From the front air splitter to the rear deck - lid wing , a stock elevator car sport scores of engineering achievement . Ironically , one of the most engineered parts of the car lies blot out from the view of most racing fans . We ’re talking , of track , about the engine .
Aside from set up a gravid crowd , one of the most important elements of winning NASCAR race is the power to build – or buy – a monstrously ( and reliably ) powerful engine . While aerodynamic tweak and intermission preferences can give airstream teams an edge , just about everyone in NASCAR agree that the engine is the heart of a race car .
In NASCAR ’s Sprint Cup Series , those engines are tell on at nearly 800 H.P. . Since NASCAR completed its transition to the Car of Tomorrow dead body style in 2008 , locomotive power has in reality increased to about 850 horsepower . These engines are so powerful that NASCAR forces member team to restrict horsepower on certain slipstream tracks , revere that a 200 - plus mph clang might send off debris cast into the grandstand .
But what makes NASCAR engines so special , anyway ? Can you but stuff one beneath the hood of your Monte Carlo and laud yourself King of The Road ?
This clause will take a looking at at the engine of NASCAR and the vast amounts of exploit and money that go into building them . NASCAR engines are expensive . owner often spend $ 50,000 or more for a single engine just to be free-enterprise . open that out among a fleet of more than a dozen cars , as most successful teams have , and the money adds up pretty quickly .
For their investment , these team get a finely tuned and engineered piece of equipment that incorporate the most alien and expensive alloy metal available . These team may also have one or more engineering PhDs tinkering with the engine to pull out every last drop of potential power from it . As you may have already guessed , careful design and extensive testing add up stock when creating something as critically important to a stock car as its locomotive engine .
By now , you may be wondering , " If everyone else ’s engines can only summon 800 or 850 horsepower , why would n’t a team just build one with 900 or even 1,000 horsepower ? We ’ll underwrite that next .
NASCAR Engine Rules
In NASCAR , technology is standardised to an arms race . That is , team are constantly looking for innovations that will make their automobile faster and better than the eternal rest of the flying field . However , if any one team finds too big of an advantage and take up winning too easy , that constitute run predictable and boring to the fans . world-weary fans entail empty covered stand seats , which mean less receipts .
intelligibly , NASCAR go to some passably extreme distance to ensure a level performing field of operations . At the end of a race , you might see the number one wood spraying bubbly on teammates and perhaps giving a quick on - television camera consultation . However , the mean solar day is far from over for the worn out make headway team . NASCAR officials then roll the winning car by and impart ateardown , or dismantling , of the fomite . This can include a arrant disassembly of the engine , suspension system or anything else that the officials select to scrutinize . They ’re face for any geometrical irregularity , such as forbidden parts or measurement , which might unfairly enhance performance .
Teams can and do take certain liberties with engine pattern , but a few NASCAR rule are quite unbending . The locomotive , for exemplar , must be a carbureted V-8 with an atomic number 26 blocking . NASCAR post rigid limits , for instance , on how locomotive cylinder are bored – that is , how they ’re made magnanimous by removing material . NASCAR also call for team to apply occlusion , cylinder and intake manifolds made from castings of approved manufacturers . The mandatory Car of Tomorrow purpose , mentioned earlier , standardizes locomotive even further .
These rules are clear import out in NASCAR guidelines , yet there are often disputes between teams and functionary about their interpretation of these rules . team can become quite inventive in find ways to bypass the limitation imposed by a dominion , only to have NASCAR become more specific and tight with its language to eliminate the vantage [ seed : Martin ] . This is one reason why stock cars are so uniform in attribute . The body have similar material body and aerodynamic properties because they must conform to sure template , or design mandate by NASCAR to ensure a consistent car size and shape . NASCAR assert an as denotative lean of home lineament that cars must have for both safety equipment and to advance a reasonably degree playing force field .
Now that we ’ve got some of those pesky rules out of the direction , we can attend at some of the engineering that make NASCAR locomotive engine such powerful beasts .
What Makes NASCAR Engines Different
You may have hear race people talk of " blowing an engine . " That ’s just a mo of rush along jargon come to to a critical component part damaged enough to make an engine useless for the eternal sleep of a race . Blowing an engine can be something repairable and replaceable , such as break a connecting retinal rod or damaging a plunger . It can also be something ruinous like cracking the locomotive cylinder block or disappear part of the stoppage . That pray the question : Just how do you discover something made out of cast iron , reinforced steel and exotic metal alloys ?
The answer is actually quite uncomplicated : Subject the engine to lots of heat and pressure . During the course of a race , which may last hundreds of knot , engines are submit to multiple cycles of extreme heat and pressure . sure racetracks , like the tri - oval - shaped Pocono Raceway in Long Pond , Pa. , concern teams due to their layout and aptness for locomotive engine failure . The Pocono track command a great deal of terrible decelerating , then accelerating in the turns . This rapid passage of performance requirements produces engine fatigue [ source : Martin].
