Multi Valve NASCAR ..... The More Valves ..... The Merrier! .

Multi Valve NASCAR ..... The More Valves ..... The Merrier!  


Its difficult for me as a motorsport enthusiast to believe that a sport as competitive as NASCAR use ancient technology. So think about that for a while..... Ancient technology? 

I mean NASCAR are really leaders when it comes to safety. Have a look at the safe barriers that have been designed and upgraded to ensure that drivers have as much protection as possible when they hit the walls. That really is light years ahead of the European racers. Safer barriers are not a NASCAR invention but they did contribute to the development and they are used very effectively in NASCAR today. The safety cell in a NASCAR has been build not as much to improve the handling of the car, but rather to protect the drivers. HANS devices are mandatory to help protect head and neck injuries. They don't race in the rain and considering the fact that most circuits are banked, that's probably a very smart rule. If debris is spotted on the track we see a full course yellow, not just yellow flags, full course yellow and everyone is forced to slow down. Spectators safety is also paramount. High catch fences, areas where fans are not allowed to sit. These measures don't always save lives and fatalities still happen, but the fact is that NASCAR take the topic very seriously and they don't skimp when it comes to safety.

So you are still at my original question. Ancient technology?. 

Why would you want to use a push rod motor in this day and age? Two valves per cylinder over head Valve? Just about every motorsport series in the world have moved with technology and moved in to much more technology based engines and just about every road car today being sold is a multi valve engine. NASCAR however seems to have chosen to be stuck in the late 1950's ...... or have they lagged behind?... Well that statement is not really true...

Lets explore this. 

Im gonna use the Chevy motor as as an example here. 

The basic V8 shape as we still see it today in NASCAR has been around in some form or another since 1955. However since 1974 Chevy in NASCAR have been using a 358 ci V8's that had to based on what consumers could by off of a show room floor. I say based because as the rules have evolved, the basic design had to be based on this basic design.  
Parts and internals were a very different story though and massive modifications where allowed, but the basic block and heads had to remain from an external persepctive the same as the V8 in your Chevy standing in the back yard. 

The last decade have seen huge changes to the rules in regards to engines. Since Toyota have joined NASCAR in the Truck series in 2004 they arrived with a V8 that they wanted to race. The engine was more like a Formula one V8 than a NASCAR V8. Its important to remember they did not have a production V8 to race, so they had to build one from scratch. NASCAR saw the necessity to move on from production based V8's to purpose build motors, not only to accommodate a new manufacturer, but also because running the traditional V8's had been giving Chevy and Ford their own headaches to keep their engines reliable. Chevy and Ford were happy to comply because they to felt that the development of production based had hit a bit of a brick wall and used the opportunity to plug engine designs of their own. There was also a tendancy to start calling this raceway a "Ford" raceway because the engine dynamics of a Ford suited the particular track and most winners would be in a Ford. The same was true for other tracks that were "Chevy" tracks. 

The Box...

NASCAR was faced with a problem though. How were they going to stop one manufacturer from building an engine that would give them a massive power and reliability advantage over the other manufacturers? So to keep things equal, NASCAR decided that they needed a framework to make sure that all power plants were on an equal footing. They did not want one competitor out performing another because they had a advance in engine technology, something which could happen easily considering they were racing with decades old technology in terms of engines. In comparison a 3 liter (182 ci) Formula one engine in 2004 was developing more power, using less fuel, had a longer life span in terms of racing miles, lighter and just over all way more efficient. Its easy to see how Toyota, could build a small V8 that if left to develop whatever they liked could run rings around the other sprint cup cars. That would be disastrous to a sport that was loosing supporters.In response NASCAR created the "Box" its a set of 50 guidelines or perimeters to make sure engines would have similar performance and one manufacturer would not have an advantage over the other.  Some of these include Bore spacing, Valve placing. 

The production based Chevy V8 (Pre 2007) was called the SB2 (Small Block 2nd Generation). The SB2 was approved and introduced in 1998. Production based engines are not made for racing so there are many issues that race engineers have to try to work out or work around. One for those was a particular problem of cooling. On the SB2 engine the two inside exhaust ports on the block are paired very close to each other and as a result they together build up a lot of heat and cause a hot region. It got hot enough to cause engines and headers to fail. 

 Chevy SB2

After the rule change Chevy introduced their purpose build engine and on the new purpose build engine the R07, exhaust ports were evenly spaced, eliminating the problem. Cylinders are also spaced further apart 4.500-inch (R07) 4.400 inches (SB2) improving cooling.  Another interesting point to mention is that with the SB2 needed around 50 hours to get the engine ready for a race. With the R07 that would not be needed because its purpose build. Each R07 that is made gets send to Earnhardt - Childress racing (ECR) where they are put together and refined into individual masterpieces. These engines are fuel injected now since 2013 and that has provided more power and made the engines more efficient. All NASCAR Sprint cup cars use an ECU made by McLaren. Its a homologation unit that has to be used by teams. The reality is that although the R07 is based on ancient technology, the engine is an absolute gem. It is the best example of constant refinement I have ever seen. In many ways this engine has simple tech but out performs even a modern F1 engine. Piston travel on the R07 engine at 11000 Rpm is faster than a F1 V8 at 16000 Rpm. The reason is the R07 has a much longer stroke. Still very impressive.



