Before he joined PURE, Gilles Simon worked at the FIA to define the technical regulations for the turbo engines. He explained why the FIA chose to run small V6 engines displacing just 1.6 litres.
“If we want to keep motorsports alive in today’s world without losing what we love about them, they need to become the proving ground for new technologies in order to attract the major car manufacturers and hold the interest of die-hard fans as well as everyday car buyers,” Simon added.
What kind of output can we expect from these 1,600 cc engines, which are fed by a unique turbocharger and fitted with all the latest kinetic and thermal energy regeneration systems?
“Initially, our objective is to produce roughly the same power as the current naturally aspirated 2.4L V8s,” Simon replied.
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| The turbos will be back in F1 in 2014. (Photo: BorgWarner) |
“But we need to keep in mind that we’ll be dealing with a small 1.6L turbocharged engine that will only be able to burn a relatively small amount of fuel. I think that when all the regeneration systems are in action, the engine will produce about the same output as the current engines, so roughly 700 horsepower,” Simon indicated.
When will the PURE engine hit the test bench?
“We started working on the V6 project in July of last year. Our goal is to have it on the dyno this July. We have authorized the manufacturing of the large components that are made of foundry castings, and we expect to have all the parts in hand by early June. We’ll then assemble the first engine, perform all the necessary checks and test it on the dyno in July,” the engineer explained.