The above table uses the corrected horsepower/Liter using the displacement multiplier of 2 for turbocharged engines. All engines were supposed to be run at the same facility and on VP 100 octane unleaded race fuel.  The dyno facility was Speed-O-Motive in West Covina, CA where they use a reputable DTS engine dyno. The contest consisted of several portions: hp/L, area under the curve, a 30 minute durability run, and a subjective judging portion. Turbo engines used a displacement multiplier of 2 (e.g. turbo 2.0Lx2=4.0L to calculate the hp/L). For some reason in the pamphlet that Source/Castrol published, they did not use the horspower/L calculation in the rules.

This was the first time that Sourceinterlink (mag publishers) did this kind of dyno contest and while there were things that were learned for next time, there probably will not be a next time. This contest was a huge undertaking to begin with. From the beginning I was asking Elliot and Jay, “Dude are you sure you’re going to engine dyno 7 different engines?!?! That’s 7 different harnesses, ecus, bellhousings, splines, etc. you have to design, build, and configure each time.” I’m sure it was a pain in the ass both physically and logistically, but Elliot/Source did a great job organizing the whole thing and Castrol was really good with supplying all of us contestants with plenty of Syntec lubricants. Anyhow, running out of time and man power, the Cosworth VQ was not run on the same Speedomotive engine dyno. It was run at our own engine dyno facility. That’s too bad since our dynos are super greedy and calibrated to OEM standards. It didn’t matter too much since we probably weren’t going to win anyway.

I didn’t think of it from the beginning, but boosted engines should have had a displacement multiplier based on their boost. The seemingly most heavily weighted part of the contest was hp/L. Since we live and breathe in 1bar or 14.5psi of atmospheric pressure, every additional 14.5psi of boost pressure is another atmosphere. So if a team decided to run 14.5psig, their displacement multiplier should have been x 2. If they ran 29psig, their multiplier should have been x 3. If they ran 43.5psig, their multiplier should have been x 4. If they ran 58psig, their multiplier should have been x 5. Here’s how the results probably would have looked like if the results were based on horsepower per liter alone:

Now the numbers look alot more reasonable when you compare them against each other, eh? Yes, you read that right: Bisi made the most hp/L if the rules took into account boost pressure (using a displacement multiplier based on boost pressure/number of atmospheres). It’s a shitload more difficult to be making 360bhp out of a single cam 1991 Honda Accord engine than it is to make big power with any turbocharged engine. It’s taken Bisi YEARS of F22A development for him to build an engine that wicked. I dig the shower injectors too. I remember when he used to come to XS to dyno his race car back in 2003 and he was racing the F22A for years before then. Anyhow, I’m not taking anything away from any of the other teams since all of the results were pretty strong (except for Cosworth’s in comparison - see below), but if the contest were based solely on hp/L with a displacement multiplier based on boost pressure, then these would have been the results. Of course the contest was not based only on hp/L because then every team would have used a GT60 turbo for an outrageously big hp number. I made this chart purely for the sake of comparison. I’m not saying things should have been any different (this time). It was a learning experience for everybody.

As for a VQ35DE engine that you could build yourself using off the shelf Cosworth parts, don’t you think 438 normally aspirated hp is pretty strong? I sure do. And that’s exactly what we did: build an engine we were using for customer long block development.  Sure it’s our fault we  brought a knife to a gunfight, but we knew it going in and more or less did it to show what a customer’s VQ35DE could do (and the media coverage). That’s probably a pretty damn realistic 360hp at the wheels on a chassis dyno. Oh well, maybe next time.

There was a vote on the Castrol Top Shop website, but it’s no longer there for whatever reason. Sport Compact Car Magazine and the Cosworth VQ build won the vote. Thanks guys for voting (especially my high school buddy Jim in Taipei).

There’s Martin from AMS and his guy. Great job guys. 1035bhp on 100 octane is buff regardless of any multipliers.

Here’s Bisi. This guy builds the world’s buffest F22A!

Here’s Tyler on the left, my Swedish buddy Magnus in the center, and me on the right. Maybe since Tyler and I are both from the Eastside we never smile in pics?

