Racecar Engineering - November 2005

GM Ecotec engine
General Motors chose
two very different
motorsport arenas in
which to showcase its new
four-cylinder world engine,
programmes designed with
racers fi rmly in mind
Words
Photos
Mike Pye
GM; Pye
Recipe
for success
General Motors Corporation, as well as
being the world’s largest vehicle
manufacturer is also one of the most
successful competitors in the worldwide
motorsports arena. So when it set its collective
minds to producing a new production car engine
that would be equally well suited to motorsport
applications, it knew it had to come up with
something special, and an equally special strategy
for getting the engine worldwide exposure.
GM cites five ‘pillars’ to its motorsport strategy:
a dynamic training ground for its engineers;
technology transfer; employee enthusiasm; a
marketing platform and high performance parts
sales. And in a world dominated by marketeers,
motorsport is big business, affording a valuable
in-road to a market of millions that attend
motorsport events across the world and billions
that view it on TV.
It also wanted a real return to the philosophy
of its founders – to win on the track and win in
the marketplace – and the huge sums of money
GM is currently pouring into its racing
programmes is doing just that, with the results
already filtering down into its production models
with beneficial results for the buying public.
Ever since GM debuted its quintessential small
block V8 engine in 1955, it has been aware of this
fact and has provided for it through its
performance parts divisions. But times have
changed, and growing levels of environmental
awareness led GM engineers to develop a new
engine – an engine that was suitable, not only for
the future, but for more widespread use outside
the United States of America as well – a truly
‘global’ engine. With the company in partnership
with Fiat, Isuzu, Suzuki, Subaru, Daewoo, as well
as in technological collaboration with Toyota,
BMW and Renault, and with facilities in Europe,
Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa,
the global market was where it focussed its view.
“
THE GLOBAL MARKET
WAS WHERE IT
FOCUSSED ITS VIEW
”
‘In today’s business world, the expenditure of
any amount of money requires a solid business
case,’ said Doug Duchardt, former director of GM
Racing. ‘It is important for both marketing and
engineering reasons to have strong links between
the products that we race and the products that
we sell to the customers. Racing is a sport, but
ultimately it’s about business.’
GM therefore had to design and build a new
engine that would fulfil all these criteria. An
engine that would be suitable in a wide range of
vehicles across its brands, one which was a sound
investment and would last long into the future,
and yet one that would also enable it to race
successfully, both to promote the product and to
continue its long history in motorsport.
The next big thing?
Already being likened to the small block V8 for its
simplicity, versatility, reliability and unlimited
potential, GM’s four-cylinder Ecotec engine
features lightweight, all-aluminium construction,
a four-valve-per-cylinder head and dual overhead
camshafts. Nothing new in that perhaps but, using
‘recipes’ from the GM Sport Compact Performance
Build Book (GM part no. 88958646), power output
can be raised from the 140bhp it produces in stock
form up to a prodigious 1100bhp+ in drag racing
spec. Better still, all this can be achieved with
products available directly off GM’s parts shelf.
‘The Ecotec was designed with many technologies
in mind from the beginning – turbocharging,
supercharging, variable valve timing and direct
injection were all thought of when it was
originally designed instead of an afterthought,’
said Tom Read of GM Powertrain
Communications.
Its design, too, was to be a truly global affair,
involving over 200 engineers from Opel’s
48 November 2005 Racecar Engineering
www.racecar-engineering.com