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0:37 ''these are very special little things'' I accept they are special, but one can get more hp from a rotary in a smaller package. Than again I have rotary engine (RE) bias.....braaaaaap. :)
And doing so whilst keeping within current emissions limits. Pretty significant achievement in an NA engine capable of 1000hp (or 640-ish for Gordon Murray's).
When aprilia was racing 250cc two strokes they were hitting 90 hp on the race track In the hands of valentino Rossi. Regarding vibration, wouldnt a balancing shaft do the job, like whats fitted In many motorcycle engines.
@@derf9465most modern race replica bikes (CBR, gsx, exc.) Have balance shafts, when you have any kind of unbalance at 15k it needs to be cancelled out or you would shake the bike to bits. I don't know if any singles have balance shafts, I think most of them do some crank shaft magic to cancel out any vibration
It van run at least 250 km then you need to dusassembly and check all. Andrea pneumatic valves starting loosing air pressure, pistoni start to open in half and con rod are near to broken. This was f1 in v10 era.
In fairness they are in the main but have had some pretty dismal forrays into some road car projects as they we're unable to develop software to work with hardware they produced. Other companies picked the failures up and made them excellent.
Back during WW2, Rolls-Royce and Ricardo developed the Merlin and Griffon engines using V twin and single cylinder test mules. Merlins were known to throw con rods at high revs. But the test mules never did. It was eventually realised the test V-twins used the full size oil pump - no worries. The pump was too small to feed the V12. Bigger oil pump and no more thrown con rods.
Not forgetting Ricardo’s single and V twin Sleeve valve 2 strokes used during RR Crecy development, giving incredible bhp/litre figures for the day and equally high HP/Lb weight figures
Well, when you've got 6 cylinder naturally aspirated cars making what old v8s made and v8s with turbos making far above what a 12 can, what's the point? They are a waste now, as beautiful as they sound and as smooth as they run, they are obsolete in a sense.
You are wrong and I will explain why. You can get high power numbers out of a small engine, but if you have a lower rpm, higher torque application, this necessitates a gearbox that adds weight. At a certain point, your small high rpm motor needs a gearbox so heavy that the specific power output of a multicylinder engine is better, since the multicylinder does not need a gearbox.
Hello mate, I'm Pete (diesel mechanic & enthusiast) just watching your vid and thought I'd add that while working for Scania Truck & Bus I had the opportunity to visit Scania's R&D department in Sodertalje, Sweden and was exposed the concept of creating 1 cylinder "mule" engines as part of the Proof of Concept phase of developing new engines &/or fuel systems. Before then I had no idea of that part of the process!! Nice work on your vids! Cheers, Pete (Melb, Australia)
I actually don't think so. In Karting we have 125 and 175cc 2-stroke engines with up to 50HP. Most classes usually have around 30HP but that's not a problem when the engines weights less than 15Kg. I think modern Kart engines don't rev more than 16.000rpm. BUT, in a straight line, maybe it would be fast.
@@Gean...de...Oliveira Nah. Regular go-cart engines run under 4000 rpm. Running at 20,000 rpm would require five times the gear teeth on the input gear...hence it would be significantly bigger.
Low pressure electric turbo, and a thinker metal head gasket, and you have 60bhp no problem, I did it on a XR650, and it was much quicker than my R6 up to 70mph ish. :)
@@billbergen9169might as well stay aspirated, turbos hit upwards of 130k rpm to get the boost they offer, a leaf blower wouldn't hit half that, might work but people aren't doing it already so it's probably not going to work
That single cylinder engine is pretty cool! I used to run junior dragsters and when you first start out you get a single cylinder engine. It’s a Craws Racing 3 1/2”. I’ve done 280 passes on the engine. It’s roughly 70 HP. Seeing 90 out of a single cylinder isn’t very hard. What’s hard is making it last at that amount- and making it economically viable.
Before i put my life and trust into the soda csn lf mirage, i would rather drive an actual soda can, bicycle or a box of 20 beers with an engine. No way i step in suxh a small car. That engine makes the car spin around it 😂😂
Its an amazing thing, but as the Cosworth guy said, it would be pretty hopeless as a road car engine. Nothing that revs to 20,000 RPM is going to any useful work at less than 10,000 and will probably need 15,000 before it properly wakes up. Which is fine in a race, but a complete pain in the backside on the commute or going down the shops. In a road car it would be lumpy, gutless, and generally horrible.
Honda CBR250RR revs to 20,000, and that's a production street bike from the late 80s. Probably would not enjoy trying to push even a small car like Oliver around, but there *have* been successful conversions to put motorcycle engines in cars, so perhaps Oliver's dreams of revving higher than an F1 car could someday be reality... :D
interesting they never mention the inherent imbalance of the 3 and single cylinders. presumably the triple would need a balance shaft where as the V12 ultimately would not
I was wondering about that as well. Maybe they don't worry about the imbalance on the test mules... Go see if Driving 4 Answers will do a video for us!
Depends if you're talking about primary or secondary balance. There is a lot more involved when you start spinning things at that kind of rpm so they have 100% sorted it out one way or another.
My little C1/Aygo/107 1.0l engine revs to 6K and has no balance shaft. In some ways four cylinder inline engines have just as great vibration problems and quite a few have had to use balance shafts.
If its designed as 120degrees pr piston balancing wouldnt be an issue i suppose. The 1 cylinder would most definately need a balance shaft, maybe thats why the engine is so big for such a small cylinder.
I put one of these on my lawnmower, what a life saver. Now I can cut all the yards in my whole neighborhood faster than I used to do my own. Same goes for my snowblower in the off season. Great little workhorse!