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Happy new year everybody. My goal before the new year, aside from completing the MX-5 calibration work (see below), was to get this new and improved blog up and running. With some help from Aric and the gigantic knowledge base we call the web, I was able to get this up and running today with the exception of the links you see on the top of this column and below the header. The evil scripts, adware, and bots that have infested the JDM Insider site are no longer lurking on this blog. BTW, this blog’s new web address is: http://www.beyondthedyno.com/Blogs/Eric. Please update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, and all that jazz. I’m not sure how much longer the JDM Insider site will be around if the infestation continues. This new blog is conveniently located on XS Engineering’s new and improved dedicated server. Thanks to XS for hooking me up with the server space and bandwidth. I would appreciate it if you guys would report any errors, bugs, and other wackness to me via email since I’m not exactly a website developer.

Anyhow, good luck with your New Years resolutions. Hopefully 2009 will be a good year for us car, engine, and racing people. Mo’ money, mo’ power!

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Most people get to take a break during this season. Not I. I am living and breathing supercharged MX-5. While I admit that it is the last car I ever thought I would ever be caught driving around, I have learned to enjoy this car. Last month I rolled up in an MX-5 to the Super Lap Battle time attack and the C-West/Hankook guys were questioning my masculinity. After spending a lot of time with various MX-5s, I believe that I could build one that would be pretty damn quick and make those dicks shut the fuck up. MX-5 owners face it: your car is driven mostly by hairdressers. It needs modification to bring out it’s potential. Anyhow, the Cosworth supercharged power makes this car WAY funner to drive. The car I am driving around is pure stock so it isn’t that fun even if you turn the VDC off, but it has straight line grunt believe it or not. Driving around Mazda’s Mazdaspeed test mule with supercharged power was absolute fun with the Koni coilovers, LSD, sticky Advan Neovas, and European final drive. The power and LSD lets you hang the rear out and steer with throttle at will. Dave Coleman did a bad ass job setting the suspension up on that car. Anyhow, enjoy your holiday. I will after Wednesday. For now its more logging and calibration…

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Happy Holidays everybody. Be safe and don’t party too hard. More tech articles are coming in 2009. I’ve been lagging on the tech…

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Here’s a pretty good post from Sean who is the biggest GTR nerd for life. He’s pretty much the walking, talking, breathing GTR database. Below is part of his post I stole:

These are the quickest Nissan GT-R’s that know of in the US. Apexi’s R33 ran 8.47@165, Signals R33 has run into the 8’s, a few other Japanese demo GT-Rs have run also, but they are not included in this list.

If you have one to add, email Sean.

SOURCE: Nissan Skyline GT-Rs in the USA Blog

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So you want to go the the 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon but don’t know anybody else going who’s been there before to show you around? The best way to go is on the D-Sport Magazine TAS tour package where they get you entrance on the media only day of TAS and take you around to check out some cool stuff (if you go on the VIP tour). For you R35 GT-R foamers, the tour includes a visit to the Nissan engine factory where the R35 engines are built. For you JDM drift fanatics, the VIP tour includes ride alongs with JDM pro drifters at the Fuji raceway. It looks like I’ll be at TAS this year so I’ll see you guys there. Make sure to hit me up and say what up if you see me.

Click to enlarge. Tour purchasing info is on this page.

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Despite the last 3 months being ridiculously busy, I managed to sneak in a couple of concerts. There’s nothing like loud music and a little bit (or a lot) of alcohol. If you enjoy the music or concerts in general, it’s a great way to just forget about the outside world for a couple hours. I think I have discovered my new activity for occasional stress relief.

Maxwell @ The Shrine Auditorium, November 1, 2008
While I’m not a huge R&B fan, Saya is pretty hardcore so I told her I would be down to check it out. I was super busy at the time, but you have to pay your dues sometimes. Anyhow I went to the Maxwell concert after 5 consecutive 15 hour work days so I was super tired (pre-SEMA). After waiting in line for 30 minutes to get two stoli and sodas and two martinis, the energy level started coming back up a bit. I only knew 2 or 3 Maxwell songs, but his voice is pretty amazing and the songs were pretty good. His band was good too. Maxwell gets 4 stars, the Shrine Auditorium gets 2 stars for the bullshit drink lines, and the Shrine Auditorium sound gets 3 stars for being only mediocre. The sound quality didn’t quite do Maxwell’s voice justice. He’s a pretty good entertainer though. He probably had all the chicks pretty wet for sure.

