Oddball engines and prototypes

[husaberg]

Drawing of Hondas Half an oval piston 500 they designed for Freddie spencer.
Only Honda never asked if the FIM had intended to make them legal with the 1/2 NA formula.

[guyhockley]

http://www.oldengine.org/members/die...sc/ricardo.htm
Harry Ricardo

http://www.oldengine.org/members/die...c/ricardo2.jpghttp://www.oldengine.org/members/die...c/ricardo5.jpghttp://www.oldengine.org/members/die...c/ricardo7.jpg

There are still lots of boats kicking around the south coast with Dolphin 2 Stroke Marine Engines but they are parallel twins developed from a motorbike engine and no connection with Ricardo's...

[guyhockley]

Drawing of Hondas Half an oval piston 500 they designed for Freddie spencer.
Only Honda never asked if the FIM had intended to make them legal with the 1/2 NA formula.

Scanned this from an old Performance Bikes mag but I never saw the earlier article they refer to and never seen any other reference to it...

Also got this from somewhere. Labelled "250 twin, 2 compound turbos = 230pk" May be the Honda?

[husaberg]

There are still lots of boats kicking around the south coast with Dolphin 2 Stroke Marine Engines but they are parallel twins developed from a motorbike engine and no connection with Ricardo's...

That's how I came about the article I was looking for a pic of the RCA engine.

[WilDun]

Scanned this from an old Performance Bikes mag but I never saw the earlier article they refer to and never seen any other reference to it...

Also got this from somewhere. Labelled "250 twin, 2 compound turbos = 230pk" May be the Honda?

I do remember an article about the main ring manufacturer in Britain being asked to make special "oval" rings for this machine I guess - They made them to the specs provided without batting an eyelid, no questions asked!
Just can't remember the name of the ring manufacturer! - who was that? - could it have been Hepworth & Grandage (Hepolite)? or Wellworthy?

[husaberg]

I do remember an article about the main ring manufacturer in Britain being asked to make special "oval" rings for this machine I guess - They made them to the specs provided without batting an eyelid, no questions asked!
Just can't remember the name of the ring manufacturer! - who was that? - could it have been Hepworth & Grandage (Hepolite)? or Wellworthy?

Unrelated but funny enough Soichiro Honda started off his Honda business making piston rings for Toyota.

[WilDun]

Like I said earlier on this thread (or was it the Foundry thread?) although racing is mostly good for the development of engines, sometimes racing rules hold up development up as well! and this has definitely happened with the 250cc twin.
Now the car manufacturers have caught on - strangely enough Suzuki are now using smaller engines with turbos and Honda hasn't followed suit!
Also Mazda is going even further with HCCI (and turbocharging). Racing rules are only for racing, but road vehicles benefit from racing and aren't held back when it comes to great innovations which would benefit both.
As in the case of that Honda twin.

[guyhockley]

That's how I came about the article I was looking for a pic of the RCA engine.

I got curious, turns out Dolphins are still made (yeah, yeah by mummy and daddy dolphins...)
This page has some of their bike origin stuff on it. I do remember the side exhausts, I think.

http://www.dolphinengines.co.uk/history.php

[Pursang]

A newish trend in commercial Diesel engine design is to operate at significantly lower RPM.

Power output is maintained by torque increase through high compression by compound turbocharging.

Benefits include: Mechanical efficiency through less friction and significantly reduced waste heat.
Combustion is more controlled and complete. Less noise and mechanical wear.

The Opposite of Racing Tech.

Cheers, Daryl.

[guyhockley]

Like I said earlier on this thread (or was it the Foundry thread?) although racing is mostly good for the development of engines, sometimes racing rules hold up development up as well! and this has definitely happened with the 250cc twin.
Now the car manufacturers have caught on - strangely enough Suzuki are now using smaller engines with turbos and Honda hasn't followed suit!
Also Mazda is going even further with HCCI (and turbocharging). Racing rules are only for racing, but road vehicles benefit from racing and aren't held back when it comes to great innovations which would benefit both.
As in the case of that Honda twin.

http://www.enginelabs.com/news/calif...turbochargers/

From the 1st April...

[guyhockley]

BBC just reported that one of the TT Zero electric bikes caught fire in the pits and it spread to an adjoining caravan.

[WilDun]

From the 1st April...

So that leaves Mazda up shit creek without a paddle! - Wonder if it was brought in intentionally to give GM etc a chance? Lets ban April 1 instead.

BBC just reported that one of the TT Zero electric bikes caught fire in the pits and it spread to an adjoining caravan.

Terrorism - that's what it is! - all the hallmarks of the anti electric brigade!

[Pursang]

I got curious, turns out Dolphins are still made (yeah, yeah by mummy and daddy dolphins...)

Solid & clever design. Horizontal split cases solve lots of problems.
Looks like all 4 parts of the crankshaft could be machined from the one forging, too.

Pity the major British bike manufacturers stuck with their mostly 1930's designs.
With some some support and development (a couple more transfers and a unit gearbox, then the water cooling) this could have been a real winner.

Of course, my Old Mate Don would say that's because Britain wore out most of their equipment, skills and money during the war. Germany & Japan got 'sponsored' to rebuild their industries with the best new machinery & technology. Lose the War and won the Battle.

Cheers, Daryl.

[WilDun]

Pity the major British bike manufacturers stuck with their mostly 1930's designs............
......... that's because Britain wore out most of their equipment, skills and money during the war. Germany & Japan got 'sponsored' to rebuild their industries with the best new machinery & technology. Lose the War and won the Battle. Cheers, Daryl.

Exactly! ........ on top of having to fend for themselves with left over equipment , they had to hand over all their best (and leading edge) technology to the US to pay off the equipment they acquired from them during WW2.

Can't complain though, they needed the help and got it and a lot of young Americans lost their lives in the Pacific war with Japan, also in Europe - The Russians also had to pay, big time!
Japan and Germany got help with their industry and recovered - if they hadn't been able to recover, think of the mess the world would have been in! - but Japan and Germany (so it would appear) needed help first.

Nobody ever wins wars and most of us lost relatives and friends!

Sorry there I go again

[guyhockley]

Hey, Will, so Suzuki 250s are better than Ariel Arrows, are they?
Read it and weep!