The Honda 250 cc six cylinder bike that Mike Hailwood rode to a world championship would rev to 26,000 rpm on the bench. I raced 50 cc motorcycles that revved to 16,000 rpm and had no power below 14,000. Even with a nine speed gearbox the clutch took some stick starting and at tight corners like the Mallory Park hairpin. Great noise though!
@@waynepantry7023 I had one of those many years ago... it was fun when I was young but it did get tiresome very quickly... just sitting in highway traffic in 6th gear and its still doing 9000rpm+, great for low speed high rpm flybys and tunnels and surprisingly reliable considering how high it revved.
@@philipgrice1026 Yes! Shame the FIM limited cylinders and gears from 1968 (some say it was to allow European manufactures to remain competitive).. .Suzuki had a 3 cylinder 50cc with 14 gears RP68 ready but were not allowed to race it... very much like Hailwoods Honda 6 250, it would have been useless on the street... ultra narrow powerband with gear changes needed constantly to keep it in the power... still wonderful engineering.
I can't help but remember the Cosworth V-6 Vega engine which was then turned into a 3 cylinder 850cc motorcycle engine for the German Police.. An incredible piece of engineering.
Now, THIS IS THE STUFF!! I don't care anymore about seeing 8-liter engines with 1,000+ hp in a production car. Big deal. I want to see 3 or 4-cylinder, 1 to 1.5-liter engines that produce 200 - 300+ hp, "normally aspirated" engines in production cars. THAT would be impressive!
Please have Mr. Bruce more on your channel, he is such a brilliant guy. We would love to hear more about the Cosworth history, and it would be nice if you could get even more tehnical and in depth. Great episode!
😂😂👍Absolutely loved the end when you were wheeling out that little beast. That really made my day, thank you. If you weren’t kidding, yes please make that happen! Really need to see that thing in a car.
Was it just me that was thinking someone would come rushing out shouting stop he is stealing our engine? Needs a couple of turbo's if fitting it to Oliver.
My NC35 400cc V4 back in the 90's used to spin up to 14,000 RPM and met road emmisions with a normal carb system, that could easily be retro fitted onto an injector system to meet current regs
@@FFVoyager All of the Japanese bike manufacturers had 250cc four cylinders in the late 80's into the 90's that were scratching 20K as well Not race bikes mind you, cheap street bikes meant for new riders. They're still a fairly common sight as a first bike here in Australia.
Well Yamaha did it with a warrior 350 in the 80s or 90s. 75 horsepower from a .35 single cylinder. We have one that’s old and pretty much broken down. It still runs and my lord does it have some umph to it.
I'm amazed that a single cylinder engine that revs to 20,000 can even stay intact without falling apart. The vibrations must be a horrendous thing to experience.
My compliments to both of you! Interesting subjects, clear and engaging presentation, and all that free on youtube! I wish normal TV programs would come close to this level op quality. Unfortunately that is very hard to find. Also thanks to Mr Wood for sharing his knowledge!
Why when we already got it here? Why do people still desire to pay for something they aren’t happy with and you just said it yourself, you wish normal tv programs were like this, it’d not hard to find buddy it’s called RUclips!
For all the talk of putting one of those 3 cylinders in a hot hatch or something, I want to see a couple of them as a V-6. I mean, c’mon. A NA V-6 with 500hp, and revs to >10k? Yes, please. Then put it in something lightweight and **relatively** affordable (as opposed to the cost of a T.50 or Valkyrie at least). Let someone that makes amazing sports cars like Lotus sort out the chassis, and you’d have an all-timer.
The engines just cost too much. If you assume the engines cost 10% of the sticker price which seems pretty reasonable. That's 200k for each engine. Even if you half that for a more mass produced v6 it's still an awful lot of money for a 3.25l v6. The average joe just can't pay for them
Great video 👌 However, I present to you the 90s Honda CBR250RR 4cyl motorcycle. It reliably revs to 18500rpm with occasional trips to 20k and will do so for well past 100,000km of riding, some as much as 200,000km 😳 Sure, it's half the power of the 1cyl Cosworth, but they were amazing! My two oldest sons owned one and it was brilliant fun to ride 🙂
@@LeonKotze70 Actually no. Great tech and impressive to see. You missed my point that there are actually engines out in the wild that are also amazing.
I haven't missed the point....but I have got a Yamaha FZR250RR, 40+bhp at 18k+ rpm....owned for 20 years and will never, ever sell it. Every single time I ride it down the A44 Worcester to Leominster, I'm 18 again. I'm 38 now. Its just pure emotion.
@@Will._Power ha ha I had one of those about 25 years ago, I put a race can on it & it sounded like an F1 car at those revs. I remember screaming past a car workshop near where I lived & all the mechanics came out to see what it was lol.
Turboprops use a gearbox to reduce huge RPM from the engine to the propeller, some are capable to deal with 20k RPM easily, you guys could give a try using Oliver and this 1 cylinder engine.
Cant deny it, in an age and era of so much other madness going on in the world, stumbled across this from a subscription waaaaaay back and popped up for me to watch today. What an absolutely lovely vid. Reminded me of some other passions I used to have in life. I am going to try to use as as a bit more of a platform to concentrate on more positive things in the coming year. Thanks sooooo much.🙂🙂🙂
That 3 cylinder Valk would be the perfect engine for my mini pickup. I didn't know Cosworth built that till now, I'm off on the info search now. Thanks will sub for this.
