Brutus
 | |
Year: | 2006 |
Class : | race car |
Body design : | Roadster |
Engine: | Gasoline:47.0 liters (550 kW) |
Empty weight: | 2537 kg |
Brutus is an experimental racing car built between 1998 and 2006 by the Auto- und Technikmuseum Sinsheim in the form of early twentieth-century cars. A BMW aeroplane engine with a capacity of 47 litres is a unique feature of this vehicle.
History
The engine was discovered by a member of the Museum Association at a junkyard in Spain, where it had resided for decades. The engine was eventually acquired by the museum via a collector in exchange for another aircraft engine from a Messerschmitt Bf 109. Originally, the engine was supposed to be just another museum component in the show. He was technically overhauled in the museum's workshop in four years for this. The actual size of the engine were unknown at first.
If one went first of "only" about 25 liters of displacement, turned out in the course of overhaul that there are probably 47 liters. The director of the museum, Hermann Layher, found it a pity to show only the engine alone in the exhibition. Therefore, he decided to install the engine in a car. A few missing parts of the engine drove the fundus at the museum. So also a suitable momentum starter, which was exhibited in a showcase of the museum and of the so far no one knew exactly what it was originally intended for.
The name "Brutus" is an allusion to Marcus Iunius Brutus , who was involved in the joint murder of Julius Caesar . Caesar was Brutus' mentor, foster father and, in a sense, his boss. Hermann Layher is convinced that the Brutus racing car is certainly the most dangerous vehicle in the world and always out to kill his driver, so his boss.
The original goal was to design a car with the Brutus, which reaches a speed of 100 km / h at a speed of 800 / min . The idle speed of the engine is 400 / min.
With the Brutus several times speeds between 120 and 140 km / h were reached, a driver accelerated the car to about 200 km / h. According to the test drivers, there are still plenty of power reserves for much higher speeds.
Historically, such a construction is quite plausible and not uncommon. After the peace treaty of Versailles, which was concluded at the end of the First World War , Germany was forbidden to build up air forces . But as many aircraft engines were available, they were often used in racing cars. For example, the Sinsheim Auto and Technik Museum will also be exhibiting a Mercedes 45 hp engine from 1907, which was fitted with a Maybach 19.5-liter engine and 220 kW (299 hp) as early as 1917 .The Brutus was presented in 2006. The construction period totaled about eight years, with four years alone accounted for the overhaul of the engine.
The drive is BMW VI - Aircraft Engine inline 8. It has a large capacity of 46,930 cm³ (47 liters) and performs short-term 750 hp (552 kW ) at 1650 / min. As a continuous output by the manufacturer BMW 550 hp (405 kW) at 1530 / min specified. The V-engine has 12 cylinders in two rows with an angle of 60 ° to each other, each with six main and Nebenpleueln . This was a popular design at the time of engine design around 1925, which made it possible to construct such a powerful engine in a relatively compact manner. Due to the differently articulated Connecting rod shows that the cylinders have four liters on the right side and 3.82 liters on the left side. The specific consumption of the engine at full load should be 215-230 g / PSh (292-313 g / kWh).
As a chassis that serves a fire hose carriage from American LaFrance from the year 1908. The motor force is transmitted through the original transmission with three gears and a chain transmission to the rear axle. Between the engine and gearbox, an intermediate gearbox was installed to adapt to the low-lying crankshaft. As a counterweight to the severe engine of several hundred liter tank is housed in the rear. The brakes work only on the rear axle. The body was in the workshop of the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim made in which a group of enthusiasts who are Brutus Motorwagenbau , built also the entire vehicle called. The car has no bulkhead ; The driver sits directly behind the engine, whose moving parts (for example the flywheel ) are only separated from the driver's compartment by a grille. The hot exhaust heat and any leaks of the engine, the driver is more or less exposed directly and vulnerable.The Brutus weighs 2537 kg empty.
