4 cylinder turbos out, 6 cylinder turbos in (theoretically)

[UltimateDanGTR]

autosport.com - F1 News: F1 considers move to V6 turbos
BBC Sport - Formula 1 delays introduction of ‘green’ engines until 2014

if this goes through, it's good news. Postponing it also makes sense. Let's hope all engine manufacturers (and some new ones) like this and keep supplying engines to F1. goodness knows what this means for PURE though, meanwhile it would have made sense to go for the same engine rules as IndyCar, so we could see Honda, Chevvie and Lotus units, but V6T is an improvement on V4T.

[Robinho]

that'll be goodbye renault then i assume

[SGWilko]

that'll be goodbye renault then i assume

So what - Renault have come and gone as they pleased in the past........

[UltimateDanGTR]

that'll be goodbye renault then i assume

the autosport article seems to indicate that all current engine manufacturers have agreed to the change, in which case Renault should be staying. Renault were the only ones supporting the changes anyway, so the news that a compromise has been reached suggests renault have agreed to it.

[Shifter]

I'd be much happier with sixes than fours! Sixes have a wonderful gatling-gun sound, and perhaps they'd be a bit more relevant to the manufacturers.

[555-04Q2]

The sound of a 4 pot turbo egine is much nicer than a 6 pot turbo engine. But they both suck when compared to a howling V8, V10 or V12!

[steveaki13]

The sound of a 4 pot turbo egine is much nicer than a 6 pot turbo engine. But they both suck when compared to a howling V8, V10 or V12!

Agree.

V12 Turbos.

[Sonic]

An N/A engine always sounds nicer than forced induction IMHO, but that said any engine capable of kicking out several hundred ponies will sound meaty enough so I don't think we need to fear.

[Triumph]

I was just reading this on the BBC F1 site. Great news as far as I'm concerned, and an unexpectedly sensible decision when taking into account the noises involved!

Four cylinder engines (with a couple of exceptions) sound about as boring as it is possible to imagine. V8s with flat-plane crankshafts just sound like four cylinder engines (with one exception I can think of), so that's just as bad. Any configuration six-cylinder engines sound great - flat-plane crankshaft or otherwise - so the new regulations get a big thumbs-up from me.

[Rollo]

I actually don't understand what the reasoning is behind specifying the cylinder configuration in the rules.
The last time we had turbo engines, there were inline-4s, V6s and V8s and they all had their own distinctive engine notes.

According to Honda's research in the late 1980s, the ideal size for a cylinder in an Otto cycle engine is about 298cc (I did see the calculations once, hooboy!); therefore at 1.6L ideally the best engine config would either be an inline-5 or a V5. To the best of my knowledge, only Honda and VW-Audi have put V5 engines into production. I5s have been used by far more companies.