 

R07 Engine

 

Different Engine units for different tracks.

Would it surprise you that there are different engines for different races? Well considering the technology it would not surprise me. So we have specific engines being made and setup for specific type of tracks. Four engines in total. One for Super speedways, one for speedways, one for mid tracks and one for short tracks. That is expensive people..... Formula one is very expensive and they have one..... only one power unit spec. The difference is though that Formula one engines have multi valve engines, with variable valve timing. Every manufacturer has their own name for this technology. Toyota have VVT, BMW Double Vanos, Honda VTEC. They all work on the same principle though. 

Variable Valve Timing.

The concept of Variable Valve Timing is essentially a mechanism through a complex movement of parts on the inlet and exhaust valves, the exhaust and inlet valves can be held open for longer times and can close or open the vales quicker and with more precision than a normal cam shaft and traditional valves with springs could. Now have this work seamlessly with your engine management system, and you get a power unit that not only delivers more power, but can deliver it on lower or higher revolutions, depending on what you have asked your engine management system to do. Oh yes, the car is more fuel efficient to. 


There is something about the roar of an American V8 .....

So where can NASCAR go from here? Part of the problem that NASCAR has at the moment, is how do they go to the next generation engine without being able to say effectively what that generation will be. That's a big statement but the truth is that NASCAR has lagged so far behind in the engine department that the latest generation engines that most manufactures are using now are all smaller V6 turbo or 4 cylinder Turbo engines. Just look at the immense popularity of the Ford Eco Boost technology. They have a 3 cylinder 1000 cc turbo engine, that is tiny and incredibly efficient and runs like a bat out of hell. Everything seems to be cleaner, faster cheaper with hybrid technology pushing into this competitive queue everywhere it can. Problem is that all this new technology seems to not gel very well with the traditional race enthusiast. In the 1960's and 1970's going to the Le Mans 24 hours saw great duels between Ferrari, Porsche and Ford. Those great sounding cars provided not only great  racing cars, they were exciting to watch and stirred emotions. Now days you have cars having to enter and exit the pit area under hybrid only power, Zero sound!..... Many of them are diesels. Every watched a fast John Deere tractor? Well don't think to much on this, a fast diesel like those you see in Le Mans currently still sounds a lot like like a slow one. It sounds ... well .... odd. Considering the current R07 easily revs beyond 10000 Rpm and can do 11000 Rpm, a smaller V6 turbo purring along at 7000 Rpm is simply not going to keep the die hard NASCAR fans happy. Lets face it, there is something about the roar of an American V8 that is unmatched in any other form of motorsport.

NASCAR is in a dilemma really cause they need to keep their shrinking base of support stable and not have it shrink any more. They really need to grow it but how they gonna do that? Everyone is very worried about costs, and the NASCAR faithful have huge issues with talented ... yes I said talented drivers like Danica Patrick arriving in NASCAR. She has not won yet, but still seems to be rolling in the sponsors and why not? She can reach a million people with one tweet, or Facebook message. As the world has moved on and embraced new engine technologies and other new technology's like social media, NASCAR have clung to the idea of that ole push rod V8 and drivers having to prove themselves in lower formulas first before "graduating" to Sprint cup. Its not just old fashioned it stupid. The truth is that NASCAR is powered by the same basic building blocks that every other motorsport and sport in general is, MONEY! NASCAR is a business.

NASCAR needs to stay current.


NASCAR needs to stay current in terms of motorsport and the fact of the matter is large corporations will not sponsor someone without getting a return on their investment. They care less about someone being a multiple champion in any form of motorsport, than they do about return on investment. Danica Patrick and her management team are masters at giving her sponsors a return. She works her butt off for her sponsors not only on the track but off the track too and more and more sponsors are finding that they not only like her attitude, they want to see more of it. NASCAR have counted their blessings since Danica moved to  NASCAR because its opened a completely different Geographic of fans to NASCAR. 

What they gonna do about the rising costs though? The Old technology? God forbid they replace it with Turbo technology...... PLEASE!

My humble opinion ..... I think its high time to introduce production based multi valve 4 values per cylinder DOHC technology in NASCAR. They can keep RPM levels high at 8000 Rpm. They can keep cubic sizes the same. what they will have is much more efficient engines that use less fuel, have less emissions, have longer race engine lives, which will help costs, they could have one spec motor for the entire year and the engine management systems could compensate for different track types. Most importantly NASCAR will still sound like a classic American V8 should. Multi Valve engines do have a different ring so they wont sound exactly the same but its close enough. Every Manufacturer in NASCAR has a Multi Valve V8 unit they could use. 

For me the most important thing though is that the consumer will have a direct spin off. They can buy race proven technology in their everyday cars they use to get to work, go to school, go on vacation and go do their shopping with. The other possible spin off is that with multi valve V8's its possible for many more manufacturers to join. Most of the German cars produce a production unit that is a V8 and a multi valve. Devolping engines are expensive, but using something that's production based is a lot cheaper. 

It really should not be a huge decision for NASCAR to make. This is the natural evolution and its a win for everyone involved. At very least they should discuss this with the current manufacturers and of course the most important people in NASCAR.... The Fans.