Cosworth are truly brilliant, I'd love to see them back in f1, imagine, we could have Aston Martin Cosworth as an example, also, please, please do all you can to get that single cylinder into Oliver, was a crazy, wonderful, combination
I remember having to line bore the main bearing bores on the RJ engine when I worked in the prototype department. It took very careful setting up as the limit on size was only 8 microns. It was great to be involved if only in a small way. 🙂
Well you would think so, but actually it wasn't tep controlled. None of the machine shops were temperature controlled. I never really understood why to be honest.
@@Ngontih That may be true, but I suspect that there must have been a small error. The cylinder block was aluminium. I used a piece of measuring equipment called an Air Gauge. This was set in two rings that were made of steel. Anyway, one way or another it worked well.
Great episode, more like this please. I'd be interested in how they develop the bottom end when scaling up from 3 to 12 cylinders since the harmonic resonances and thus the stresses must be very different.
The v10 and v12s are inherently balanced, so no need to care about harmonics on the test engine, so if the test engine survives, you know the bigger ones will be even better.
Cosworth learned something from Honda as Honda engineers first benchmarked the single thumper found in Cubs/Dreams in the 1950s and later scaled-up the design for cars, lawnmowers, outboards, etc.
I was going to whine at them because Honda was approaching these numbers back in the 80s already on single cylinder pistons. For example, I have a 1984 XR500R dirt bike that makes 41HP at 6000 rpm. Given the rev and age differences, this cosworth just seems like a built version.
@@DDBmaster Ducati has created a system that would take care of that no problem. Forget what they call it but it opens and closes the valve mechanically with no spring.
Modern F1 engines actually use pneumatic "springs", but there's various ways to achieve a very high reving engine. Desmodromic valvetrain (the valve is energized on both the opening and closing strokes), fully pneumatic cam-less actuation, and of course just ultra-light valves, retainers, paired with super heavy springs. NASCAR engines in the early 2000s were able to rev to nearly 11,000 rpm despite being antiquated OHV monsters so it can happen
The industry is moving towards electrification. I do wish there was a chapter of automotive evolution where we saw regular family cars and SUVs with these little engines that would rev up to 18-20k. Imagine a 3 cylinder Chevy Tahoe or Dodge Durango that could rev up to 18k and still pull as hard as a V6.
Beautiful engines and amazing engineering!! Thant being said, having to meet emissions standards on these cars is ridiculous. There will literally will be 80-150 made of each model. Of which most will spend their life in a garage, each only getting probably about 1,000 miles put on them over a 10 year period. a high mileage "driver" 30 years from now will have 15-30,000 miles put on it.
Thats a joke in 30 years try to find gasoline for a street engine. Alcohol might be available at moderate cost or you could make it. But gas will probably 50 bucks a gallon and hard too find
It was a bit frustrating that the first 6 minutes and 50 seconds were spent on v12 car engines when what got me to click on the video was the 300cc single, but it was a great video regardless. What an awesome little engine!
Since the exhaust manifold layout is so important to creating power in a naturally aspirated engine (using the benefits of the scavenging effect from the gas flow out of adjacent cylinders) how on earth does a single cylinder engine make a directly proportional amount of power to the full 10 cylinder engine?
Can't say for sure with this one, but exhaust geometry could produce a reflected wave that generates a low pressure zone at the exhaust valve timed with the valve opening
@@Healtsome yes, maybe, but that's really exactly my point. Having a property designed exhaust manifold adds power. So the single cylinder motor should not have produced exactly 10% of the 10 cylinder engine.
Would love this in a bike or gokart! My 2006 Aprillia RS125 made around 33-35bhp, revved to about 17,000 (if I remember correctly). That was an incredible bike. Hit about 117mph... on a 125cc! 2-stroke of course. Anyway...
could use a 3:1 ratio inline planetary gearbox between that little engine and Hamonds car transmission. that will give 6,666 rpm on the primary shaft at an engine speed of 20,000 rpm plus multiply the torque 3x making the engine far more tractable.
I kinds wanna see a 1 cylinder crate engine for sell from them. It would be cool because if your building a lightweight track car this would end up being the crate engine of choice due to how much weight your saving with the engine and transmission together.
This is actually cool content on this channel. Have you thought though about swapping a 13b into oliver in case you won't get hands on the single cylinder cosworth?
Turbo honda engines regularly put out well over 100hp-200hp per cylinder with everything stock except the turbo, pretty amazing considering they are built for low power economy cars
Back in the 90s, a mate of mine bought an ex Honda works 125 2/, it was a few years out of Moto GP but after a modest rebuild we had 54BHP on a dyno. I am sure if Cosworth wanted to, now they could do somewhat better than 90 from a 300 single.
@ 04:00 using 3 cylinders of a 4 cylinder block. I recall Ducati did something similar with the Super Mono single some years back then put it out into the market for sale.
That single cylinder engine would definitely make a brilliant motorbike engine! Not sure it would have the low down torque to be any use in a car? Just trying to compare with the 875cc Twinair engine in my Fiat Panda, which is a 2 cylinder turbo engine developing around 85bhp. So pro rata that would be the equivalent of my engine producing 262.5 bhp. 😲😳😁 Nice......😲
The more I watch these videos, the more I realise how cool F1 development and racing used to be... innovation applied to the track as it emerged. Today's woke corporations and computer tech has destroyed the legacy and made it boring- not to mention the scandals and politics ruining it even more. Bring back the days of Senna and Nigel, please. Cool video.
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Just to let you know GT is on Amazon prime, and Amazon has VPN detection and blocking. So what you are promoting doesn't' work :)
0:37 ''these are very special little things''
I accept they are special, but one can get more hp from a rotary in a smaller package.
Than again I have rotary engine (RE) bias.....braaaaaap. :)
Tell them what's money. Let's go have some fun.
@@zenmoto369 Oh don't forget the clothing "Guess Originals"
For your Opel Kadet .
