Blog : Engine stats...

Feb 27

Engine stats...

As a complete petrol head I was amazed at some engine statistics I read this weekend in a US motorcycle magazine. Please forgive the fact that it relates to 2 wheels and not 4, but the new Yamaha R6 is really pushing the boundaries of technological performance in a road going vehicle. Check out some of these statistics...

• Red line RPM: 17,500!
• Each piston is subjected to 9000G at each change of direction, which is the equivelant of the weight of several bikes being pushed and then pulled many times per second
• Maximum piston speed: 24.5 m/s, just below the recognised maximum of 25 m/s for an internal combustion engine
• There are 300 piston movements per second at max revs
• 'Fly-by-wire' throttle technology
• Lightweight titanium engine components

These were state-of-the-art Formula 1 statistics only a couple of years ago, so it's amazing that they're now associated with a $9000 motorcycle. With a soaking wet appetite for more I had to check to see what F1 cars were doing this year. That's when I stumbled across some information on the 2006 F1 V8 Cosworth engine, which can rev to an incredible 20,000RPM. If you know of any amazing vehicle stats please share them by commenting against this post, especially if it's a road going vehicle. In fact, what's your rev limit?