600 hp out of 2L 3 cylinder

[Tantalum]

It's not cheap, but Koenigsegg has done it again. Even just a sliver of this technology would be cool to see in airplane, even if experimental. Hell, at the volume that Koenigsegg sells its cars (~20 per year) and the $1M-$2M prices they charge this again demonstrates to me how needlessly overpriced new small GA planes are (but I digress)

Watch the vid, it's cool!

 

[asicer]

Very interesting, but makes me wonder how well it'd do in a 24 hour or long distance race.

 

[weilke]

The 80s vintage Formula 1 engines squeezed 1400hp out of 1.5l during qualifying rounds. They only had to last a few minutes of runtime.

 

[Kenny Phillips]

It's not cheap, but Koenigsegg has done it again. Even just a sliver of this technology would be cool to see in airplane, even if experimental. Hell, at the volume that Koenigsegg sells its cars (~20 per year) and the $1M-$2M prices they charge this again demonstrates to me how needlessly overpriced new small GA planes are (but I digress)

Watch the vid, it's cool!

They don't spend hundreds of millions (yes!) getting certified; they work to pretty simple rules. (GE Aviation spent more than two billion-with-a-B dollars getting the GEnx engine certified.)

 

[Kenny Phillips]

The 80s vintage Formula 1 engines squeezed 1400hp out of 1.5l during qualifying rounds. They only had to last a few minutes of runtime.

Yep. Now three 'power units' (as they are hybridized) must last 20 races, plus practice, lest a penalty be awarded.

 

[Tantalum]

They don't spend hundreds of millions (yes!) getting certified; they work to pretty simple rules. (GE Aviation spent more than two billion-with-a-B dollars getting the GEnx engine certified.)

Oh for sure.. and these engines need to last, realistically, only for the duration of a race.. or driving about 2K miles per year. The tech is cool though, especially the free valve stuff

There is a guy who put (or is putting) an LS onto a Velocity.. and in the Twin Bonanza spirit it's using augmentation tubes:

 

[weilke]

Yep. Now three 'power units' (as they are hybridized) must last 20 races, plus practice, lest a penalty be awarded.

Through the history of F1, it is impressive what progress they managed to incorporate into the vehicles.

 

[Tantalum]

I hope the EA world continues to move on and advance. Even if typical certified GA goes the way of ultra rich and 172/PA28 trainers for schools.. maybe the EA world will keep some of that aviation glory alive

I'd love to start with something like a twin velocity and customize the crap out of it

 

[MBDiagMan]

You use enough boost you can get about however much HP you want until it comes apart at the seams. An engine that size producing that much HP was hopefully designed and built for the strain.

Dr. Porsche built racing engines in the thirties that were boosted to similar levels, but they were designed really STOUT!

 

[Ted]

600 HP from a 2L is nothing new. Honestly, when I was in high school those sorts of things impressed me. Now it’s cool, no doubt there, but not an indication of how antiquated aircraft engines are.

Remember, variable valve timing/lift/free valve helps with emissions and making a wide torque curve, won’t do anything for efficiency and power at a particular set point.

 

[jsstevens]

Renault was getting 1200 HP out of 1.5 liter in 1979.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_EF-Type_engine

it’s all about how much oxygen you can pump through the engine.

but as @Ted DuPuis says above making a simple mechanically managed engine to run in a narrow rpm band is not hard. That’s why there aren’t big efficiency gains for our aircraft engines.

 

[Brad Smith]

The Kawasaki H2 motorcycle that you can buy at the local Kawasaki dealer for chump change makes 310 HP (326 w/ram air) from its 1 liter engine and will do it reliably for years. That’s better than the Koenigsegg and not really that newsworthy. Pumping up an engine to make HP is easy these days and getting it to be reliable is no longer even big news. Should be EXPECTED from a car costing well over a million bucks.

 

[Tantalum]

Should be EXPECTED from a car costing well over a million bucks.

Yup. But we can't expect the same from an airplane costing well over a million bucks. Buy a brand new Bonanza, Mooney, or Cirrus with all the bells and whistles and you are around a million dollars.. but that engine is basically going to be a big question mark as to how many hours it will really last and how reliable it will be

You can buy an old POS Evinrude 2-stroke outboard and beat the thing to hell for 20 years in a salt water environment and still have it run reliably. Set the mixture wrong on a few flights though and you can kiss that Conti goodbye

 

[Tantalum]

variable valve timing/lift/free valve helps with emissions and making a wide torque curve, won’t do anything for efficiency and power at a particular set point

Certainly, our engines just need to do one thing well, and that's spend most of their life at around 2,500 rpm. But as the countless engine threads here show, and the hundreds of different hot start and leaning techniques people have.. these engines are still no where near the technical abilities they should be. Advancement did effectively stop 50-60 years ago