Go use a fiat 900cc 2 cylinder with 90 horsepower .
If you look for a smal engine .
Its use in the fiat panda cross.
I always thought the Italians would be the last ones to keep the v12 torch burning. Love to see the folks at cozzie still care aswell.
And doing so whilst keeping within current emissions limits. Pretty significant achievement in an NA engine capable of 1000hp (or 640-ish for Gordon Murray's).
Am I the only person who reads “Cozzie” as “Coz-eh”?
@@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13 it’s spelt cossie no z in cosworth
They aren’t!
@@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13 snap not a cossie it's a coz eh
That single cylinder 300cc, 90bhp, engine needs to go in a motorcycle!
It will not work as the interta of the engine would affect the handling
Exactly what I was thinking. It actually reminded me a bit of the single cylinder KTM bikes, especially the 390 Duke.
When aprilia was racing 250cc two strokes they were hitting 90 hp on the race track In the hands of valentino Rossi. Regarding vibration, wouldnt a balancing shaft do the job, like whats fitted In many motorcycle engines.
@@derf9465most modern race replica bikes (CBR, gsx, exc.) Have balance shafts, when you have any kind of unbalance at 15k it needs to be cancelled out or you would shake the bike to bits. I don't know if any singles have balance shafts, I think most of them do some crank shaft magic to cancel out any vibration
It van run at least 250 km then you need to dusassembly and check all.
Andrea pneumatic valves starting loosing air pressure, pistoni start to open in half and con rod are near to broken.
This was f1 in v10 era.
Cosworth never ceases to amaze me. They are absolute geniuses!
Legendary!
Will they survive the electrification of the world tho?
@@TheEryk03 They're already doing hybrids and fully electric engines so I would think so.
@@TheEryk03 Cosworth will be fine. Will the World survive electrification is the question.
In fairness they are in the main but have had some pretty dismal forrays into some road car projects as they we're unable to develop software to work with hardware they produced. Other companies picked the failures up and made them excellent.
20k RPM. That’s over 333 rotations a second. Insanely fast!
Yeah... that's why all high reving engine sound so nice
You wouldn't want that blowing up between your legs. 😅
like a musical instrument
The rotations aren't the limiting factor here, the limiting factor is piston speed combined with conrod/piston mass.
Unreliable
Massive props to Cosworth for giving you guys all this behind the scenes access
That guy from Cosworth was great on camera. More of him, and there history please!
Only if he promises to never wear that shirt again.
@@rjk69 but that’s him all over. Just accept it
indeed
Totally agree!
Very nice voice indeed too
Back during WW2, Rolls-Royce and Ricardo developed the Merlin and Griffon engines using V twin and single cylinder test mules. Merlins were known to throw con rods at high revs. But the test mules never did. It was eventually realised the test V-twins used the full size oil pump - no worries. The pump was too small to feed the V12. Bigger oil pump and no more thrown con rods.
thank you for the information !
Not forgetting Ricardo’s single and V twin Sleeve valve 2 strokes used during RR Crecy development, giving incredible bhp/litre figures for the day and equally high HP/Lb weight figures
We need those 3 cylidners fitted to smaller cars, smaller production cars......can you imagine?
oH Yes PLEASE!!!
Yes, they'd need an expensive service every 5000 miles.
Absolutely. Imagine a hot super mini with one of those under the bonnet?!?!
Az-1 has entered the chat
@@PixelisedPaul Hence why i said in PRODUCTION cars, they will no way live long with 20K rpms.
The fact that 12-cylinder engines are considered as belonging to a different time is a travesty.
Well, when you've got 6 cylinder naturally aspirated cars making what old v8s made and v8s with turbos making far above what a 12 can, what's the point? They are a waste now, as beautiful as they sound and as smooth as they run, they are obsolete in a sense.
Not a different time just a differnet class
You are wrong and I will explain why. You can get high power numbers out of a small engine, but if you have a lower rpm, higher torque application, this necessitates a gearbox that adds weight. At a certain point, your small high rpm motor needs a gearbox so heavy that the specific power output of a multicylinder engine is better, since the multicylinder does not need a gearbox.
Legacy technology.
@@ConGie A V6 or I6 can easily do the job these days. Not to mention luxury car manufacturers are eyeing on EV tech
Hello mate, I'm Pete (diesel mechanic & enthusiast) just watching your vid and thought I'd add that while working for Scania Truck & Bus I had the opportunity to visit Scania's R&D department in Sodertalje, Sweden and was exposed the concept of creating 1 cylinder "mule" engines as part of the Proof of Concept phase of developing new engines &/or fuel systems. Before then I had no idea of that part of the process!!
Nice work on your vids!
Cheers,
Pete (Melb, Australia)
That single cylinder would make one heck of a go kart engine
Not with a 100 pound transmission to for the enormous gear reduction.
I actually don't think so.
In Karting we have 125 and 175cc 2-stroke engines with up to 50HP.
Most classes usually have around 30HP but that's not a problem when the engines weights less than 15Kg.
I think modern Kart engines don't rev more than 16.000rpm.
BUT, in a straight line, maybe it would be fast.
@@TucsonDude
He said 20.000rpm. Not 200.000rpm.
👍😅
@@Gean...de...Oliveira Nah. Regular go-cart engines run under 4000 rpm. Running at 20,000 rpm would require five times the gear teeth on the input gear...hence it would be significantly bigger.
@@TucsonDude
You are talking about rental karts, right ?
Because a proper racing kart usually rev up to 16.000rpm.
Now to put this in a 2022 crf 450 frame 👌
How about a Coswroth 3 cylinder in a Triumph Rocket 3?
