Racing Engines - Crate Or Built?

According to driver Andy Mercer, the 443hp motor built by Don Losito was clear and away the strongest he ever had in a Late Model. So, why the apparent power discrepancy? Two reasons come to mind. One, we keep our DTS dyno calibrated, and two, we don't sell engines.

Andy commented on how easy it was to smoke the tires off the turns and the fact that the car was still nose-high from hard acceleration when he reached the braking point for the next corner. All this prompted a slew of new chassis setup problems along with the driver's huge re-evaluation of driving tactics. Andy found that with new tires he could almost pass another car at will, but the toll on the tires was such that they were shot way before the end of a race. This meant that tire preservation was more important than a test of how fast laps could be reeled off. Sure, the No. 10 has repeatedly qualified on the front row and contended for wins. But it looks like the built motor may have more power than the track/chassis/tire combination can effectively use.

How can we be sure that the car has more than enough power? The No. 64 has also qualified front row with 6-7 percent less power-to-weight ratio. An engine swap did not appear to change how competitive each driver was. What did change dramatically was the strategy toward winning a race. In essence, each came to the conclusion that, with the crate motor, the driver's main issue was concentrating on corner lines, braking points, and the best way to pass traffic. In other words, they were racing the car and the rest of the field. With the built motor, getting a fast lap was very much a question of driver-applied traction control (that's one of those uncommon situations where the driver is hard-wired between the right foot and the right side of the brain). Winning proved highly dependent on tire management throughout the race. There could be enough for the driver to think about during a race without having to let tire wear management rule over all else.

The car's chassis setup for each engine also proved quite different. With the crate motor it is important to have the car as near neutral as possible, as a tight or loose setup would tend to bog the motor down. Also, a car with a crate motor tends not to qualify as well as its built equivalent. For a car using built power to be successful, it probably needs a more experienced and skilled driver capable of exercising good throttle control. With its superior power-to-weight ratio, the built motor (with the right driver) will qualify better, so at the start of a race the built motor will have an advantage. As the race progresses, though, there will be a swing to the cars powered by crate engines. There is certainly a case here for a built motor for advanced drivers and/or short races (50 laps) and crate units for beginners and/or longer races (100-250 laps), where tire preservation is critical.

Which type of engine is most competitive? Before answering that, let me make a point about power on a short track. Tires, chassis, driver skill, and savvy produce the most consistent results. The engine ranks about fourth on the list. As such, consistency is most likely to win a championship.

Here is a case worth mentioning. At Hickory's 250-lap Fall Brawl, Bobby Measmer, a young driver whose progress I have been following, had entered his financially challenged Late Model Stocker. This had a frequently used crate motor, and as such, might not have even made the 390hp lower limit mentioned earlier. He felt that tire wear would be less of a factor for his lower-powered car. So, at the end of a run, he hoped the field would start to come to him. It did. He finished Sixth out of a field of high-dollar cars despite having to pit to fix some body damage.

It may seem that my analysis of built engines versus crate engines has been somewhat convoluted, but I am now about to get to the point. This hinges on two aspects. One, sealed crate motors are not as cheap as you may think. Two, the superior power of a built motor can, under certain circumstances, be more of a hindrance than an advantage. This leads me to the conclusion that a built crate motor may be the way to go.