The temperature inside a NASCAR V-8 engine can pass 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and the pressure can reach 1500 psi , or more than 100 times the normal air pressing we experience around us every day . NASCAR engine parts are heavily reinforced to protect against these uttermost conditions . In other word , they ’re freehanded , potent and thicker than their similitude would be on a less herculean car . In fact , much any moving engine part you could think of , from crankshaft to valve to valve springs to Walter Piston , have some reinforcement .
Some parts exposed to the bad of an engine ’s extreme heat use particular metals to keep them from dethaw and fusing with another part of the engine . This is why valves are made out of titanium , for deterrent example . Titanium has the highest force - to - weight ratio of any metallic element , is extremely resistant to heat and corroding and is well more expensive than more schematic metals and alloys . The engine blocks themselves are made out of cast black lead iron . Because of graphite ’s molecular structure , add it to iron makes the resulting metal stronger and more resistant to heat [ source : Leslie - Pelecky ] .
While some teams build and maintain their engine in - family , others defray expenses by leasing their engines from someone else . One of the most well - know providers of leased engines is Hendrick Motorsports , which build more than 700 engines per year for Hendrick raceway team and external clients .
Over the class , NASCAR engine have been highly refined to squeeze the most functioning out of what many debate to be old - schoolhouse engine engineering science . Nonetheless , the most recent cutting - edge advances in NASCAR have get in non - engine areas , such as aerodynamics and safety .
With NASCAR squad constantly force the bound of racing know - how , car have progressively become faster and more powerful . In fact , they got so tight that NASCAR official worried for the prophylactic of drivers and fans .
Restrictor Plates
Speeds can get pretty mellow in NASCAR . In 1987 , machine driver Bill Elliott turn in an dumbfounding qualifying lap speed of 212 mph at Talladega Superspeedway . During the existent subspecies , Bobby Allison ’s fomite suffered a shredded tire and went airborne into a retaining fence , narrowly fend off catastrophic trauma to the gadget driver and century of fans behind the fence . As a final result , NASCAR brass decided to slow down the cars for safety gadget ’s sake by introducing restrictor scale .
At Talladega and other dissipated NASCAR racetrack , teams must use carburettor restrictor plates to diminish their locomotive ’s output . A restrictor collection plate is simply an aluminum denture with four trap in it to curb the amount of air and fuel that can go into the locomotive engine .
The fuel and line concoction goes through the four little holes before it can enter the four larger hole of the carburetor and into the engine . Think of the overall effect as the difference between drinking a soft beverage from a normal straw versus drinking it from a coffee fuss straw .
NASCAR has a controlled process to select restrictor plate to forbid cheating : A team member gets to strain over a barrier to pick out a plate at random . An official grow the home plate aloft for spectators , then inserts the plate on a rod to valuate the hole diameter – the holes are each about the size of it of a quartern , give or take a few fractions of an inch . After that , the official installs the home plate on the team ’s railway locomotive before securing it with a NASCAR seal to prevent monkey [ Source:Martin ] .
A restrictor crustal plate can thin horsepower by as much as one-half , from about 800 hp usually , down to 400 hp with the home base set up [ germ : NASCAR.com ] . apropos , many drivers have complain that the bunch together - up style of rivalry known as " restrictor dental plate racing " actually causes more chance event . When one machine driver miss dominance , the car ' propinquity can trigger off a mountain chain response of crash that drivers and devotee have amount to call " The Big One " [ source : Busch ] .
When it comes to building stronger and firm engine , NASCAR is among the major league . Like any high - level sport , becoming one of the just accept endowment , voiceless workplace and experience .
Building Engines for NASCAR
If you really want an estimate of how much acquisition it takes to build a NASCAR engine , simply check out the MAHLE Engine Builder Showdown ( formerly the MAHLE Clevite Engine Builder Showdown ) . In this televised competition , two - person teams of professional builders face off to see who can put together a running , 357 - three-dimensional column inch , Ford Sprint Cup engine in the fast metre .
In 2008 , the outcome claim place at the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville , N.C. , one of the places that specialize in training technicians for the unparalleled expertness required in NASCAR . The contest was broadcast on the SPEED Channel show " Two Guys Garage . " The winners , Dennis Borem and Darrel Hoffman of Pro Motor Engines , built their engine in an astounding 15 minutes and 59 mo , beating their own disk from the premature year by most thirty s [ source : MAHLE Clevite ] .
In addition to understanding the mechanical engineering principles of how engines work , you ’ll want to learn advanced symptomatic technique . This may entail hook up the engine to computerized measuring instrument designed to maximize carrying into action . One of the best - known engine diagnostic peter is an locomotive dynamometer , or engine dyno . This tool gives computerized screen readouts of torsion , revolutions per minute ( rpm ) and horsepower , as well as other critical engine entropy .
Many squad and independent locomotive engine - construction political program have people with doctoral degrees on staff . They might learn such specialised theme as fuel atomisation and the place of burning " flame kernels , " among other things . Some mellow - end engine builder come from careers run with major automakers . Of naturally , they all share the expertness necessary to thrive in the fast - pace world of NASCAR .
To find out more about NASCAR railway locomotive and other NASCAR - relate topic , take a look at the links that follow .
