Every once in a while, when looking at no holds barred race cars there comes the engineering equivalent of a facepalm moment. It's that second where we wonder 'Why didn't I think of that?' Like when we discovered how Nic Mann's record-breaking hill climb racer uses a turbine engine from a helicopter auxiliary power unit to drive a turbocharger feeding the 1.7-liter Cosworth four-cylinder a constant stream of boost. To eliminate turbo lag, Nic hooked the turbine to the impeller side of the remote turbo, which can feed the engine at up to 43 PSI. Bonkers is one way to describe it.
This of course completely eliminates turbo lag from the compressed intake air routed to the main drive engine. The hybrid engine is hooked up to an even stranger contraption behind it — a Ford Sierra powertrain. The car uses the all wheel drive and transmission from a lowly Sierra, albeit beefed up quite a bit. Unfortunately this has been the weak point in the car and Nic is considering swapping out the internals on the MT75 for Borg Warner T5 bits to avoid the breaking. Currently the car makes around 400 HP at 23 PSI of pressure, but plans are to ramp that up to 43 PSI and up the insanity.
The video above shows the car in action during hill climb racing at Gurston Down in old Blighty. Also featured in this video is a positively bonkers Ford Puma with a tube chassis and carbon fiber body with a twin turbo Cosworth engine. It'll do 0-to-60 MPH in 1.8 seconds and the quarter mile in 9.45 seconds. Pick your jaw up and watch the video, make sure your speakers are turned up during the race footage.
For more details on Nic Mann's Manic Beattie Hillclimb Car head over to Race Engine Design and read up. (Hat tip goes out to Rust-MyEnemy) [youtube]
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