For the British Touring Car Champs of the mid 90s', Vauxhall used to turn the heads on the XE engine round the other way and leaned the motor backward, induction to the front and exhaust to the rear.I also believe Toyota used to do it on the Carina too.My guess is that it moved the block weight rearward, straight flow exhaust to the rear and clean breathing injection in the front.Anyone know anymore about it!There isn't much literature around on it.
phillip.weston,
Feb 7, 4:19pm
They also ran dry sump and the motors were positioned much lower in the engine bay.
sudsy99,
Feb 7, 4:30pm
Lower but not much lower, you can only go the same distance down as it is high or you widen the wheel track.Also I understand the halfshafts don't like running upward on too much of an angle.
phillip.weston,
Feb 7, 4:37pm
the output level of the diff on the xtrac gearbox would be quite high. On the V6 Mondeo BTCC car the driveshaft went through the valley of the engine block between the heads.
vag.central,
Feb 7, 4:40pm
It probably would have been to have the intake at the front,
sudsy99,
Feb 7, 4:41pm
I'm trying to imagine how thats possible.
sudsy99,
Feb 7, 4:42pm
Well that was my thoughts, that and straight exhaust to the rear.
carkitter,
Feb 7, 5:00pm
I know that the Honda BTCC team did the same thing too. Power at that time was in the 295+hp range.
carkitter,
Feb 7, 5:14pm
I though that the Mondeo in the nineties used a four cylinder engine - I could be wrong. Paul Radisich's Ford Telstar NZ Touring car used a Japimport 2.0L V6 engine.
phillip.weston,
Feb 7, 5:18pm
basically they moved the engine back and low down for better weight distribution, however there would have been minimal room for a decent inlet manifold with the cylinder head not far from the firewall, so the engine/head was spun around to have the intake on the front up relatively high and the exhaust exiting from the head quite low.
The Vectra A BTCC car of the early 90s had the intake at the rear next to the firewall and the exhaust manifold at the front and doing a big loop down then up again and over the gearbox and back down along the car.
wasnt it that they spun the entire engine around so it was leaning inwards & behind the axel line !
phillip.weston,
Feb 7, 5:32pm
More or less, you can only really see the forward bank in the engine bay - but the engine is still quite low in the engine bay and far back to enable the driveshaft to pass through. I read somewhere it's actually a Mazda V6, originally the 2.5 de-stroked to 2.0.
carkitter,
Feb 7, 5:35pm
I realise that I was comparing two different cars. I can't get any sound on that video and it's a 2000 model Mondeo not a mid-nineties like in this discussion. I think the Mondeo that Radisich won his two World Touring Car Championship titles in was 4cyl.
phillip.weston,
Feb 7, 5:39pm
yeah I think the V6 was only shortlived in the mid 90s BTCC models.
wrong2,
Feb 7, 5:40pm
they had a 300 hp cap anyways & the 4's were achieving it
I'm pretty sure Vauxhall only turned round the head in the Vectra
carkitter,
Feb 7, 5:46pm
Nope. Google says the 1993 Mondeo race car had a 2.5L Ford Probe engine with the stroke reduced to give it a 2L capacity.
sudsy99,
Feb 7, 5:52pm
I'm still struggling with this, please explain why 2 halfshafts from the gearbox below the engine can or would need to pass through, as you say 'the valley' of the v6!
socram,
Feb 7, 6:30pm
So all just like you could buy in the showrooms on a Monday morning then.
phillip.weston,
Feb 7, 6:32pm
the gearbox isn't below the engine, it's on the side of the engine, and the diff is positioned on the top of the gearbox, with the right hand side passing through where the base of the V is. At least that's what I understood from a few snippets I read.
smac,
Feb 9, 6:08am
Yup. The obscene money the BTCC costs to be competitive is one of the reasons why DTM has stayed separate (and better to watch IMHO).
vag.central,
Feb 9, 6:56pm
Yes but they were not that reliable, in the italian superturismo season the alfa romeo team broke 15 engines
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