Q:
How long have you been working on the entry to the 2007 season?
CW:
I have been working on it for close to two years. I first started talking to Ilmor back in 2005 about a number of options available to them in offshore racing. I did some racing in the USA last year in a six year old Scarab with the Ilmor engines, but I didn't feel it was a good enough package. The new hull, drives, engines and crew all fell into place at the Miami Boat Show in mid-February.
Q:
Of course you want to win the championship, but who do you really want to finish ahead of? The one other British team in the Evolution class, or do you have someone else in mind?
CW:
We want to win the championship and be ahead of everyone, particularly the great man himself, Fabio Buzzi!
Q:
What made you go for Ilmor over, say, Isotta Fraschini (championship leaders) or other suppliers?
CW:
The Powerboat P1 series is a power-to-weight class. Diesels are big, heavy and not as responsive (thanks to turbo lag), which is, obviously, a disadvantage around the shorter six mile P1 courses with lots of turns. A diesel boat may outrun you around Malta or the Isle of Wight but, as we saw in Naples, our team made good starts, built up a lead and controlled the races from the front. The Buzzi hull, which is a patrol boat design, did get the fastest lap in both races so it's not slow - just cumbersome.
As for the Ilmor, which is actually the all-aluminium Dodge Viper V10 engine, it's lightweight, has fantastic torque, a good rev band and, being normally aspirated, instant throttle response. Despite what others may think, our engines are rated at 625bhp although Ilmor do produce a 700bhp version. But to run that power output and take the additional 525 kilo weight penalty would drastically affect our performance. There's no point. It was driveability, not outright horsepower, that won us those races. In my opinion, it's the best engine in P1 by far.
Q:
What experience from F1/IRL have you, and the guys at Ilmor, been able to draw on to help you to do so well, so fresh out of the box?
CW:
The engine is a proven product. Ilmor Marine have been developing the design since 2004 and have sold several hundred into the American high performance boat market. Although it could be used in Class 1 and produce 900+ HP, Ilmor see little point in going down that route and the instability it brings. The Ilmor V10 is a production based unit used in a class were production based components are encouraged.
Q:
How much more development will you be doing on the V10 over the course of the season?
CW:
We run production units and our engines can be bought by anyone after the races.
