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Eric Hsu posted on November 03, 2009 02:37 
At the Cosworth SEMA booth there is a Cosworth F1 CA display engine. I believe this is the first time the engine has been displayed at a non-motorsports show. Previously pictures were not allowed so this might be one of the first pictures of the engine on the web. Anyhow, this is a 2006 spec display engine before the current re-tune for the 2010 season. I imagine there will be differences in the header design with the rev limiter being dropped to 18,000rpm from the 20,000rpm of 2006. I did not take a picture of the front. I wasn't actually planning on posting these images since I do not know officially if there is an embargo, but it will be displayed at SEMA at the Cosworth booth so I think my job is safe.
Notice the billet valve covers, spark plug cover and pump body. There are many billet machined parts on the CA engine. The air box is all carbon like many high end race engines are. The oil tank is also carbon, but is not seen in this picture. Just like any real deal race engine, the engine has a flat plane crank that allows the exhaust to be collected on each side.
Is this a header or what? Hand fabricated in inconel with two steps in diameter (three different diameter tubes), a big ass collector, and a super short secondary. I have never heard the CA in person myself, but I will bet a purple chip (I'm in Vegas remember) that you will enjoy the sound of it. I am curious how the re-tune for 18,000rpm will affect the header and engine design, but there's a good chance I'll never find out since everything F1 is super hush-hush. It's on a need to know basis and I sure as hell don't need to know.
The European race media is still calling the Cosworth CA 2010 spec a dog. How on earth they know this I have no idea. They talk so much shit its like reading the National Enquirer, but I'm pretty sure Cosworth isn't going to sit on their ass and release the 2010 spec CA as a dog. 2010 F1 should be exciting with 5 teams (10 cars) so far signed up to be using the Cosworth CA.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:15 AM
Very cool....I'm looking forward to the 2010 season primarily because of the huge field of cars. It's going to be very interesting.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 6:50 AM
Nice. Even when I visited Torrance, I could not take pictures either. People should feel very honored to see this and to think that it will be at Sema. Nice work. Very enjoyable post.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:12 AM
amazing....thing I could swap one in my se-r...hahaha
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:53 AM
hawtness ... im in love with teh header
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 2:17 PM
that header looks like a tech weapon out of a sci-fi movie... cool
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 5:30 PM
Like Mark said, it's an honor to "see" whats available. Like you mentioned Eric, F1 stuff is top secret (unless you're dealing with McLaren vs Ferrari......lol). On a more serious note: I would LOVE to hear from you more-in-depth reasons as to why the steps exhaust manifold works. I am in the process of building one myself (using 321 Burns stainless steel; not quite Inconel, but the principal is the same. Any thoughts, tips, ideas, would be great. Thanks again for posting this.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:22 PM
That engine looks really cool. I'm going to enjoy seeing how the Cosworth engines perform next year. I'm glad the US will be getting back into F1. I know this is off topic but I came across this valve float video while watching the 20G rpm vid. I just thought it was cool because this is the first time I've seen it in super slow mo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_NpzU4pGjc&NR=1
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:53 PM
"The European race media is still calling the Cosworth CA 2010 spec a dog. How on earth they know this I have no idea." May have had something to do with how poorly they performed before, and how exploderific they were.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 10:39 AM
It will be a very interesting 2010 season with all the driver changes too. I won't even pretend to know why there are two step sizes in the header. I'm mostly a turbo guy and header design is much simpler when you're a turbo guy. Perhaps Mike can comment when he's done consuming all the alcohol in Vegas. I don't think it was the engine performing poorly before. It was the most powerful engine on the grid before. The engine was used by the two bottom rung teams unfortunately.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:01 PM
Williams isn't a bottom rung team. They were doing quite well with BMW until they wanted their own team. We all know how that turned out now. not only did they use the CA2006 and have it fail miserably, they have re-signed for 2010 going forward to collaborate with the new design.
Friday, November 06, 2009 11:52 PM
The steps in the primaries have to do with the acoustic tuning of the manifold; each step creates a reverse pressure wave IIRC. The purpose is to provide a fatter powerband.
Saturday, November 07, 2009 1:51 AM
Right, Williams was not a bottom rung team. Toro Rosso was, but they were running the Cosworth TJ V10 with a rev limiter in 2006. Williams did well in the beginning of the season, but its unclear why they stopped doing well the last half of the season. Maybe the CA did loose some reliability when they started revving it to 20,500rpm. We'll see what happens in 2010.
Saturday, November 07, 2009 11:15 AM
The real truth about the most powerful engine on the grid from 2006. "Now the limit is 18,000rpm so you have a very robust basis for an engine. Those were a couple of areas that we thought were quite strong. If you look a back to 2006, it was one of our most unreliable years, but one of the things that was clear to us internally was that there was only one DNF from an engine failure. There were other engine-related failures but that was because of packaging and other areas of the car that we didn't have time to optimise because it was such a late decision. Cosworth have got a lot of work to do over winter to consolidate and make sure that that reliability is realised for the start of next year. " Sam Michael - Williams F1 2009-11-06
Saturday, November 07, 2009 11:28 AM
What he said
Saturday, November 07, 2009 11:44 AM
@spdracerut: Thanks for the explanation. Is there such a thing as too many steps? How many is too many? Do you have by any chance any link you can post up, I'm really interested. Once again, thanks for the insight.
 
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