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rjbetty
25th August 2012, 15:03
Hey all,

for some reason I just want to know that.

Does anyone know reliable figures for all the engines in F1 in 1985 in both qual and race spec?

I hear Honda had the most in qual, about 1300hp, followed by Brabham which had more like 1250?

Would be cool to know, if poss. Thanks. :)

D-Type
25th August 2012, 19:21
Cimarosti quotes the following figures for 1985 and 1986 engines

Alfa Romeo 860 bhp at 10 500 rpm
Ford ?
Motori Moderni 720-750 bhp @ 11 300 rpm and boost of 3.2 bar
Renault 750-850 bhp at 12000 rpm
Zakspeed 700-750 at 10 000 rpm
Presumably these relate to race trim.
In the text he says that Ferrari stated their engine gave 789 bhp at 11 000 rpm and 3.5 bar boost and for qualifying at higher boost 1000 bhp. Later he writes that the BMW and Honda engines gave up to 1150 bhp for qualifying compared to Ferrari and Renault at 1000 bhp

Alan Henry says that Rosberg's Honda engine was giving 1070 bhp at Silverstone.

I think it will be very difficult to find reliable figures. The source has to be the teams. What incentive is there for a team to leak accurate fingers to anybody. Assuming that the opposition believe the figures given, an inflated figure could force them to increase the boost and break their engine matching it while a devalued figure could lull the opposition into a false sense of security. And wasn't there one race-winning engine maker whose engine's power output exceeded the capacity of the dynamometer?

Bruce D
28th August 2012, 12:53
And wasn't there one race-winning engine maker whose engine's power output exceeded the capacity of the dynamometer?

Renault and Honda both exceeded their dynos. I remember Patrick Head saying that Honda's dyno ended at 1000bhp, which the engine reached just after 9000rpm, but the engine revved to 13500rpm!

The Autocourse annuals of the time estimated Renault at about 1300bhp max for qualifying in 1986, with BMW and Honda not far off 1200bhp.