The F1 Turbo era

[top fuel]

Where can I find out loads of info on F1 Turbo engines??

Which one was most powerful? was it the Renault one or the BMW? That would make searching easier!

[deltaf]

top fuel said:

Where can I find out loads of info on F1 Turbo engines?? Which one was most powerful? was it the Renault one or the BMW? That would make searching easier!

Thought the Honda engine was the most powerful? Something ridiculous like 1070 bhp from a 1.5 litre...

[kevinday]

Renault claimed 1500bhp for qualifying IIRC.

[chief-0369]

the thing that gets me, the BMW one used a modified road car block, was pushing near 1000bhp IIRC

[RichB]

top fuel said:

Where can I find out loads of info on F1 Turbo engines?? Which one was most powerful? was it the Renault one or the BMW? That would make searching easier!

I seem to remember the Honda Turbo was the most succesfull? Rich...

[RichB]

Then of course there was the TAG Turbo built by Porsche...

[RichB]

In fact (sorry about this) I don't remember BMW being at all successful during the 1.5 Turbo era? Who did they supply Alfa wasn't it? Rich...

[Paul_R]

BMW called their engine Megatron.

It was mainly used by Arrows - so no huge surprise that it wasn't too succesful.

[chief-0369]

ive just found my book.

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo BMW Ferrari Hart Renault Renault TAG Porshe

Engine Type 90deg V8 in line 4 in line 4 120deg V6 in line 4 90deg V6 90deg V6

Horse Power
@1.7-2.0 Bar Boost 745 885 840 870 710 850 870 860


*edit* ack, doesnt come out right

>> Edited by chief-0369 on Wednesday 26th November 19:44

[DontLift]

Ford ran a cosworth to a reliable 1000bhp one is now sat in the museum at donnington park if you want to see it first hand

[mrs gazboy]

Renult had 1200bhp race engines, there is a pic somewhere of Piquet flipping his.

[robbo1]

Brabham were probably BMW's most famous customer in the turbo era.
Although anything up to 1300bhp was available from "grenade" qualifying engines, I'd reckon nearer 1000bhp for the races.

[pete500]

Boost was in the 5 bar region....!

[jackass]

Didn't Renault max out their dyno at 3000 rpm or something stupid and told the driver "We really have no idea how much power it's putting out"

[te51cle]

I remember that the BMW engine was the most powerful, trouble was it developed it all at very high RPM and nothing low down. It had no flexibility and made it very hard to drive. Other manufacturers traded outright power for a wider torque spread and got better results in the races. Reminds me a lot of my Civic VTi which was horrible to drive.

I remember claims of 1500-1700bhp for the BMWs in qualifying trim. Claimed power outputs were increasing race by race. Certainly they were racing with well over 1,000 bhp.

The early Hondas were abysmally unreliable but once they got the hang of making them properly they worked very well.

[HarryW]

AFAIK the BMW were the most powerful of the Q engines at around 1500hp.
I actually liked the turbo era og F1and think that a return could offer a lot to todays F1. In the heigth of the era overtaking could be done by turning the boost up, this was done a the expense of fuel consumption, don't forget there was no refuelling then. So you could be the fastest man out there and have your moment of glory, but you probably wouldn't finnish because you ran out of fuel .
The use of additional boost was something the driver could do on the road to get past slower cars or make a move past the leader, the amount of duels that Piquet/mansell/prost/senna et al had still makes me smile today.
Bring it back I say, limit the amount of fuel again, but keep pit stops, I think it could make the difference IMHO.

Harry

[diver944]

.....and with the increase in technology they'd have to drop the engine size to under 1 liter to keep below the 1000bhp bracket

now that would be something to see