Exactly what I was thinking
Please
Pointless.
Ross your negative attitude is pointless
Can I send my CRF300L engine to them 😂
Just do an Alan millyard and weld 3 engines together in your garage
Low pressure electric turbo, and a thinker metal head gasket, and you have 60bhp no problem, I did it on a XR650, and it was much quicker than my R6 up to 70mph ish. :)
@@hardergamer leaf blower?
@@billbergen9169might as well stay aspirated, turbos hit upwards of 130k rpm to get the boost they offer, a leaf blower wouldn't hit half that, might work but people aren't doing it already so it's probably not going to work
when the crf beats fz
That single cylinder engine is pretty cool! I used to run junior dragsters and when you first start out you get a single cylinder engine. It’s a Craws Racing 3 1/2”.
I’ve done 280 passes on the engine. It’s roughly 70 HP. Seeing 90 out of a single cylinder isn’t very hard. What’s hard is making it last at that amount- and making it economically viable.
This single cylinder truly is "The Little Engine that Could".
So when is cosworth going to add one of their 3 cylinder engines into a Mitsubishi mirage?
That would probably triple the msrp
@@ikhoonyejelem2967 sounds like a cheap supercar lol
newest hot hatch material. would honestly be hilarious to see such a piece of junk like a mirage with such an expensive and powerful engine in it xD
Before i put my life and trust into the soda csn lf mirage, i would rather drive an actual soda can, bicycle or a box of 20 beers with an engine.
No way i step in suxh a small car. That engine makes the car spin around it 😂😂
I’ve always wanted to see a single cylinder version of a full size vehicle engine.
same!
So you’re telling me they could make 1/4 size genuine Aston martins for children and they don’t?
Children don't have money.
@@TokenTombstone
But what multi millionaire parent _doesn't_ want their child to have an Aston just like theirs?
Aston Martini’s?
Sell that 3 banger as a crate motor, i have a feeling those 3 pots are the best sounding engines on earth
Drivetribe: "Single cylinders, historically, sound horrendous."
Norton Manx: "Am I nothing to you?"
Its an amazing thing, but as the Cosworth guy said, it would be pretty hopeless as a road car engine. Nothing that revs to 20,000 RPM is going to any useful work at less than 10,000 and will probably need 15,000 before it properly wakes up. Which is fine in a race, but a complete pain in the backside on the commute or going down the shops. In a road car it would be lumpy, gutless, and generally horrible.
I believe they also idle at 5000 rpm.
Probably not bad in a sport motorcycle, the lack of low end torque is fine, the packaging looks like a problem.....
Honda CBR250RR revs to 20,000, and that's a production street bike from the late 80s. Probably would not enjoy trying to push even a small car like Oliver around, but there *have* been successful conversions to put motorcycle engines in cars, so perhaps Oliver's dreams of revving higher than an F1 car could someday be reality... :D
That’s why these would be amazing in a hybrid setup.
@@JakeM218 come to think of it, have the EV part be the starter motor, then the engine can kick in later :D
That's an engine that would fit in a miata without problems 🙂
Man that 250hp 3 cylinder engine in a Miata is the stuff of dreams!
It would probably make the Miata look like a Japanese splatter gore movie seconds after turning the key.
@@Schmorgus yeah but….. do it for the science
@@Matt_10203 Oh, I never said "don't do it" 😏
Why not just use LS
interesting they never mention the inherent imbalance of the 3 and single cylinders. presumably the triple would need a balance shaft where as the V12 ultimately would not
I was wondering about that as well. Maybe they don't worry about the imbalance on the test mules... Go see if Driving 4 Answers will do a video for us!
Depends if you're talking about primary or secondary balance. There is a lot more involved when you start spinning things at that kind of rpm so they have 100% sorted it out one way or another.
My little C1/Aygo/107 1.0l engine revs to 6K and has no balance shaft. In some ways four cylinder inline engines have just as great vibration problems and quite a few have had to use balance shafts.
Single cylinder work is usually only really useful for things like head and combustion chamber work
If its designed as 120degrees pr piston balancing wouldnt be an issue i suppose. The 1 cylinder would most definately need a balance shaft, maybe thats why the engine is so big for such a small cylinder.
I put one of these on my lawnmower, what a life saver. Now I can cut all the yards in my whole neighborhood faster than I used to do my own. Same goes for my snowblower in the off season. Great little workhorse!
You too? Thought I was the only one. I also fitted one a pressure washed. Cleaned the house off, alright... righf off the foundation! XD
Napier engines did the same when designing the Sabre sleeve-valve,
they started with two cylinders, before moving onto 24.
R
So the 1-cyl engine is essentially for a Kei car. Or actually, even a 2-cyl incarnation would still fit the 600ccm Kei car limit 😂😁 Send it to MCM 😋
This reminds me of when the Japanese motorbike manufacturers were fitting 250cc 4 cylinder engines that would rev to 20krpm back in the earls 90's.
They are back at it again, look at ZX25r. Well at least kawasaki is.
@Troy Mclore I doubt you will be able to make it road legal… sad, sad green world we live in..
The Honda 250 cc six cylinder bike that Mike Hailwood rode to a world championship would rev to 26,000 rpm on the bench. I raced 50 cc motorcycles that revved to 16,000 rpm and had no power below 14,000. Even with a nine speed gearbox the clutch took some stick starting and at tight corners like the Mallory Park hairpin. Great noise though!
@@waynepantry7023 I had one of those many years ago... it was fun when I was young but it did get tiresome very quickly... just sitting in highway traffic in 6th gear and its still doing 9000rpm+, great for low speed high rpm flybys and tunnels and surprisingly reliable considering how high it revved.
