Honda 2007 spec at Monza

[kmarko]

Hmm... pics from XPB (may appear later in autosport.com) show big lumps (and lots of smaller bits looking like silver gravel) of engine casing stuck to the floor. Judging from the shape and position of the biggest piece it looks like a rods gone through the casing at the front pair of cylinders.

Ouch....!

It would be nice if you could post that picture because it is only low res at autosport.com (don't have subscription)

[DaveKillens]

Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, this may not be a fundamental engine flaw.
Sometimes, when an engine experiences damage so quickly, it may not have had it's components brought up to operating temperature properly. That is when they blow up, the first few laps. Take into consideration that this was Davidson's car, the third driver, and not the primary focus of the team. So maybe, maybe they got it wrong, someone didn't follow the correct procedure before sending the car out.
Honda has a ton of experience in building engines, even though this iteration is new and has the odds against it at this time. But they tested this engine, and felt confident enough to use it on a race weekend.
As far as bringing spares, heck, Honda could charter a jet direct from the factory in Japan and have a new engine on hand in time.

[Timstr]

This looks like either a faulty assembly or a bad batch of parts.

[Mikey_s]

I have to agree withDave, I am sure that Honda hve done miles and miles of simulations on the bench... it does seem strange that the engines blew so early... I'm sure that by now they will have dissembled the engines to identify what it was they missed in ther bench testing...

[Timstr]

Are my eyes deceiving me or are the exhaust ports within the "V"?
Or is the engine on it's side?

2007 Honda

[kmarko]

Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, this may not be a fundamental engine flaw.
Sometimes, when an engine experiences damage so quickly, it may not have had it's components brought up to operating temperature properly. That is when they blow up, the first few laps. Take into consideration that this was Davidson's car, the third driver, and not the primary focus of the team. So maybe, maybe they got it wrong, someone didn't follow the correct procedure before sending the car out.
Honda has a ton of experience in building engines, even though this iteration is new and has the odds against it at this time. But they tested this engine, and felt confident enough to use it on a race weekend.
As far as bringing spares, heck, Honda could charter a jet direct from the factory in Japan and have a new engine on hand in time.

I guess it's late now for this GP http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/54334 .

I don't know but maybe the stresses from the Monza bumps are very harmful to this engine.
Last time they didn't take into great account the temperature stresses and they had quite a number of blowups because of that.
Testing on a dyno is something, but the real thing is testing in race conditions, this is why Honda wanted to introduce this engine at this week's GP.

But all in all i'm sure they will get it ready at least for Suzuka, the deadline for lodging a homologated engine.

[i70q7m7ghw]

That whole picture is on its side, look at that bag of bit thats hanging down...

[DaveKillens]

Honda has already achieved a major goal so far, a win this season. It's not that they are throwing away the rest of the season, but they intend to be as far forward for next year's season. That means getting the new spec engine as mature as possible. Obviously Davidson's blowup was a setback, they won't get a true race for this new spec engine.
Honda has 58 points as a manufacturer, sitting fourth between Mclaren at 89 and Toyota at 28 points. It would be impossible to improve, and improbable to fall back behind Toyota.