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A combination of engineers, manufactures and boat owners are working to have the lobster boat’s top speeds take a big leap.
Race engine builder Richard Weaver has been working in recent years with a manufacturer of engine cylinder heads to develop a new racing head. It is being reported that the output from these new heads is expected to make everything before them obsolete. It has been reported that Bruce Engbert’s Thunderbolt is likely to be the boat that will be running the engine being developed. Thunderbolt is a full keel boat with equipment Engbert says is more in keeping with what the racing rules call for. Weaver said he is getting the first four of these new cylinder heads from the manufacturer. He said his role is more that of a consultant in the project. Key to making the new design reach as yet unheard of horsepower output is the use of straight alcohol fuel. Weaver, who has built pull truck engines for the Pellitier truck racing group, has said it is not so much the horsepower, but the delivery of torque that makes the difference. Designing a means of transferring that increased torque into boat speed is a major part of using the advanced engine design. The mechanical demands of using alcohol successfully are more complicated than gas or diesel fuel. Running alcohol fuel demands very high compression, 16:1. The new hemi-head, among other things, produces this compression ratio to effectively use the alcohol fuel that typically runs very cold. Racing engines running on alcohol are started with gas, and switched over to alcohol. |