@@philipgrice1026 Yes! Shame the FIM limited cylinders and gears from 1968 (some say it was to allow European manufactures to remain competitive).. .Suzuki had a 3 cylinder 50cc with 14 gears RP68 ready but were not allowed to race it... very much like Hailwoods Honda 6 250, it would have been useless on the street... ultra narrow powerband with gear changes needed constantly to keep it in the power... still wonderful engineering.
I can't help but remember the Cosworth V-6 Vega engine which was then turned into a 3 cylinder 850cc motorcycle engine for the German Police.. An incredible piece of engineering.
I've never heard of this and now I'm curious.
The Cosworth Vega was a 2000cc I4, not a V6.
They should sell the 3 cylinders as crate motors. Imagine people stuffing them in miatas, MGs, and caterhams
What’s a caterham
@@mikecorleone6797 You have access to google...
@@harrier331 no
@@mikecorleone6797 What?
@@harrier331 no my phone is ungoogled.. no google here
Now, THIS IS THE STUFF!! I don't care anymore about seeing 8-liter engines with 1,000+ hp in a production car. Big deal. I want to see 3 or 4-cylinder, 1 to 1.5-liter engines that produce 200 - 300+ hp, "normally aspirated" engines in production cars. THAT would be impressive!
I also agree whole heartily!
Take a motorcycle engine and put it in a car. Naturally aspirated, 1000cc four cylinder. 200-250hp sometimes 300. And high revs.
More technical content like this! Fascinating stuff
Can we get more feedback from Bruce on what was happening back then. He's got a wealth of knowledge and some great engines to discuss
Please have Mr. Bruce more on your channel, he is such a brilliant guy. We would love to hear more about the Cosworth history, and it would be nice if you could get even more tehnical and in depth. Great episode!
What would have really made me laugh at the end would have been a Security Guard yelling out " Oi what you got there!? "
This single piston engine is everything we need as a range extender for electrical cars
If they could make it quiet enough sure!
--×
😂😂👍Absolutely loved the end when you were wheeling out that little beast. That really made my day, thank you. If you weren’t kidding, yes please make that happen! Really need to see that thing in a car.
I'm working on it!
Was it just me that was thinking someone would come rushing out shouting stop he is stealing our engine? Needs a couple of turbo's if fitting it to Oliver.
@@WhiteDieselShed Yes! And yes!😂
I thought it was super cool of cosworth to let him do that since that's a historic test engine
Make it happen, Oliver needs to live again.
My NC35 400cc V4 back in the 90's used to spin up to 14,000 RPM and met road emmisions with a normal carb system, that could easily be retro fitted onto an injector system to meet current regs
Honda spec was 75 Hp tuned
Honda were racing 250cc six cylinder motorcycles in the 1960's that would rev to 20,000!
@@FFVoyager All of the Japanese bike manufacturers had 250cc four cylinders in the late 80's into the 90's that were scratching 20K as well
Not race bikes mind you, cheap street bikes meant for new riders. They're still a fairly common sight as a first bike here in Australia.
That single cylinder engine would be badass in a quad/atv!
It seems to fit better the frame of a motorcycle though.
Well Yamaha did it with a warrior 350 in the 80s or 90s. 75 horsepower from a .35 single cylinder. We have one that’s old and pretty much broken down. It still runs and my lord does it have some umph to it.
To be honest, modern 450 motocross/rally engines make 80hp+ quite easily and reliably so in the motorcycle world it’s not revolutionary.
My 800cc 2cylinder snowmobile makes 165hp. And is the size of that
Ever heard of 2 strokes
Imagine that the vw 1.9tdi 4 cylinder engine can make 400hp easy divide that by 4 and you get 100hp per 475cc in diesel isn't that amazing .
@0:01 ive never seen a door open quicker
That single cylinder engine likely costs more than my entire neighborhood...
I'm amazed that a single cylinder engine that revs to 20,000 can even stay intact without falling apart. The vibrations must be a horrendous thing to experience.
I mean you can look at any high performance dirtbike, they rev out to 14,500 all day long without any issues. I can’t see another 5k being disastrous
Brushcutters have single cylinder engines that rev to 20 000 easily.
I like how he didn't exactly say no, but couldn't exactly say yes
That single cylinder has to go in a supermoto
And here I was thinking I would actually get to watch this thing scream at 20,000 after clicking the thumbnail....
Eu também esperava isso
What is funny is that during the days of high-power piston aircraft engines they often made single-cylinder test mules.
In the modern day of computer simulation, it's almost a certainty that they don't do wild prototypes like that. Kind of too bad.
My compliments to both of you! Interesting subjects, clear and engaging presentation, and all that free on youtube! I wish normal TV programs would come close to this level op quality. Unfortunately that is very hard to find.
Also thanks to Mr Wood for sharing his knowledge!
Why when we already got it here? Why do people still desire to pay for something they aren’t happy with and you just said it yourself, you wish normal tv programs were like this, it’d not hard to find buddy it’s called RUclips!
For all the talk of putting one of those 3 cylinders in a hot hatch or something, I want to see a couple of them as a V-6. I mean, c’mon. A NA V-6 with 500hp, and revs to >10k? Yes, please.
Then put it in something lightweight and **relatively** affordable (as opposed to the cost of a T.50 or Valkyrie at least). Let someone that makes amazing sports cars like Lotus sort out the chassis, and you’d have an all-timer.
@Richard Harrold Great idea David, but I vote for the I6 iteration!
