Does your vintage budget run to rebuilds where you replace the entire
reciprocating part of the motor two or three times a season?
By the way, Carillo rods are expensive if you compare them to stock ones
that came with the motor and you already own - but they're not that
expensive if you compare them to just one ventilated block! I figure
Carillos would cost about $1,000 a set, and I budget that much to get a
block prepped and machined, let alone buy the block, crank, cam, and all the
rest of the stuff that gets cut in half when a rod lets go!
Brian Evans
Director, ISP Marketing
UUNET Canada Inc.
20 Bay Street, Suite 1910
Toronto, ON, M5J 2N8
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