F1 Engine Sound And Fury

Ferrari said he built engines and put wheels on them  (F1 The Autobiography)

Beginning in 2014 F1 engines will be turbocharged 1.6 litre V6
units, restricted to 15,000rpm but with the turbo device allowed
to spin at 125,000rpm. Purists expressed fears the new formula
would emasculate the din into something akin to a dull drone.
Yet the previous turbo noisemakers managed to be spectacularly
loud, buzzing ferociously like an enormous very angry bumblebee
trapped in a jar connected to a loudspeaker and amplified about
15,000 times.


For connoisseurs of the F1-version of the internal combustion
engine there should be a world championship for the mechanical
marvels that provide the motive power for the stars. These days
F1 engines seldom make the news unless they are the subject of
controversy or they blow up, which they seldom do, which is
miraculous given the terrible punishment the some 6,000 bits
and pieces in each tiny powerplant is subjected to when they're
fired up in anger. Small wonder they sound like banshees having
their finger and toenails pulled out. Their spectacular shrieking
is music to the ears of motorsport enthusiasts, one of whom was
the founder of the sport's most famous team. 

Enzo Ferrari, who used to say he built engines and put wheels on
them, had a romantic view of mechanical horsepower. "A new motor
comes into the world with the cry of a newborn child," Ferrari
said. "Raw material is transformed into a living being with a
voice of its own."

The late founder of the  team with the wonderfully wailing engines 
would undoubtedly raise his voice in protest against the current 
regulations that are intended to hobble the often wild and woolly 
horsepower struggles that contributed so much to the lure and lore 
of the sport. 

In 1950, when the F1 series officially began, the most powerful 8
cylinder 1497cc Alfa Romeo engine produced about 370 brake
horsepower at 8,500 revolutions per minute. During the following
3-liter era, from 1966 to 1970, Ferrari led the league with a
2998cc, 12 cylinder motor that in 1970 developed 458bhp at
11,500rpm. In 1978 the Ferrari flat-12, now revving at 13,000rpm,
produced 520bhp. During the turbulent 1980s decade, when
turbocharged 1500cc engines became the norm, power outputs
escalated as never before. The 1985 Renault V6 1492cc turbo
engine, with the boost turned up during qualifying, produced up
to 1000bhp at 12,000rpm. But the most powerful engines in F1
history appeared in 1986, when the Renault V6 installed in a
Williams car produced an astronomical 1400bhp for qualifying.
Derek Warwick, then driving a Brabham-BMW turbo, described the
overpowering sensation in the cockpit. "I will remember
qualifying in that car for the rest of my life. I had 5.5 bar
boost, from a 1500cc engine, and we had 1350 horsepower! A seven
speed gearbox and I was still on the rev limiter in top gear!
Smoking the rear wheels! It was like being strapped to a bloody
rocket!"

But the cars were becoming far too fast for the FIA and beginning
in 1989 the turbos were banned and replaced by a new 3500cc
normally aspirated engine formula. Yet the engine designers
clawed back the disadvantage and the 1991 Honda V12, installed in
a McLaren, produced 780bhp at 14,800rpm. A reduction in capacity
to 3000cc, beginning in 1995, hardly halted the horsepower race.
Renault's 1997 V10 (with Williams) revved at 17,000 to produce
740bhp. By 2004, Ferrari had upped the ante to 900bhp at
19,000rpm and in 2005, the final year of the 3 liter formula,
Honda won the horsepower battle with a V10 engine that produced
965bhp at 20,000rpm. The FIA-enforced move to 2.4 liter V8
engines in 2006 reduced power outputs to an average of around
750bhp in motors that revved as high as 21,000rpm. In 2007
regulations restricting engine revs to 19,000 reduced power to
about 730bhp. For the last several seasons engine development has
been 'frozen' with revs limited to 18000rpm, which produces
around 720bhp. Still, so much frenzied mechanical activity in a
relatively miniscule 95kg package produces the ear-splitting,
anguished, 150-plus decibel caterwauling that is still one of the
sport's biggest attractions.

The Engine World Champions...
Over 80 different makes of F1 engine have been used since 1950.
Just 17 engines have won even a single Grand Prix, only 12 have
powered drivers to world championships and (since 1958) 10
different engines have won constructors' championships.

Engine Wins
(including 2013). CURRENT engine suppliers)       

222 FERRARI
176 Cosworth
165 RENAULT
99 MERCEDES
72 Honda
40 Coventry Climax
25 TAG Porsche
20 BMW
18 BRM
12 Alfa Romeo
11 Maserati
9 Vanwall
8 Repco
4 Mugen Honda
3 Matra
1 Porsche
1 Westlake
(source: J Deschenaux Grand Prix Guide)


Turbo Era Wins
40 Honda
25 TAG Porsche
20 RENAULT
15 FERRARI
9 BMW
(source: MotorSport magazine) Glorious F1 Ferrari sounds...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBXUOomynxw


2014 Mercedes turbo sounds...
www.youtube.com/MERCEDESAMGPETRONAS