V6 hatchbacks existed
The engines just cost too much. If you assume the engines cost 10% of the sticker price which seems pretty reasonable. That's 200k for each engine. Even if you half that for a more mass produced v6 it's still an awful lot of money for a 3.25l v6. The average joe just can't pay for them
Just imagine one of those in a T-Bucket, Deuce Coupe, or similar. How about the V-Twin in a fifties Fiat 500?
My mind goes to let's make these one cylinder prototypes into the worlds fastest go karts
Can you imagine slapping this on a Go Kart?!
Great video 👌
However, I present to you the 90s Honda CBR250RR 4cyl motorcycle. It reliably revs to 18500rpm with occasional trips to 20k and will do so for well past 100,000km of riding, some as much as 200,000km 😳
Sure, it's half the power of the 1cyl Cosworth, but they were amazing!
My two oldest sons owned one and it was brilliant fun to ride 🙂
You just missed the technical part behind the video... went totally over your head.
@@LeonKotze70
Actually no.
Great tech and impressive to see.
You missed my point that there are actually engines out in the wild that are also amazing.
I haven't missed the point....but I have got a Yamaha FZR250RR, 40+bhp at 18k+ rpm....owned for 20 years and will never, ever sell it. Every single time I ride it down the A44 Worcester to Leominster, I'm 18 again. I'm 38 now. Its just pure emotion.
@@Will._Power ha ha I had one of those about 25 years ago, I put a race can on it & it sounded like an F1 car at those revs. I remember screaming past a car workshop near where I lived & all the mechanics came out to see what it was lol.
bet it screamed !
Turboprops use a gearbox to reduce huge RPM from the engine to the propeller, some are capable to deal with 20k RPM easily, you guys could give a try using Oliver and this 1 cylinder engine.
True, you would need a reduction gearbox but it would work
This looks like they could perfectly make an 800cc V4 that could fit into a trellis motorcycle frame
Cant deny it, in an age and era of so much other madness going on in the world, stumbled across this from a subscription waaaaaay back and popped up for me to watch today.
What an absolutely lovely vid.
Reminded me of some other passions I used to have in life.
I am going to try to use as as a bit more of a platform to concentrate on more positive things in the coming year.
Thanks sooooo much.🙂🙂🙂
Cosworth V-Twin, 550 CC, Yamaha 1982-3 Vision. Far ahead of its time.
Great vid Mike. Cosworth are legendary in the truest and most accurate sense of this much misused word.
A Mechanical Symphony in its finest forms ... thank you for sharing. Simply fabulous!
That single cylinder engine would be something to behold in a motorcycle. Add a turbo and proper exhaust and the sound would be amazing.
You forget the incredible gear reduction transmission needed.
That 3 cylinder Valk would be the perfect engine for my mini pickup. I didn't know Cosworth built that till now, I'm off on the info search now. Thanks will sub for this.
Cosworth, the mad scientists of engines.
I'd love to see that engine, or something similar, powering Oliver. Make it happen.
Cosworth are truly brilliant, I'd love to see them back in f1, imagine, we could have Aston Martin Cosworth as an example,
also, please, please do all you can to get that single cylinder into Oliver, was a crazy, wonderful, combination
I remember having to line bore the main bearing bores on the RJ engine when I worked in the prototype department. It took very careful setting up as the limit on size was only 8 microns. It was great to be involved if only in a small way. 🙂
Probably all temperature controlled work.
Well you would think so, but actually it wasn't tep controlled. None of the machine shops were temperature controlled. I never really understood why to be honest.
@@adriandunn9036 perhaps the measuring tools sxpand by about the same amount
@@Ngontih That may be true, but I suspect that there must have been a small error. The cylinder block was aluminium. I used a piece of measuring equipment called an Air Gauge. This was set in two rings that were made of steel. Anyway, one way or another it worked well.
Hi Adrian, I also remember doing a few of these on that old cranky Newall Jig Borer, hope you are keeping well?
Another really awesome in-depth video. The animations help a lot. Please keep these coming!
Great episode, more like this please. I'd be interested in how they develop the bottom end when scaling up from 3 to 12 cylinders since the harmonic resonances and thus the stresses must be very different.
The v10 and v12s are inherently balanced, so no need to care about harmonics on the test engine, so if the test engine survives, you know the bigger ones will be even better.
Cosworth learned something from Honda as Honda engineers first benchmarked the single thumper found in Cubs/Dreams in the 1950s and later scaled-up the design for cars, lawnmowers, outboards, etc.
I was going to whine at them because Honda was approaching these numbers back in the 80s already on single cylinder pistons. For example, I have a 1984 XR500R dirt bike that makes 41HP at 6000 rpm. Given the rev and age differences, this cosworth just seems like a built version.
90 hp on a 300 cc 1 cylinder is crazy, unbelivable
I would never have guessed a single could run up to 20k rpm! Amazing, very informative video.
No clue how they overcome valve floating over 13 14k
@@DDBmaster heavy valve springs
@@DDBmaster Ducati has created a system that would take care of that no problem. Forget what they call it but it opens and closes the valve mechanically with no spring.
Modern F1 engines actually use pneumatic "springs", but there's various ways to achieve a very high reving engine. Desmodromic valvetrain (the valve is energized on both the opening and closing strokes), fully pneumatic cam-less actuation, and of course just ultra-light valves, retainers, paired with super heavy springs. NASCAR engines in the early 2000s were able to rev to nearly 11,000 rpm despite being antiquated OHV monsters so it can happen
whats the point of high revs and HP? Just low rev with strong torque and it'd work on any gear ratio
I have one of these engines in my kids go-kart. One of them accidentally went into another dimension temporarily white testing it.
The industry is moving towards electrification.
I do wish there was a chapter of automotive evolution where we saw regular family cars and SUVs with these little engines that would rev up to 18-20k.