Tom Jones @ MGM Hollywood Auditorium, November 6, 2008
You have to do something to stay away from all the industry fag parties at SEMA so Saya and I decided to check out a Tom Jones concert since I was already staying at the MGM. Tom Jones is the shit. He is a true entertainer and his songs are timeless. He’s looking pretty good for his age (68) so I’m sure his surgeon kicks ass. He still moves around on stage pretty good too. If you ever get a chance to catch a Tom Jones show, you should go. The auditorium was only about 3/4 full and I had 4th row, center stage seats. Two cougar+ (lions?)ladies threw panties on stage too. The band kicked ass and one of his backup singers is smoking hot. The pimp that he is (read his bio in Wikipedia), you can bet he’s probably hittin it. Tom Jones gets 4.5 stars, the MGM Hollywood Auditorium gets a 4.5 for having cocktail waitresses (drinks come to you), and the auditorium gets 4 stars for sound quality with good bass.

Oasis @ The Staples Center, December 4, 2008
I have to admit that I’m not a huge Oasis fan, but Yaya asked me to go. She broke up with her boyfriend and he was a huge fan so there was no way in hell she was going to let him go to the show (chicks can be vindictive…). We spent most of our time drinking and walking around, but then we would run in if we knew a song. Yaya and I had a blast. The venue is cool with smoking areas, plenty of restrooms and bars so Staples gets 4 stars. The sounds kicked ass if you’re into the big concert sound so Staples gets 4.5 stars. I felt as though Oasis was like a money machine knowing they would only have to show up on stage, sell some $40 t-shirts, do a bullshit encore (1 Beatles song), and collect $$$. I didn’t get the feeling they enjoyed playing, appreciated their fans, or anything. Screw them; I’m not a big fan so they get 2 weak ass stars.

Next on the list are some smaller shows at smaller venues. I don’t know where or who exactly, but I look forward to it.

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These last couple of weeks Ben, an engineer from Pi Research/Pectel, and I have been living and breathing 2008 Subaru Impreza STi. The Cosworth EC Pro is designed by the brains at Pectel UK (a division of Pi Research and sister company of Cosworth) for Cosworth. It is exclusively sale and use in the North American market so all you guys in Europe will not be able to purchase or use it (for now at least). There are enough differences between the European market STis and North American STis to make it a very impractical adaptation. For you Americans though, you will soon have the absolute most powerful plug-in ECU available in the world. Yes, I am making that claim straight up. You can’t really call me arrogant when I’m simply reporting the truth. It is designed by the people who bring you world class motorsport grade engine control technology (Pectel) and engine technology (Cosworth).

Understanding Ben’s English accent is a whole different thing entirely. I get about 80-90% of it now after two weeks, but there’s still a lot of, “What was that?” After Ben says it again, sometimes there’s another “Huh?” Learning Brit slang is fun though. The good thing is that we get along well and have common interests. After all he drives an R33 Skyline and likes Nissan RB engines. Imagine that right? The guy who used to be the senior engine development engineer for the Subaru World Rally Team (Prodrive) drives a Skyline with a 500hp RB25.

The EC Pro development is going well. It’s not easy since the 2008 STi is full of chassis electronics and CAN stream data, but the car is driving excellent now. What I can say is that the base map the ECU will come with will be very good for a true “Plug and Perform”. Ben and I are handling all of the driveability details so all you professional tuners have to do is the fun part (dyno tune and collect $$$). In fact, the EC Pro even drives most of the factory smog devices. Of course you will have the option to disable these controls and use them for more important things such as _______________ (fill in the blank with almost anything you can imagine an ECU can do). For more details on the EC Pro, click here and scroll toward the bottom.

By the way, the EC Pro is not meant to directly compete with piggybacks, Ecutek or the COBB Accessport. All of the aforementioned definitely have their place and cost far less than the EC Pro. The EC Pro is targeting the crowd that requires the full power and complete control of a complete stand alone ECU, internal logging, expandability with a motorsport dash and additional sensors (thermocouples, temp/pressure sensors, strain gauges, linear pots, etc.).

This has been our office for the last two weeks.

You think Ben knows a little something about Subarus?

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I got some emails asking me what the Cosworth CA 2.4L V8 engine was/is/going to be. I’m sure the engineers at Cosworth UK will be detuning the engine a bit for lower cost and higher mileage, but in 2006 it was the highest revving and most powerful F1 engine at the time.

This is an old video, but in case you haven’t seen it check it out. I heard that by the end of the 2006 season, the CA actually saw 20,500rpm in competition.

Here’s a small image of it in it’s 2006 spec with billet valve covers, front cover, etc. There’s a show engine in our conference room, but pictures are not allowed. There are so many billet (machined from solid) parts on it, it just looks expensive sitting there. Anyhow, hope this helps to answer some questions. Hopefully the CA will get another crack at F1 competition.

