LONDON: Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) has identified the engine that will call the upcoming T.50 supercar "home" and it's touted to be the highest revving road-going engine in the world.
Additional to the engine's characteristics is that it will also be "the fastest responding, most power-dense and lightest naturally aspirated V12 road-car engine".
This pretty much sums up the Cosworth GMA V12 engine that takes its design cues from old V12 Formula One (F1) powerplants which existed between 1989 and 1994.
This was before the FIA decided to standardise all engines to 3.0-litre V10 rather than a mish-mash of V8, V10, V12, flat-12 and W12 engines at that time.
The F1 teams that used naturally aspirated V12 engines included Ferrari, Lola (Lamborghini), McLaren (Honda), Brabham (Yamaha) and Footwork Arrows (Porsche).
As an honourable mention, Subaru supplied a Flat-12 engine to Coloni, while Life used a 3.5-litre W12 that was developed in-house. Both cars were severely uncompetitive.
The T.50's engine will have have a 4.0-litre (3,994cc) displacement for the 65-degree V12 engine.
It gets further equipped with four throttle bodies, dry-sump lubrication, twin water-cooled front radiators, single rear aluminium radiator, 12 12V ignition coils, a 48V gear-driven integrated starter/generator and four catalytic converters with Lambda sensors and secondary air injection.
The oversquare engine has an 81.5mm bore and 63.8mm stroke with a compression ratio of 14:1 to help develop 663PS at 11,500rpm and 467Nm of torque at 9,000rpm before it red-lines at 12,100rpm.
Although the engine is made out of high strength aluminium alloy, which is why it weighs 178kg, it also uses Titanium for the connecting rods and valves as well as the exhaust system that is also combined with Inconel - the same stuff used in afterburning jet engines to handle the heat.
Managing the power is a six-speed manual gearbox cast out of aluminium with a thickness of just 2.4mm and weighs just 80.5kg.
Furthermore, it also has a 184mm triple-plate carbon silicone and titanium clutch as well as a limited-slip differential.
The T.50 is due to make its debut on Aug 4.
