Yeah, I hear you, but being an engineer, when you're married to a certain engine and you're going against the grain of what everyone else is doing, what is it exactly you're trying to accomplish? Winning, or being an also-ran with a Cummins?
I know you've scoffed at the Dmax and thrown it under the hull. Why not something like an Audi or Peugot TDI like they use in LeMans? Are they maintenance nightmares?
On the surface it would appear you have unlimited funding...
Actually, I'd think that DM threw themselves under the bus would be more accurate, esp since it is an UNTESTED wet dream and not real.
Engineers revel (generally) in 'perfect' (a/o 'elegant') solutions (or more usually knuckle under to accounting and marketing demands and produce something unpolished, unfinished, flawed and half-done) and are fully capable of conflating forest & tree. You see nothing wrong with the clear & obvious maintence nightmare that is the front of the DM. I was horrified at the attempted fraud.
You mean something like this:
RED A03 / V12 | RED aircraft GmbH | RAIKHLIN AIRCRAFT ENGINE DEVELOPMENTS
Raikhlin has the rights to develop the alloy Audi/VW V-12 for aircraft AND marine use. He has a prototype 750hp marine that has never gotten wet, and Audi engineers say it takes an hour of maintenance for every 2hours running, and that is on dry land. err ... NO
Horsepower is horsepower: diesel, gas, Cummins, DM, hamsters on wheels.
I want 8-900 of the lowest-maintenance, smallest, lightest, most reliable diesel horsepower I can find. A very conservative re-build of a Cummins B comes closest to that ideal ... 500kg and 30gpm, WOT
FPT C-90-825?? --- 1400kg & 45 gal/hr
IFM 1306/790?? --- 980kg (but will not sell an engine for 'racing') & 40gph
MAN R6-800?? --- 1300kg and daily adjusting & 40gph
SeaTek 950 --- 980kg and more maint than the Audi. & 43gph
Yanmar 6SY-720 --- 1100kg and 38gph
CAT C12/755 (tweaked) --- 1200kg and 40gph
As you may note, these are REAL, currently available engines, in daily service, with transparent histories - NOT silly-ass vapourware and breezy, untroubled daydreams that (also and coincidentally) require a schooled, certified 200# mechanic, as well as a rolling toolkit and 30cu.ft. of spare parts as supercargo.
If you have other suggestions - preferably that do not necessitate stopping every hour for tea & maintenance - I'd be pleased to know them.
I am part of a well-funded, serious syndicate, yes.
