Quote:
Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
Promec has decided to go either go back to the BMW 5.0 L engine that they originally tested in the car last year, or to go to another BMW engine (are there any others that fit the displacement guidelines for LMP 900s?) to replace the Sodemo Peugeot 3.4 L Turbo, and this is why they will not race at Spa this weekend....
I'm assuming that they are going back to the 5.0L engine since they have the gearboxes and other hookups they need from last year....please correct me if this is wrong....
This raises many questions for me:
1. Why would they run the Sodemo engine in the first place after testing the chassis last summer with the BMW engine when they had to know that the Sodemo engine was not competitive with other engine options, like the Judd or the Ford-derived engines based on racing results over the past couple of years?
2. Others have raced the BMW engine in the past, but have abandoned it for other options....why would they return to the BMW, when they apparently didn't like the results or would not have switched to the Sodemo in the first place for this year???
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It's an odd situation- I could have understood it more easily if they were swapping the Sodemo for a Judd, but the BMW V8 doesn't have much of a record of success in prototypes- as you said, most of the teams who've tried it (Rafanelli, GMS/Durango, RWS) have abandoned it after a fairly short time- I can't think of anyone using it for more than a single season.
The other thing that puzzles me, is that I'm sure I remember that at one point last year, they were talking about running two cars- one with the original BMW, and one with either a Sodemo or a Judd, and I'm sure I saw a photo somewhere (Dailysportscar?) showing two cars outside a workshop- can anyone confirm whether there is more than one chassis, or am I imagining this?
I'm presuming there can't be (or at least not one close to race-ready), or they'd be using the second car with the BMW engine rather than swapping them....