Torque and Power

[The Necessary]

AL, trust me, I ain't smart enough to even make it to engineering foundation...

Aiyah, formula, no formula, if you bungkus the guy next to you, you're making enough power/torque.... hahaha.

 

[E34EuroTouring]

Al,

I am not sure if the V10 were really the holy grail of engine design. Wasn't it after the V8s in F1 (ie post Turbo days) where the V12 engine was too heavy?.

So the engineers were given this challenge. If V8 NA was too weak and V12 was powerful enough but too heavy, then V10 would be a natural mid-point. Then aiyah, some engineers said, its IMPOSSIBLE to built a V10 with as much power as a V12 but as light as a V8. I think these were the times where the material was also evolving and budgets were huge for big teams like Ferrarri, Williams, Renualt and McLaren.

Can't remember which team built the first V10 engine but when that breakthrough appeared, the rest of the teams "suddenly" came out with nice V10s!.

Personally, I think 8 cylinders is too much already. 4 to 6 is a nice mix for smooth and decent torque. Now that BMW is going turbo soon, I would not be surprised if the turbo the 4 banger first.

Oh, that formula is a generalised formula not to be used too seriously. It applies to the top-end of the engine range, I hear.

 

[ALBundy]

E34touring, I have this article about the V10s BMW engineers were building for FUN even when they were not in Formula 1 In it, the concept and advantage of a V10 engine was explained, basically its due to the angle or timing separation (not sure whether its the correct term) between the 10 cylinders which happens to be 36 degrees and it seems that is the optimum angle. Now, how does that translate into an optimum design or holy grail, I aint got no idea