Hi All
I have been working on a project for a while now and didn't want to say anything until I had more of the fine detail completed and was closer to something that I could present to the community but as we are pretty much now finalised on the CAD drawings I wanted to share what we have.
We are building a new 3.5cc nitro engine to be used in RC boats as well as tethered hydro's and tethered cars. The need for this came from tethered models primarily but to make a venture like this viable I needed to expand the market to RC boats as well. This means there will be variants of this engine available for RC and tethered use with some differences, an obvious difference, for example, would be the tethered variant will have a venturi and the RC version will have a carb but there will be more subtle differences as well.
We are just finalising component productions costs and timelines then we will be able to start testing pre-production engines and I felt that this process would be something that the community would enjoy watching unfold and see the results of our labour.
I am new to this forum but I have been part of the modelling community for a long time and worked in it directly for a number of years as well. In general, I would consider myself a knowledgable person when it came to model engines but when I started to explore the possibilities of producing a new engine, designed completely from the ground up, I realised just how complex and difficult an undertaking like this really is.
I'm not too proud to admit that to make something like this competitive and even partially viable I needed to enlist some help. For this help, I turned to what many would consider being the best in absolute performance model engines, Profi engines.
Many probably do not know who Profi engines are but they are a Ukraine based model engine manufacturer, They mainly make engines for the extreme speed models like F2A (Control line speed) or F3D (Pylon racing) - Their F2A 2.5cc engines has some very interesting innovations, like doing away with the inner race of the main bearing and using the crankshaft as the inner race, this enabled a larger bore crankshaft and a more efficient bearing.
They also produce the Metkemeijer MB40 Pylon race engine, if you know these engines then you know why I am working with Profi on the development of this new 3.5cc engine, if you don't, then I suggest you do some searching on the internet for information, you won't be disappointed.
Here is a picture of our engine to whet some appetites...
View attachment 287583
As I said, this is a ground-up design of a new engine, we have incorporated a Zimmerman disk drive induction as we believe this is the best for overall performance. As we start testing I will share more information, pictures and videos.
Some of my friends accused me of being mad for financing the development and production of a new model engine to what they believe is an ever-shrinking market. The only way I can explain this is that while the overall numbers of nitro users may be shrinking, those that stay or indeed start with nitro models are serious about the hobby and are committed to performance and want to push the hobby forward. I'm the same and really love this hobby.
The issue is, engine manufacturers will focus on the biggest markets to survive, that's why Picco stopped making marine engines and also why there are so few options when it comes to marine nitro engines.
I decided to put my money where my mouth is and this is where I am at. (let's hope I don't lose too much money!)
Hopefully, the community will be as excited about a new engine option as I am to be bringing it to market but I am not naive, I know that we need to make this engine competitive to a be a commercially viable venture.
If we can make a success of this engine we will look at producing more engines for different classes but before we attempt that we need to make this a success first.
Sorry for the essay!
Ricky
