[azl]

well, I stumbled on this site tonight and found it very interesting - http://www.bradbury.cwc.net/probemx/index.htm

it kind of confused me though. in the article the guy mentions Porsche and BMW in context to V6 engines. are other car makers using variants of the KL designed by Mazda, or am I just reading things wrong?

if they are, where does the "~400+ bhp" come from? and what does the b in bhp mean anyway?! is the KL03 the cheapest/most effiecient of the Mazda 2.5L bunch?

either way I liked the article and think you guys should check it out if you haven't yet

 

[JPMX6GT]

Yeah, that's Julian's Page. That site is like a bible to most MX6'ers and Probers. Bookmark that site and or read it throughly. Afterwards, you'll find that you'll know your car a lot better.

 

[Mike 94PGT]

Hehe...that's Julian. He likes peppering his text (on his page, when he was a member of the Probe/MX6 mailing lists and even his posts on probetalk.com) with external references to BMW & Porsche, I guess as a reference point of comparison in engineering, such as "V6s feature a Variable Resonance Intake System (VRIS), the same concept as later used by Porsche on their 3.6 and Ferrari" or "A split-crankcase (as 911 flat-6) is used offering exceptional rigidity". When he mentions "IMSA racers of the
2.5V6 in N/A 430-480bhp form...", I'm not really sure what he's referring to. Julian's page is always good reading.

Regardless of his style, as JP says, Julian's page is one of the classiest, best-done resources out there for these cars.

The 'b' in 'bhp' stands for "brake" as in "brake horsepower" and simply describes the method by which the power was originally measured. One type of engine dyno, called a "Prony Brake" is probably where the term "brake horsepower" came from. In general, in everyday use, the shortform "HP" means the same thing. Not to be confused with other power ratings like SAE net, SAE gross, PS, DIN etc

 

[Quy93MX6V6]

It's a very informative site. I just wish it was in layman terms.

 

[Stage36]

Not to be confused with other power ratings like SAE net, SAE gross, PS, DIN etc

hey mike...whats PS?

 

[Mike 94PGT]

hey mike...whats PS?

PS is an abbreviation for the German term for "horsepower" - "PferdeStarke" if I'm not mistaken - and is a metric variant of HP measurement.

1HP = 1.0139 PS

 

[Stage36]

Ah, ok. so HP is to SAE as PS is to DIN?

 

[Mike 94PGT]

HP would be the "purists" number. It's the number that corresponds faithfully to James Watt's original definition of 1HP equaling 33,000 ft-lbs per minute.

SAE - the Society of Automotive Engineers - decided to try to standardize things. Up until the early 60s, most HP ratings of engines were done with idealized engines with intake and exhaust and ancillary (alternator, power steering etc) setups far removed from what the engine would actually see in as-delivered use. These ratings became known as "SAE gross" numbers. In the early 70s, the format was standardized so that the engine output was measured including parasitic losses from ancillaries and became known as "SAE net". Naturally, the numbers fell. An LS6 Corvette making 385 net HP is making more than just 15HP more than a 370 gross HP LT-1 from the 1970 Corvette.

DIN - Deutsches Institut für Normung - is the standards authority in Germany. Just as the US has say, UL or SAE for forming standards, so too does Germany (and most of Europe) have DIN. I've seen advertisements rating power from, say, a BMW as "400HP (DIN)" which I will assume means PS. I'm not sure why I differentiated them above...

 

[Stage36]

i always thought DIN stood for Deutsche Industrie Normen. i think out of all the threads on this board, this is the one where ive learned the most.

 

[Mike 94PGT]

Hmm. Interesting. I think you're at least partly right. I did a search on Deutsche Industrie Normen and found this:

http://www.cis.tugraz.at/mel/link/allgemein_l.htm

I then click on "DIN (Deutsche Industrie Norm)" and get sent here:

http://www.din.de

whose top-banner reads "DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V."

Hehe. I wish my German were better