The Best Tunnels To Let Your Engine Sing

Revving your engine on public roads can be very annoying for the people around. Except if you happen to be driving a Pagani Zonda 760RS. In that case, please go ahead and floor it as hard as you can! But for the rest of us, it's best to keep going quietly until we find a tunnel. Then...

Tunnels are the greatest artificial amplifiers after Marshall tube amps, and since it's very costly and time consuming to build them, you can look at the loud engine noise as a glorious anthem celebrating the architectural achievement. So after you successfully legitimized a bit of hooning in your mind, tell us which are the best tunnels out there for raising fuel consumption!

Photo credit: Getty Images/Vladimir Rys/Stringer

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Here We Have The 1140-hp Koenigsegg Engine

Having used the Ford Modular V8 as a launch pad, Koenigsegg reengineered this berserker mill for the Agera R hypercar from the ground up at its headquarters in Ängelholm, Sweden. Its goal? Specifically to get as many horses galloping as possible.

On this episode of Inside Koenigsegg, Christian Von Koenigsegg gives us a walk-around tour of the five-liter, 1140-horsepower V8 that provides the Agera R with its cornea-popping performance. It's the "heart of a hypercar" if you will.

Weighing around 436 pounds, the V8 is bolted right onto the Agera R's carbon-fiber monocoque to act as a stressed member, like engines often do on purpose-built racecars. 

Interesting to note, cars headed to Brazil are factory-tuned to run on straight ethanol (E100), which is heavily used in that sugar cane-rich nation, where nearly all new cars sold are flex-fuel capable.

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This Rolls Royce With A Viper Engine Is My New Dream Car

Oh look, a Michigan man had a 500 horsepower Viper V10 installed in a 1930 Rolls-Royce. I think I just found my new dream car.

You see, I love classic cars from before WWII, but I don’t want to put up with their ancient, slow, unreliable engines. Swapping in just about any modern drivetrain would likely solve that problem, which is what makes this resto-mod great. It goes over the top in the most wonderful, American tradition.

A West Michigan shop recently revealed that they have wired a 2004 Dodge Viper powertrain into a two-door 1930 Rolls-Royce, fitted with some custom chassis work as well. Their post on Viper Club’s forum explains the build.

The car is a full restoration with many custom pieces built on a tube frame chassis, and uses a 2004 Viper powertrain. This car was built to be a driver, and all of the problematic original parts have been redesigned or replaced. More or less, it is an original body and design mixed with a new-tech chassis and drivetrain. This car even has heat, A/C, and all of the bells and whistles that go along with professional motorsports electronics.

As Jeff Glucker of Hooniverse noted, I don’t mind that this thing isn’t being set up as a powerslide-prepped doriftomoble or as a rally car. I’m stunned as it is just to see a frankly gorgeous classic car brought up to and past the standards of modern performance. Plus, even set up as a highway cruiser, I have no doubt the 8.3 liters of engine can incinerate those vintage-sized tires with ease.

I can’t wait for its unveiling at the Detroit Autorama in March. For now, join me as I glean every piece of information I can out of its Viper Club forum thread and drool over all the extra pictures there.

Photo Credit: Viper Specialty via Viper Club forums

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Megasquirted RZ350 engine...

Travis sends in these pics of an RZ350 engine "work in progress" being converted to fuel injection.

Travis writes:

I found these pictures this morning on the perthstreetbikes.com forum. All I know about them is what was in the description on the thread. The builder is a guy named Frostie from Lund Sweden. He says the injector bodies are two out of three from a Triumph 955 with an inside diameter of 43mm. He's planning on using a MicroSquirt injection controller box from MegaSquirt because it includes a programmable ignition system as well. He did the fab work and built the cross over boost tube with angled riser blocks to help direct intake flow to the bottom end.

All I have to say is I really need one of these setups! Its a shame that Yamaha didn't come up with something like this back in 1985, we might have still had factory built road going two-stroke replica racers well into the 90's here in the USA.

Later Travis

I hear ya Travis!   Oh what might have been!

 

  

 

"Scrappage scheme" nonsense strikes again

In the style of scaremongering papers like the Daily Fail, weekly car magazine Auto Express has revealed the latest "blow" to the scrappage scheme. According to the magazine, they have discovered that...

"Vehicle recylers have been selling powerplants from models ditched under the Scrappage Scheme via salvage outlets - effectively putting the polluting units back on the road"

Unfortunately, the writer has somehow managed to miss the blindingly obvious point that engines with no car around them aren't going to do much damage to the evironment at all. In fact, a salvaged engine will do no more damage to the environment sitting on a shelf than a salvage gearknob will. Even if or when the unit is eventually fitted into a car, it will likely be replacing a unit that was in an even poorer state of health and that unit will then be scrapped. Net increase of engines actually on the road: Naught.

Friends of the Earth have also inevitably stuck their nose into another matter they don't understand:

"The initiative should encourage drivers to replace older models with cleaner cars. This is keeping polluting vehicles on the road" (FotE's Richard Dyer)

Even aside from the fact that these salvaged engines will likely be used to replace engines in worse condition, Mr Dyer clearly believes that the production of a whole new car, rather than gaining further use from an existing one, is better for the environment too, and he also appears to be making the mistake of assuming that it's easier to afford a whole new car than it is to replace a few defective engine parts.

Tarmac admittedly isn't a great fan of the scrappage scheme, though we will admit that there are benefits in terms of keeping the industry afloat and keeping people's jobs, but it's clear that a well rounded view on the scheme is clearly beyond the reach of magazines looking for a quick controversy.

(Image: Auto Express)

Update: 1968 Suzuki 50cc Grand Prix Roadracer, the RP68, a 3-cylinder 50cc engine pics.

Update: From the comments. Thanks! COOL LINK and HERE TOO

In response to my small CC Suzuki racebike post Bill Thomas sent in some info and a link about this amazing little Suzuki engine.
Bill Writes:
There was a 50cc Suzuki several years ago, a three-cylinder two-stroke (naturally) with 14 speeds and 22 hp at a zillion rpm, or something like that. Nothing the Europeans had was anything close. Not sure that it ever competed. This changed the rules, gearboxes were limited to four or five speeds, and only single-cylinders were allowed. Yes, Cycle World had a story on it, and photos of the engine internals – three little tiny pistons hanging out of the cases.

Thanks Much for the cool info!

He included a link that had these amazing photos and info:

This is a 1968 Suzuki 50cc Grand Prix Roadracer, the RP68, a 3-cylinder 50cc bike. They changed the rules, restricting the 50cc class to 1 cylinder, before it could race. (There were 5 cyl 125's and the like as well before the rule change.)

Bimota V Due Engine