BRC 1955 - The Golden Age [Qualifying R5]

[NormanVauxhall]

With the Sprite body having a heavier engine it's a huge disadvantage. If you want to stop the car with brakes fitted in 10-11" wheel means LOW weight. That's why mine it's 527kg. (tiny tiny high revving DOHC 1 liter V8)

[07CobaltGirl]

Clearly you do not pay attention to MY cars. mwahahaha

[TheBobWiley]

Hey ColbaltGirl, looking over the car you posted I noticed that it weighs a bit more than the real life 327 (313kg vs 270kg) and also should be using forged crank and conrods. Also, upping quality in the valve tab smooths out the RPM graph in the high range. Gonna see what I can get out of the engine while keeping it true to the 327 because I am bored and lack the motivation to work on my car company currently.
Also, was cast log the actual exhaust type used on 1955 cars? Not sure if short cast or tubular could be put on for weight reduction and better flow.

[Packbat]

@TheBobWiley: I'm betting a lot of the engines had different headers, but the illustrations I can find (like this person's 1/6th scale model) look aesthetically more like cast log than short cast. From a standpoint of simulating airflow, though, I could buy the argument for short cast ... and certainly there would be people replacing the headers with tubular ones for racing.

[TheBobWiley]

The cast tube is giving the smoothest RPM curve, but I did find an entire second by using comfort rear brake pads, even if the car takes even longer to stop now
EDIT: Just got 80-120km/h in 3.2 seconds.... this thing is a beast past 100km/h!

[07CobaltGirl]

I played around with it quite a lot. I couldn't go for full engine specs as the contest is limited in several ways. With the zero quality, that engine will actually push out a lot more horsepower/torque, especially if you go for the forged components. I had it up to nearly 300hp myself. The main areas to find more time will be suspension and gearbox. Just be careful with the weight reduction, as it's already on the edge of .20 pwr/wgt as I posted it. Reducing weight means reducing the power even further.

As for cast logs, most cars of the day were using them, unless they were truly performance cars, much like today. Tubular exhaust was generally reserved for aftermarket applications. I used the exhaust to limit the power a bit.

[TheBobWiley]

Its fun trying to make "bad" cars better, but I'm just having an awful time with suspension since the 1945 BRC.... nothing I do seems to help much. However I changed the engine around a bit (same bore, stroke, etc.) and it now makes a whopping 427nm of torque @ 2200 rpm and 192 hp @ 3800 rpm. I think the economy is a tad better but I forget what the original values were. Reliability is down about 2 points, and responsiveness is down a lot, but the 165mm tires make lots of spin already. Was using 92 octane fuel at one point, but now its at 97.7. Had to remove the radio, but upgraded to a premium interior

Maybe I can find some more time in the suspension, but the weight of the car makes the settings very twitchy.

[07CobaltGirl]

I'm just glad someone decided to play around with it. Since we have a 1-2 more weeks until the BRC begins again, I thought it might be fun. Just don't make it something other than OHV, as it just demolishes what I was attempting to do. American V8 in a European Roadster.

[TrackpadUser]

That power/weight limit is the only thing keeping my OHV engines remotely competitive. Without it, I might be able to use this engine fully tuned, but anyone who slaps DOHC on theirs will double my output without a second glance. The only real advantage to the OHV engine is compactness (and some reliability), so this 5.3L won't fit into the Spriteless as a DOHC (or will it?).

I haven't made a lot of tests with the sprite, but I know that on the mini-truck it makes a huge difference.

A DOHC 4L V8 doesn't fit with, but IIRC a 5.3L does fit if one uses OHV with the small tubular exhausts.

[Therax]

I'm not at my computer right now, but when I get home I'd like to take a crack at your car with an all aluminum Buick 215. The timeline is a little off, since the 215 didn't see commercial availability until MY 1961, but since the AMC V8 didn't hit production until 1956, and the Buick was seen in concept car form as early as 1951, it should be interesting as an experiment. The later Rover V8 connection also works well within the US/UK hybrid spirit.

[GenJeFT]

The car review stream I am doing is scheduled for next Wednesday the 22nd at 1:00PM EDT or 2:00PM EST (someone please correct me if I am wrong on time conversions).

If you want your car looked at dont forget to send it to me. I have 11 cars so far.

Sorry it was not this past Wednesday but stuff came up on my end.

[AshleyBlack]

I sent you my car for review. Just letting you know because it hasn't been downloaded yet. Not sure if you haven't seen it or you're just not up to that stage yet. So I'm just checking in so I'm not forgotten haha

[GenJeFT]

I sent you my car for review. Just letting you know because it hasn't been downloaded yet. Not sure if you haven't seen it or you're just not up to that stage yet. So I'm just checking in so I'm not forgotten haha

I have yet to download any of the cars in my inbox.

Currently I have cars from these people (in no real order).

Lordred
Packbat
RobtheFiend
strop
Tycondero
peskyboyz
Leonardo9613
TheBobWiley
CobaltGirl
AshleyBlack
NormanVauxhall
pHanta

[Packbat]

Speaking of particular orders: I imagined the most convenient arbitrary order would be by race number:

#2: TheBobWiley
#5: Leonardo9613
#8: NormanVauxhall
#9: Tycondero
#10: GenJeFT
#19: Packbat
#26: 07CobaltGirl
#37: strop
#40: RobtheFiend
#42: peskyboyz
#43: AshleyBlack
#46: Lordred
#52: pHanta

Among those who hadn't sent their cars, there were expressions of interest from mattmr2 (#20) and Lothoren (#23).

[GenJeFT]

I was going to do it by however automation sorted them. Starting from the top going down.