motor

Sm@ck · 04-05-2004, 08:12 AM

Hello everyone,

A few friends and I are looking into constructing our own "fun car" for racing on track days, especially on the Nürbergring (maybe even getting a street license)

We are currently looking at several options. At the moment we are seriously toying with the idea of taking a "Smart Roadster Coupe" and upgrading the car.

We already have searched all the big (and known small) Smart tuners, and their current solutions for the smart simply suck! Even Brabus latest release (commercial release of Smart Brabus Coupe with 101hp) simply wont do. The claimed results are to be taken with a grain of salt, and to be honest I could overlook the power problem, if it where not for the crappiest automobile gearbox solution of the last decade.
The closest to our "ideal solution" would be that brabus V6 1.4 liter (made of 2 smart engines combined). However there are many problems with this thing!
1) One cannot buy it (and its not a money issue)
2) Even if we could buy it, I would doubt that this engine is any good. It would probably be a pain in the ass to maintain, and be hugely expensive, since it is not mass produced.
3) I dont believe any of the numbers Brabus released with the car. "those are theoretic numbers, imo" and I wonder how good the motor, dont want to repair/maintain the thing every day.
4) as far as I know, the gearbox is still shit and a similiar solution to the standard smart roadsters
5) I dont think in Daimler Chrysler they had a good inhouse solution thats why they resorted to fusing 2 engines!
6) The idea of this project is to get our hands dirty and learn about cars, engines, turbos, transmissions, track setup (and not drive finished products)

So the only viable option is to put in a "small" 4 cylinder.
Probably looking at 1.4 liters - 2.0 Litres (max) depends on the compactness of the engine. Our biggest problems will be fitting/finding the "gearbox". An "SMG" would be nice!

SO in lamens terms I want the 4 cylinder equivalent of the R26-DETT.
I need an engine that is widely available (mass produced), and has lots of tuning options availabe. So most likely I am looking at JApanese engines, because these also have extensive after market tuning available for there smaller cars.
Offcourse I will be looking at VW engines too, and natrually I have to consider engines of current available MR cars as the one in the MG-tf (from 115, 160) or toyota solutions. However ideally we want a different solution than the ones available in current MR cars. OTherwise we might as well not bother with our project and just buy one of those cars.

Anyway I would be greatful if people had any suggestions, especially regarding JApanese engines! and maybe even some American or UK engines that I am overlooking! I already am familiar with the product line of VW and Opel, and have made a small database with the essential facts, weight, dimensions, output, tuning products available etc..

There are many factors which will be important, right now we are just brainstorming. We are greatful for any input, links would be nice! Ideally offcourse wa database with all the worlds 4 Zylinders!

.

P.S I realize that a project like this will cost somewhere around 40,000-70,000 Euros per car ( maybe even more), and I am not saying I will do it! I am toying with the idea, I can always buy a Porsche GT-3 later