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What the fuck is “FTW”? Looking it up on urbandictionary.com, I see that it means “For the win.” Sometimes I peruse various forums (usually when somebody sends me a link saying, “Hey read this thread. It’s hilarious.” or “Check out this dumb fuck FFF.”) and I usually see the dumb ass abbreviation: FTW. I understand abbreviations like lol, rofl, imho, btw, etc. because these are things that either express an action or are abbreviations for something that you would actually say. In a real life conversation you can actually say “In my honest opinion…” or “By the way…”, but you would NEVER say, “I’m a fag for the win!” Those of you who use FTW should stop. You sound/look like a fucking idiot. Uninstall WoW and live in the real world.

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This is, or was, my 6th rotary powered car and my 2nd red FD3S. While I eventually wanted to finish building it, I was just unable to find the time to do so. I was having a really difficult time getting a title for it. Learn from my lesson and avoid buying a car without a title. I got the run around from DMVs from 3 different states and the two previous owners. Eventually I said screw it and I just gave up. I would have hated to drop big $$$ into a race car only to learn that something was wrong with the title. So Pete and I cut the fucker up since I didn’t want to burden the next guy. If anybody needs FD parts hit me up.

2 Sawzalls with 10″ blades, 2 goggles, 2 particulate dust masks, and 3 hours gets you this.

Subframes, rear end, suspension, doors, and hatch, are for sale. Those are BCNR33 Skyline GT-R transmissions without transfer cases too if anybody needs them.

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Jeremy in track support sent me a text this morning and told me about this.

Cosworth has won the tender to supply a low-cost engine and transmission package in 2010 and beyond, Formula One’s governing body announced on Friday.

In the wake of Honda’s shock departure from the sport, the FIA said in a statement that the news confirmed its fears about the current financial format, and sent a letter to team bosses.

It is revealed that the cost to teams wanting to use the un-badged Cosworth engine option will be $2m euros, plus 5.5 million euros each season.

“The annual cost will reduce if more (than four) teams take up the option,” FIA President Max Mosley wrote.

Teams not wanting to use the standard engine have ‘the right to build an engine themselves’, or a de-tuned version of their current 2.4 litre V8s, but must use a standard transmission supplied by Ricardo Transmissions, a British company.

Mosley said the measures will help small teams survive, and also pave the way for the replacement of more outgoing manufacturers, ‘as seems likely’ to be necessary.

He wants four teams to sign up the scheme by next Thursday, or the price may go up.

FIA Press Release
The announcement of Honda’s intended withdrawal from Formula One has confirmed the FIA’s longstanding concern that the cost of competing in the World Championship is unsustainable.

In the FIA’s view, the global economic downturn has only exacerbated an already critical situation.

As the guardians of the sport, the FIA is committed to working with the commercial rights holder and the remaining members of FOTA to ensure that Formula One becomes financially sustainable.

The FIA President has today sent the attached letter to all of the Formula One teams:

Further to my letter of 18 November, we have completed the tendering process and are now in exclusive negotiations with Cosworth together with Xtrac and Ricardo Transmissions to supply a complete Formula One power train starting in 2010.

The engine will be a current Formula One engine while the transmission will be state of the art Formula One and a joint effort by two companies which already supply transmissions to most of the grid.

The cost to each team taking up this option will be an up front payment of €1.97 million Euros and then €6.42 million Euros per season for each of the three years of the supply contract.

Source: F1-live.com

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Things seem to be fixed with the JDM Insider site for now. Moving on: A lot of people ask me, “What book should I read to learn about this or that?” One book I highly recommend is Carroll Smith’s Engineer To Win. The book teaches the basic principles of building race cars, but it applies to just about anything mechanical. Mr. Smith writes it in a way that makes it fun and interesting to read. I bought this book about 10 years ago, but I pick it up once in a while for a quick read here and there. It’s like a refresher course. Whether you are putting a turbo on your car, assembling a suspension, or fabricating something, Engineer To Win covers the topic. For even further reading, Mr. Smith wrote an entire series: Tune To Win which covers suspension and chassis tuning in detail and Drive To Win (figure this one out yourself).

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There’s a virus floating around on the JDM Insider server! Sorry guys. If you don’t have your virus software up to date, don’t be a cheap ass and go buy a newer one. Norton 2004 isn’t doing you any good. This should get resolved very soon (I hope).

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