Blinky McSquinty wrote:
Robbo-92 wrote:
I don't doubt that the sentence in that article is incorrect, but from a business and financial point of view it just seems a waste of resources to continue to develop the engine if they had no intention of returning to the sport with the same engine. So it does make me believe they intended to return much earlier than 2015, hence why they continued to work out the engine woes this engine had.
Honda manages to use the develop their engineering talent in a manner quite different than some industry practices. They place their brightest and promising engineers in racing departments before relocation to production cars. In the racing environment they face time, financial, performance, and engineering challenges, but if someone makes a mistake, it won't hurt the company as if one of their production cars had a serious engineering fault. If these bright engineers can succeed in the racing shops, then they are prepared to enter the high value and high risk world of developing production vehicles.
That's exactly the case. Yes, racing itself is risky, but as far as your employees are concerned, it's risky to only a few. Once you begin selling production cars to hundreds of thousands to sometimes millions of consumers, the liability of your company skyrockets. That's why companies constantly deal with safety recalls without hesitation. Combine that with Honda's genuine inquisitive nature in racing and development (definitely trailed off in the 90s and 00s, but seems to be picking back up again!) and you'll see why they branch off development in all sorts of areas. Gotta keep an open mind about things.
That's not to say they weren't considering a return prior to 2014 with the V8, but I have a feeling they were a bit jaded with the formula after 2007-2008, and they of course made the right decision to pull out to look after the bottom line of the company. I am pleasantly surprised, as a Honda engine fanatic, that they've released initial powerplant designs for the new NSX chassis - and it is turbocharged.

Blinky, I had honestly never seen the pneumatic valve assemblies in these before until now so had no clue what they might have consisted of. I had noticed they have retaining plates above them much like many bearings have - I'm wondering if the press fit was enough for the V10s, but maybe this was a solution to the increased vibrations of the V8. I have a feeling the V10s had those as well given the usage of the engines. But got me thinking anyhow.
And yes, the casts of the aluminum components are beautiful things.