The Marvelous Monster, Nobuhiro Tajima's Pikes Peak Destroyer

Mike Kojima posted on July 07, 2010 18:48

Nobuhiro Tajima Suzuki Pikes Peak winning racecar

Of course we could not find out much about the specifics of the insides of the motor but we managed to get the outsides. Sometimes the crew was giving us WTF looks but we were polite and tried our best to stay out of the way and not look too obviously like we were taking tech shots. Here you can see how the space frame takes loads away from the engine. This is good with production based engines that are not designed to be load bearing members like what is common practice in true race cars. Production engines often have issues with the flex induced by chassis loads.

The engine has two big plenums on short, straight runners with a large rear mounted balance tube and twin throttle bodies, one for each turbo. The ignition is direct coil on plug. There looks to be some sort of variable cam timing although it could just be a cam position sensor.

The Monster's engine is pretty interesting; we believe that it is not a modified version of the Suzuki designed 2.7 liter H27A but actually something arising from Suzuki's partnership with General Motors. The engine family is called the HFV or GM High Feature V6. The HFV was first produced in 2004, a joint venture between Cadillac and Holden. It is a modern 60 degree V6 with a DOHC 4-valve, variable cam timing cylinder head. Direct injection and turbocharged versions are available in displacements from 2.8 to 4 liters. The HFV engine is found in many cars from Holden, Cadillac, Chevy, Alfa Romero, Saab, Saturn, Buick, GMC and last but not least Suzuki. The HFV is found in the larger Suzuki XL7 SUV.

Do you recognize these turbos? They look like Garrett Motorsports parts with non containment housings but they look a bit funny. Can any readers help? Comment below. The turbos are big. Check out the dry carbon induction piping! Nice inconel blankets protect stuff from heat.

The mid mounted variant in the Monster is 3.1 liters with a 92mm bore and a 77mm stroke. We believe that the engine is in the HFV family because of the difficulty in enlarging the 2.7 liter H27A to 3.1 liters while maintaining reliability. This is substantially smaller than the standard 3.6 liter version of the production XL7. We believe that the engine has been put together using components of the various versions of the HFV to arrive at this bore and stroke combination which is really oversquare. The oversquare engine is better at higher revs with better ability to control piston speed and better cylinder filling.

Recognize this wastegate? Help out and comment on what it is below.

Big turbos, we could not recognize the types are fed by tubular headers shrouded by an insulated inconel shield. We could not recognize the external wastegates used either. The compressors are fed by a pressurized airbox which draws in air in front of the huge rear wing. The compressed air is cooled by two large ARC intercoolers that are force fed air from two huge dry carbon ducts. After the intercoolers the air passes through twin throttle bodies, one for each turbo into a huge plenum on top of the engine which feeds into short runners to the heads.

Dry carbon forced air box takes air from the high pressure area at the base of the huge rear wing and feeds it to filters before the turbos. It also prevents the turbos from sucking up hot air from the intercoolers.

The engine uses a dry sump lubrication system and a coil on plug direct fire ignition system. Engine management is provided by Motec. The mighty engine pumps out 910 hp @ 8750 rpm and 655 lb/ft of torque at 5850 rpm. Cooling is handled by a huge front mounted bespoke ARC heat exchanger, with auxiliary water fogger nozzles needed in the thin, poorly heat conductive air near the summit of Pikes Peak.

The twin intercoolers on short charge piping are made by none other than ARC. Short low volume charge piping means good response. There are electric fans behind the intercoolers as well to draw air through at low speeds and when the car is drifting sideways.

The intercoolers are fed massive amounts of cool air by these huge dry carbon scoops. Thin air conducts heat poorly so its a struggle to keep things cool on the mountain.

Some of the water misting nozzles that help keep things cool at high altitudes.

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The Marvelous Monster, Nobuhiro Tajima's Pikes Peak Destroyer

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