Imagine a 3 cylinder Chevy Tahoe or Dodge Durango that could rev up to 18k and still pull as hard as a V6.
That T50s v12 engine just sounds divine
Beautiful engines and amazing engineering!! Thant being said, having to meet emissions standards on these cars is ridiculous. There will literally will be 80-150 made of each model. Of which most will spend their life in a garage, each only getting probably about 1,000 miles put on them over a 10 year period. a high mileage "driver" 30 years from now will have 15-30,000 miles put on it.
Thats a joke in 30 years try to find gasoline for a street engine. Alcohol might be available at moderate cost or you could make it. But gas will probably 50 bucks a gallon and hard too find
@@surfernorm6360 That completely missed the point of my comment, even though it's true.
@@surfernorm6360 no i would be banned if we survive till then
@@surfernorm6360 when people move to EVs the demand for fuel will go down thus making it cheaper, gg
Oh man. I happy every time I see Bruce on vídeos. Technical specifications satisfy my geek side, PLEASE more this
Single-cylinder, 300cc and 90hp?
That means more than 270hp per liter per cylinder!
In what comes to F1 engines today, that would mean over 1620hp!
It was a bit frustrating that the first 6 minutes and 50 seconds were spent on v12 car engines when what got me to click on the video was the 300cc single, but it was a great video regardless. What an awesome little engine!
Since the exhaust manifold layout is so important to creating power in a naturally aspirated engine (using the benefits of the scavenging effect from the gas flow out of adjacent cylinders) how on earth does a single cylinder engine make a directly proportional amount of power to the full 10 cylinder engine?
Can't say for sure with this one, but exhaust geometry could produce a reflected wave that generates a low pressure zone at the exhaust valve timed with the valve opening
@@kschleic9053 agreed, but you can also get further benefits from other cylinders by tuning the points that the manifold branches meet.
Maybe tests were handled without proper exhaust system on? After all, Cosworth employee stated that it's about combustion system. I may be wrong tho.
@@Healtsome yes, maybe, but that's really exactly my point. Having a property designed exhaust manifold adds power. So the single cylinder motor should not have produced exactly 10% of the 10 cylinder engine.
Would love this in a bike or gokart! My 2006 Aprillia RS125 made around 33-35bhp, revved to about 17,000 (if I remember correctly). That was an incredible bike. Hit about 117mph... on a 125cc! 2-stroke of course. Anyway...
Nice to see my old boss can still have a chuckle even with the weight of being CEO.
dude. a single-cylinder engine making this sort of power would be excellent for bikes and smaller cars!
could use a 3:1 ratio inline planetary gearbox between that little engine and Hamonds car transmission. that will give 6,666 rpm on the primary shaft at an engine speed of 20,000 rpm plus multiply the torque 3x making the engine far more tractable.
I want to see cosworth work over a Triumph Rocket 3
Better off dropping in a 1250GS engine. Still an aircooled flat, only ten time more powerful than the first 2cv
I kinds wanna see a 1 cylinder crate engine for sell from them. It would be cool because if your building a lightweight track car this would end up being the crate engine of choice due to how much weight your saving with the engine and transmission together.
This is actually cool content on this channel.
Have you thought though about swapping a 13b into oliver in case you won't get hands on the single cylinder cosworth?
Go for a period piece with an NSU or Citroen rotary
My first car when i go 18 was a sierra cosworth with stock 220hp, and since then i love cosis.
Turbo honda engines regularly put out well over 100hp-200hp per cylinder with everything stock except the turbo, pretty amazing considering they are built for low power economy cars
I wanna hear this thing on a dyno reaching 20k.
As they said, you really don't 😉😂
@@phil955i yeah maybe
I think an Opel Manta engine would be a great engine swap for oliver
(Possibly a TVR engine also)
We need another knee for Hammond to break if they did swap this 1-cyl to the Oliver
The thumbnail was deliberately misleading and simply clickbait.
😂
I'd love to drop one of those 3cyl engines in my Volvo 850. What a sleeper it would be. 12k rpm and HP!
Cosworth and Freevalve are current most innovated and best engine maker,
Back in the 90s, a mate of mine bought an ex Honda works 125 2/, it was a few years out of Moto GP but after a modest rebuild we had 54BHP on a dyno. I am sure if Cosworth wanted to, now they could do somewhat better than 90 from a 300 single.
So cool of them to facilitate this content. Well done 👍🏻
Imagine putting _that_ in a Formula 500 car.
Since you have to go up to 14k rpm just to start moving, I'd say top speed would be about 15mph.
Cozzie is the king of engine makers!. Awesome heritage of superb engineering.
@ 04:00 using 3 cylinders of a 4 cylinder block. I recall Ducati did something similar with the Super Mono single some years back then put it out into the market for sale.
That single cylinder engine would definitely make a brilliant motorbike engine! Not sure it would have the low down torque to be any use in a car?
Just trying to compare with the 875cc Twinair engine in my Fiat Panda, which is a 2 cylinder turbo engine developing around 85bhp.
So pro rata that would be the equivalent of my engine producing 262.5 bhp. 😲😳😁
Nice......😲
That motorcycle better have a very sturdy quickshifter and slip-assist Clutch.
The more I watch these videos, the more I realise how cool F1 development and racing used to be... innovation applied to the track as it emerged.
Today's woke corporations and computer tech has destroyed the legacy and made it boring- not to mention the scandals and politics ruining it even more.
Bring back the days of Senna and Nigel, please.
Cool video.
Ok, now put it in a small sportsbike...
Then make a clutch that can handle it...
3:51 yes, i'm eagle-eyed! thank you. it must be these new bi-focals i'm wearing! 🤓😂