Ever wonder what an Australian V8 Supercar Engine Costs?

[fiveo'cobra]

Found this little video while trying to find some video of Miller Motorsports Park....somehow lol.

Aussie V8 supercar mock-up build........along with pricing for all their parts. Interesting to see how many of the parts are American made........the block, heads, oil pump, etc.

I do some road racing and eventually you pop a motor or two. I blew 1.6 liter Honda motor this year that was built to the limit making 150whp just on the gas (block had 80 hours on it). We rebuilt it for start to finish for $5000.....it is a race motor after all. These $100+k motors only last 20,000 km. These guys do about triple that in a season including testing and development. Thats $300k MINIMUM in motors not including what may happen during the season. 600+whp.

The cliff notes:

$1100 cam
$20,000 heads
$9,000 block
$80 spark plugs
$13,000 intake man
$6,000 dry sump tank


Whew.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnIDj3_Rvyk&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL1D40CCCA41B13B15"]V8 supercar engine build with Mark Larkham - YouTube[/nomedia]

 

[thepizz]

It takes a ton of $$$ to race. Good thing for sponsors.

 

[Uncle Meat]

It's refreshing to hear him list the parts made in the USA! Pretty much everything else on that mill is billet made in-house stuff.

U.M.

 

[neatofrito1618]

Sounded like he said the heads were 12k, not 20. Still damn expensive though.

 

[eddyroxx]

remember aus dollars are not the same as us dollars

 

[djs197mustang]

Back when that was recorded the USD bought about AUD1.10. Now we get USD1.07 for our dollar, hence the reason why so many of us are buying so much stuff from your country and keeping your economy afloat.

remember aus dollars are not the same as us dollars

 

[djs197mustang]

The heads are the Roush Yates D3 NASCAR Heads on top of a Ford Racing Boss302 block. But they are extensively custom machined for the purpose.

The individual throttle body arrangement on most cars is machined from a single billet of aluminium, approx A$10k.

Sounded like he said the heads were 12k, not 20. Still damn expensive though.

 

[djs197mustang]

Given that the Ford and Holden V8SC engines are based on the 302/308 small blocks, most of the high quality parts come ex-USA.

It's refreshing to hear him list the parts made in the USA! Pretty much everything else on that mill is billet made in-house stuff.

U.M.

 

[djs197mustang]

The engines have been evolving over the last 20 years of the formula. They have progressively introduced more and more control parts to reduce cost and increase reliability. During 2010 the category mandated a control camshaft with common profiles for both Holden and Ford engines; this knocked a small amount of horsepower but reduced a large amount of valvetrain stress.

Most people lease their engines from a number of dedicated suppliers, Walkinshaw supplies many of the Holden teams in both Main Series and Development Series, as does FPR/Prodrive, KRE, NRE, InnoV8 etc.

Fully dressed and ready to drop into the car, the engines are approx A$150k.

Add to that the $10-15k of engine management system, $20k of Holinger RD6-S transmission, $10k worth of rear axle...

It all adds up, but still very well controlled. The cars are transitioning to a 'Car of the Future' in 2013, details are here:

THE NEW GENERATION OF V8 SUPERCARS

Found this little video while trying to find some video of Miller Motorsports Park....somehow lol.

Aussie V8 supercar mock-up build........along with pricing for all their parts. Interesting to see how many of the parts are American made........the block, heads, oil pump, etc.

I do some road racing and eventually you pop a motor or two. I blew 1.6 liter Honda motor this year that was built to the limit making 150whp just on the gas (block had 80 hours on it). We rebuilt it for start to finish for $5000.....it is a race motor after all. These $100+k motors only last 20,000 km. These guys do about triple that in a season including testing and development. Thats $300k MINIMUM in motors not including what may happen during the season. 600+whp.

The cliff notes:

$1100 cam
$20,000 heads
$9,000 block
$80 spark plugs
$13,000 intake man
$6,000 dry sump tank


Whew.

V8 supercar engine build with Mark Larkham - YouTube

 

[djs197mustang]

But in saying that...

Having worked on the up close, they are immensely impressive pieces of machinery.

All I can do is encourage you all to make a road trip down to Austin TX in 2013 when our little category heads across the Pacific for a weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.

Or even better, encourage you to add "Go and watch V8 SuperCars at Bathurst" to your bucket list.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Multiquote is your friend mate! :thumbsup:

U.M.

 

[Tifosi2003GT]

It's refreshing to hear him list the parts made in the USA! Pretty much everything else on that mill is billet made in-house stuff.

U.M.

Sounded like he was very proud of that also!!!

 

[djs197mustang]

Multiquote is your friend mate! :thumbsup:

U.M.

Like many other things in my life, I just couldn't get a good grip on it.

 

[fiveo'cobra]

Or even better, encourage you to add "Go and watch V8 SuperCars at Bathurst" to your bucket list.

Thanks for the info bud. So you work on some of these machines? Bathurst has been on my bucket list for places to go/drive for a while now. Forget the Nurburgring.

 

[m0ore4ustin391]

"$100,000 good for about 3,000 kilometers." Why does it only last 3,000 kilometers?

 

[Dave_6]

Cool video. Looks like a killer engine but I'd would like to see one about the Ford engines too.

Love watching this series!

 

[Powershift03]

Wow, awesome engine build!!

Amazing how costly it is for the short life expectancy. Gotta love high winding road race engines though!! :rockon:

 

[fiveo'cobra]

"$100,000 good for about 3,000 kilometers." Why does it only last 3,000 kilometers?

Guy said they last 20,000 km. I'm sure they could probably go longer, but you're gambling with "bought" time and risking popping one during a race which would kill you in points. They probably rebuild/replace parts every few races as a percaution to avoid those kinds of things.

 

[synapsis]

Why are the valve covers machined out of a solid block of aluminum?

 

[STERLING351]

Im not trying to take anything away from the company, was nice to hear about US parts being used and i know machining stuff from billet aluminum isnt cheap but holy crap!!!! It looked damn nice but those prices are crazy! Looked like a LS motor. 9k for a block is that a joke?