Brabham BT49 - Engine and Transmission

Engine and Transmission

The Ford Cosworth DFV was produced by Cosworth in Northampton and had been used in Formula One since 1967. It is a 2,993 cc (183 cu in) normally aspirated four-stroke engine with two banks of four cylinders at 90 degrees to each other in a 'V8' configuration. It has an aluminium alloy engine block with cylinder liners. Each of its crossflow cylinder heads has a single spark plug and four valves, activated by gear-driven double overhead camshafts. This, combined with the flat-plane crankshaft, provides a relatively simple exhaust layout, in which the exhaust pipes exit on the outer side of the block. The engine is water-cooled, with water and oil radiators mounted in the left and right sidepods respectively. In 1980, a revised version of the DFV was introduced in which ancillaries such as the water and oil pumps were reduced in size and grouped further forwards on the flanks of the engine to provide more clearance for ground effect tunnels under the cars.

Like its contemporaries, the BT49 uses the engine as a fully stressed structural component, carrying all loads between the front and rear of the car: the front of the engine bolts directly to the integral fuel tank and the back of the engine attaches to the car's rear suspension and gearbox. The Ford Cosworth engine integrated into the car much more easily than Alfa Romeo's large, heavy and inconsistently sized units: Murray described returning to the DFV as being "like having a holiday".

By the time the DFV was used in the BT49, it weighed roughly 340 lb (154 kg) and produced around 500 brake horsepower (373 kW) at about 11,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). Peak torque was 270 pound-feet (366 N·m) at 9,000 rpm. After his first test session with the car, Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet commented that he had always believed "that the DFV was quite a rough, coarse engine, but it felt quite the opposite to me. After those Alfa V12s it felt smooth and willing to rev." In 1979, when the BT49 first raced, all but three teams - Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Renault - used the DFV, and the most powerful alternative (Alfa Romeo's V12) produced 525 bhp (391 kW). By 1982, most teams still used the DFV, but BMW, Ferrari and Hart had joined Renault in employing turbocharged engines: Ferrari's 1982 turbocharged V6 engine produced around 580 bhp (433 kW), while the DFV's output had remained at around 500 bhp.

The BT49 was initially fitted with the same gearbox the team had been using since 1977: a six-speed unit designed by Brabham using internal components from Hewland and a casing cast by Alfa Romeo.