Zakspeed 1500/4
The Zakspeed 1500/4 was a turbocharged straight-4 racing engine developed by privateer German team Zakspeed. The engine was used exclusively by Zakspeed in Formula One from 1985 to 1988. Zakspeed had been hoping to have the backing of Ford with their project after an association with them while running turbocharged Ford Escort and Capri models in Group 2 and Group 5 racing, but decided to go it alone after Ford chose to remain with their major partner, British engineering company Cosworth.
The Zakspeed engine was one of two German made 4 cylinder turbo's in Formula One at the time, with the other coming from BMW who had won the World Championship with Nelson Piquet and the Brabham team in.
It was rumoured that Zakspeed's engine block was based on the Cosworth designed and built Ford BDA block used in the Ford Escorts that the team knew well, though in truth it was an entirely new aluminium block designed for the team by West German engineer Norbert Kreyer. Cosworth themselves had unsuccessfully tried to turbocharge the BDA for F1 in mid-late 1984 before settling on an all new, 120° V6 turbo in partnership with Ford.
History
The, aluminium block and head engine used a Bosch–Motronic engine management system and who's power topped out at approximately at 11,500 rpm in, though at that level of power, the reliability of both the engine and turbos was largely lamentable. The 1500/4 was somewhat underdeveloped compared to its turbocharged rivals from the large manufacturers in Honda, Ferrari, Renault, BMW, TAG-Porsche and Ford-Cosworth, and was more on par with other independent Formula One engine manufacturers of the original turbo era such as those from British independent engineering firm Hart Racing Engines or the Italian Motori Moderni V6 engine designed by former Alfa Romeo Chief Engineer Carlo Chiti.Fuel for the Zakspeed engine was supplied by associate sponsors Shell and like most F1 racing fuels of the time was a mixture of Toluene and Methanol that was often referred to at the time as rocket fuel or jungle juice.
When Zakspeed first entered Formula One in and announced that it would be using its own engines, it was thought they could be as big as either of the then three major manufacturers in the sport with their own teams, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Renault. However, the reality was that despite the team having was many incorrectly believed to be a very lucrative sponsorship deal from German cigarette brand West who also had naming rights with the team, Zakspeed neither had the budget nor the resources or expertise to become a front runner in F1 and the sight of a Zakspeed turbo with a plume of white smoke trailing behind it signalling either engine or turbo failure became a common sight on the worlds F1 tracks for the four years the team ran with its own engine. While it was rumoured that McLaren and Lotus were getting around $20–30 million from their cigarette sponsors Marlboro and Camel respectively allowing for much more development testing of their cars and engines, Zakspeed's budget rarely even included the money to go testing. Indeed, in, Zakspeed even had to take on Dutch driver Huub Rothengatter largely because his own personal sponsorship paid the team for the drive.
The only Formula One World Championship points scored by the team and its 4-cylinder engine was 2 by British driver Martin Brundle for finishing 5th at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix. Brundle only drove for the team in that 1987 season.
By the end of its racing life at the end of the season, Zakspeed was one of only 6 teams still using turbo power with the turbo boost reduction to 2.5 Bar and the fuel limit reduced to just 150 litres. However, despite having comparable power to the other turbos on the grid, that's where the comparisons stopped. While the Honda powered McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost raced to 15 wins from 16 races, and 15 pole positions easily winning both the Drivers' and Constructors' titles that year, Zakspeed failed to qualify 17 times from the combined 32 attempts and could only finish a best of 12th at their home Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring in Germany.
The low point of the 1988 season which showed out Zakspeed's problems with their car and engine was their double non-qualification at the ultra fast Silverstone Circuit for the British Grand Prix. At a power circuit which should have suited their greater turbo power, the Zakspeed's of Piercarlo Ghinzani and rookie driver Bernd Schneider were 0.516 seconds and 2.483 seconds respectively slower than the 26th and last placed qualifier, Nicola Larini in the Osella with its outdated Alfa Romeo based V8 turbo.
With FISA banning turbos from the end of the 1988 season, Zakspeed retired its own engine in favour of using a brand new, 3.5L Yamaha V8 engine power from.
Power
The engine power figures by year were quoted as such:Qualifying -
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Formula One World Championship results
- points scored in 1987 were using the 871 Chassis