Ferrari Patents Oval-Piston V12 with strange shared confrods

Pistons in the shape of a pill would help shorten a V12, perhaps so that it can remain compact even when it is hybridized

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If you thought that car manufacturers had stopped making efforts to find new radical combustion ideas when they focus on electric vehicles, you are wrong. Ferrari filed a patent for engines with pistons in the shape of a classic Nascar track.

The patent unearthed by Autoguide and tabled last fall with the European Patent Office is intended for engines with “stadium -shaped” pistons. That is to say that they are not strictly oval, but more like the rectangles with the two rounded short sides.

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The pistons are oriented so that the longer edge extends from the outside of the block to the inner VEE, which would help reduce the length of an engine. This could be particularly useful if Ferrari sought to add hybrid power without creating an extremely long motorcycle group. There could also be advantages for valves of valves (or the number of valves) equipped above each piston.

Although the Ferrari patent specifies only the engine would have at least two cylinders, one of the drawings shows a V12. The new Hypercar F80 has disappointed some fans with only a V6 (although this is linked to F1 and Le Mans because Tech of the brand), so maybe Ferrari thinks of how to equip his successor with a compact hybrid V12.

Or maybe it is thinking about how to manage the weight on your V12 front engine cars, 12cilindri and purosangue, which none currently has hybrid power, but will need in the future.

Another interesting technological innovation contained in patent filing concerns conrods. Instead that each piston has its own connecting rod which loops directly to the crankshaft, regardless of the other pistons, the stems of this new engine are attached. The bearing cap on a rod is formed by the base of the opposite piston rod, a flexible joint allowing the second rod to rotate as necessary to move up and down the bore of the cylinder.

Motorcycle fans may know that Ferrari is not the first company to try to reinvent the piston. At the end of the 1970s, Honda created a V4 with real oval pistons for her NR500 racing bike in order to build a four -time that could follow two strokes.

In this case, the pistons were arranged with their longer parallel side, rather than perpendicular to the crankshaft, and each piston had two conrods. Honda engineers proposed the design to make room for eight cylinder valves for better breathing, but the engines suffered from ineffective sealing of the piston rings and have never been up to their promise.

H / T in Autoguide