View Single Post
Old 10-11-2010, 11:05 PM   #21 (permalink)
womprat
Lead-footed Econewbie
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Posts: 52

Ceffy - '97 Nissan Cefiro 25 excimo
90 day: 25.21 mpg (US)

Demio - '07 Mazda Demio Sport
90 day: 30.99 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4
Thanked 5 Times in 2 Posts
The cooling...

I regret not seeing a Britten V1000 full blat in real life, unless someone revives the project the way the Britten family mishandled the estate means doubt we ever will.

Although I've seen one, there is bike #007 (6?) on display in the national musem near me, and I occasionally make a pilgrimage.

One thing that struck me about the design was the fully ducted cooling. Looking it up close I noticed the two intakes for the cooling are so small you couldn't fit your fist in. Yet that disapates the heat of a 160hp race motor. I read that Britten found their cooling system to be so efficient they could significantly reduce the frontal aera of the cooling intake, set them further back and out of the airflow. They no doubt gained quite a bit of aero improvement from this.

They also found the narrow V-Twin also got a lot of cooling via airflow over the engine casing, and advantage of not being enclosed in fairing, yet being sufficiently out of direct airflow (engine shielded by front wheel and the girder-suspension with it's own fairing).

So I think theres something in this for ecomodders. Efficient fully ducted cooling, by adding a small secondary radiator somewhere? And a moveable grill block flap to completely shut off the main rad when not needed?

  Reply With Quote