RE: Melling to launch £100,000 supercar
Discussion
so who's making it up?fourwheelsteer said:
I'd like to know how an engine machined from solid can incorporate all the internal passageways for coolant, oil and the inlet and exhaust ports? It sounds terribly labour intensive and fraught with difficulties.
Some gas turbine (aero) engine blades are cast as solid and have passages put through them by spark erosion: no mean feat considering the blades taper and are twisted along their length...
As for labour intensive: ever heard of CNC? Design the part on a CAD system, feed the info to a CNC tool, insert a lump of alloy and watch the action.
If you think this is 'fraught with difficulties', do you believe man walked on the moon?
RichardD said:Which was, I believe, to be the new Norton, until a legal wrangle ended up with Melling having the rights to the whole project rather than just supplying the development.
I thought this chap was designing a 1.5 litre V8 sports car. ...
I seem to remember an article in Autocar full of pretty renderings, planning to put the engine in everything from a supercar to a luxury saloon...
jagman said:
The Autocar article on the Hellcat also contains the following:
"The firm will also offer a similar V8 as a retrofit engine for recent six-cylinder TVRs".
Anyone have any info on that?
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?p=1&f=6&t=267840&h=0
wedg1e said:
I'd like to know how an engine machined from solid can incorporate all the internal passageways for coolant, oil and the inlet and exhaust ports? It sounds terribly labour intensive and fraught with difficulties.
Some gas turbine (aero) engine blades are cast as solid and have passages put through them by spark erosion: no mean feat considering the blades taper and are twisted along their length...
As for labour intensive: ever heard of CNC? Design the part on a CAD system, feed the info to a CNC tool, insert a lump of alloy and watch the action.
If you think this is 'fraught with difficulties', do you believe man walked on the moon?
The internal cooling passages are cast in by means of a ceramic core which is then leached out after the metal has been cast. The film cooling holes are then drilled by EDMing from the outside into the cooling passages. These holes are by and large straight, though potentially you could cut constant radius curved passages with EDM.
Some of the very early cooled blades were forged solid and then EDM'd down their length, however this was a fairly poor way of doing things and didn't last past the 1960's. The passageways that were created were limited to constant radius curves.
RR-eng said:
I'd like to know how an engine machined from solid can incorporate all the internal passageways for coolant, oil and the inlet and exhaust ports? It sounds terribly labour intensive and fraught with difficulties.
Some gas turbine (aero) engine blades are cast as solid and have passages put through them by spark erosion: no mean feat considering the blades taper and are twisted along their length...
As for labour intensive: ever heard of CNC? Design the part on a CAD system, feed the info to a CNC tool, insert a lump of alloy and watch the action.
If you think this is 'fraught with difficulties', do you believe man walked on the moon?
The internal cooling passages are cast in by means of a ceramic core which is then leached out after the metal has been cast. The film cooling holes are then drilled by EDMing from the outside into the cooling passages. These holes are by and large straight, though potentially you could cut constant radius curved passages with EDM.
Some of the very early cooled blades were forged solid and then EDM'd down their length, however this was a fairly poor way of doing things and didn't last past the 1960's. The passageways that were created were limited to constant radius curves.
Aye, precision casting with wax and ceramic cores is carried out by at least one of my company's clients. However I'm sure I was told that the very fine passages are (still) spark-eroded, though it could have been a reference to older designs I guess. I think what they do is attack the part from both ends and the passages intersect somewhere in the middle...
Incidentally, if you work at a certain plant in Derby, it's me that keeps your x-ray system from death's door
jamieheasman said:
I believe Al Melling has made an announcement like this in the past via Autocar. He was planning a 1.5 V8 lightweight sportcar (like a coupe version of the Elise) and V12 Supercar (I think) and a luxurious saloon. This must have been eight to ten years ago and nothing came of it.
The engine for the Norton bike was up and running as they had video of it on their website being dyno'd and in a prototype chassis. Given the popularity of bike-derived small capacity V8s of late, it would seem the perfect time to re-introduce it.
The AJP8 is a truly magnificent engine (and yes, it's based on a modular design so could easily be adapted to V6, V10 and V12 configurations) and I suspect if Mr Melling had been the one to continue the development of the Speed 6 engine (note the different naming convention) instead of Mr Ravenscroft it would have turned out a lot more reliable. Remember most of the teething problems they had with the original AJP8s was associated with making it a wet-sump engine with tons of ancilleries bolted to it - none of which were in the original design! Al Melling has a huge reputation in the industry with major motor manufacturers.
I for one am hoping that this time he delivers!
Sorry, you're living in dreamland if you think anybody in the industry 'rates' him. The reputation is for fragile, unreliable junk.
In their case: EGO > TALENT > ABILITY
RR-eng said:
I'd like to know how an engine machined from solid can incorporate all the internal passageways for coolant, oil and the inlet and exhaust ports? It sounds terribly labour intensive and fraught with difficulties.
Some gas turbine (aero) engine blades are cast as solid and have passages put through them by spark erosion: no mean feat considering the blades taper and are twisted along their length...
As for labour intensive: ever heard of CNC? Design the part on a CAD system, feed the info to a CNC tool, insert a lump of alloy and watch the action.
If you think this is 'fraught with difficulties', do you believe man walked on the moon?
The internal cooling passages are cast in by means of a ceramic core which is then leached out after the metal has been cast. The film cooling holes are then drilled by EDMing from the outside into the cooling passages. These holes are by and large straight, though potentially you could cut constant radius curved passages with EDM.
Some of the very early cooled blades were forged solid and then EDM'd down their length, however this was a fairly poor way of doing things and didn't last past the 1960's. The passageways that were created were limited to constant radius curves.
It's also pretty cool that the turbine blades are grown from single crystals. I'd heard about this process in during my degree but it was only during a conversation with the capt. on a flight did I realise we actually use them.
jamieheasman said:
The AJP8 is a truly magnificent engine (and yes, it's based on a modular design so could easily be adapted to V6, V10 and V12 configurations) and I suspect if Mr Melling had been the one to continue the development of the Speed 6 engine (note the different naming convention) instead of Mr Ravenscroft it would have turned out a lot more reliable.
Sorry - wrong way round. It was JR that got the engine to work in the first place. Lots of stuff behind the scences happened that I am unable to divulge but trust me on this one.
Claire
PetrolTed said:
Always amusing watching the JR/AM debate. Both sides are always adamant that the other was at fault (and with plenty of evidence to 'demonstrate' why) and that the genius AM/JR (delete as applicable) resolved it.
Not sure us outsiders will ever know the truth.
Ahh but I am an insider - I have seen the truth
Claire
RichardD on another thread said:!!!!!!!!???????!!!!!!!
He’s also signed a deal with Detroit based Rouche – part of the Ford company – which will build 100 cars a month. 
Is that a typo - "Roush" not Rouche ...
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