First start up ,Arrows A9 BMW Megatron F1 Turbo, Geoff Page

[busa turbo]

Hi just a quick link to some pic's and a short vid of Arrows A9 BMW Megatron F1 turbo!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abFsKeNKMMc

[Great Dane]

Fantastic clip. That car (perhaps not that very chassis)was driven by one of my favourite drivers Marc Surer and I saw him race it at Spa which turned out to be his last F1 race (he had a terrible crash in a Ford RS 200 rally car shortly after)

Michael

Edited by Great Dane on Sunday 26th December 10:56

Edited by Great Dane on Sunday 26th December 10:56

[Richard-G]

thanks for posting that! Thats my favorite engine of all time, just think, to get that power today, reliably you need an 8 litre, w16 with 4 turbos and 11 radiators! We should have carried on that era, im sure our engines would be different today if we had

[busa turbo]

few more pic's

[rubystone]

Was Senna's Toleman in the unit at the time you visited? I love the rudimentary nature of that car - exhaust exits straight off the back of the single huge turbo - no attempt at tuning manifold lengths and zero silencing. Superb! If you have some pix of that engine installation, would be fun to see them.

[busa turbo]

rubystone said:

Was Senna's Toleman in the unit at the time you visited? I love the rudimentary nature of that car - exhaust exits straight off the back of the single huge turbo - no attempt at tuning manifold lengths and zero silencing. Superb! If you have some pix of that engine installation, would be fun to see them.

Hi here is a pic of the senna car and video of it on the roller's

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=maicy123#p/u/4...

[Conian]

Thanks for sharing, I love that BMW called their engine Megatron

[n3il123]

Conian said:

Thanks for sharing, I love that BMW called their engine Megatron

Megatron was actually a seperate company that took over the BMW turbo when BMW pulled out.

From Wiki said:

As BMW announced to pull out officially at the end of 1986, the Arrows team brokered a deal with support from its primary sponsor, USF&G, to continue the use of the upright BMW engines under the name of its subsidiary Megatron, Inc., founded by long-time F1 aficionado John J. Schmidt, who coined the phrase "Horse racing may have been the sport of kings, but auto racing is the sport of corporations". The engines were serviced by Heini Mader from Switzerland, the former mechanic of Jo Siffert.

Rebadged as Megatron, the BMW engines were used by the Arrows team for the 1987 and 1988 seasons, as well as Ligier for 1987 only.

The Megatron programme ended as a result of a change of Formula 1 engine rules which banned turbocharged motors at the end of 1988. The Arrows team reverted to using 3500 cc Ford-Cosworth V8 normally aspirated powerplants for the 1989 season.

I loved that turbo era though

[SamHH]

Richard-G said:

thanks for posting that! Thats my favorite engine of all time, just think, to get that power today, reliably you need an 8 litre, w16 with 4 turbos and 11 radiators! We should have carried on that era, im sure our engines would be different today if we had

If you're talking about the Veyron engine, I don't see how there can be any comparison. One engine is for top-level motorsport, the other for a road car.

[Mattt]

I wouldn't exactly call a F1 Engine reliable, not compared to a road car engine.

[williamp]

Mattt said:

I wouldn't exactly call a F1 Engine reliable, not compared to a road car engine.

Oh I dont know. Sometimes in qualifying they lasted a whole lap before going pop- that could be as much as 3 miles!!!

[John D.]

That is one angry sounding 1500cc motor. Love it.

[Mattt]

OP are GPR 'open' to visitors? They're only a few minutes away, and have always fancied a look.

[Lotus98T]

What a sound, but i prefer the v6 Renault lump in the 98T

[busa turbo]

Lotus98T said:

What a sound, but i prefer the v6 Renault lump in the 98T

not in a Lotus but will be running soon!!

[Richard-G]

SamHH said:

Richard-G said:

thanks for posting that! Thats my favorite engine of all time, just think, to get that power today, reliably you need an 8 litre, w16 with 4 turbos and 11 radiators! We should have carried on that era, im sure our engines would be different today if we had

If you're talking about the Veyron engine, I don't see how there can be any comparison. One engine is for top-level motorsport, the other for a road car.

well i would hardly call the veyron a beacon of reliability and longevity with some of the reports surfacing about the maintenance intensive nature of its power unit. No pedants! You know what I meant, 1.5's producing a race reliable 800bhp using mid 80's tech, using modern materials and design I’m pretty certain the designs could be refined to the point we wouldn’t be batting an eye lid at a 1.2 in an f1 producing a race trim 750bhp. Quite why we are going to 1.6L I’m not sure.

some of this tech would've certainly waterfalled down to road cars, you only have to look at what happened in group b to see what steps were being made (superchargeing + turbocharging) it took VAG 20 years to refine a production system, again to limited sucsess and again with the current trend of manufacturers who were staunchly against turbo charging road cars of late (BMW and McLaren to name but two) heading to low capacity turbo charging, you cant help but feel that this f1 era should have carried on with limitations much longer

[skeggysteve]

williamp said:

...Sometimes in qualifying they lasted a whole lap before going pop- that could be as much as 3 miles!!!

That will be the famous Monza 'grenade' - good for an out lap, one quick lap and back to the pits.

It was then basically scrap but to be fair it did what it was designed to do.

4 cylinder, 1500cc engine, turbo charged, wastegate blanked, producing between 1300 & 1500 bhp. I don't think anyone knew/knows the true bhp figures - would you want to be in the dyno bay when they tested it!

The most impressive F1 turbo engine of the era, in my mind, was Brian Harts monoblock one.
Might not have been the best but to design, develop and build a complete engine on the same budget as TAG spent on the electronics is very impressive.

[busa turbo]

here is one of the Hart monoblock!

Edited by busa turbo on Tuesday 28th December 17:15

[Stack]

Great Dane said:

Fantastic clip. That car (perhaps not that very chassis)was driven by one of my favourite drivers Marc Surer and I saw him race it at Spa which turned out to be his last F1 race (he had a terrible crash in a Ford RS 200 rally car shortly after)

Michael

Edited by Great Dane on Sunday 26th December 10:56

Edited by Great Dane on Sunday 26th December 10:56

Blimey the A9 is a rare sight ..it only raced twice in 86 by Boutsen, the rest of the time they used the old A8 from 1985, because it was quicker ....

I was a bit of a Brabham fan & I remember being gutted when Surer lost a certain 2nd place at Brands Hatch in 85..

[Stack]

On delving a bit further , I remebered this car was an Arrows A9 BMW (hence the BMW logos on the car) & not a Megatron who's badging did not appear until 87. So clearly the engine now in the car in not from 86 ?

Edited by Stack on Tuesday 28th December 21:35