AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE VLB ENGINE

Back in the late 1950s, when I first became fascinated with the automobile engine, and started to investigate possible improvements, it was for one purpose only - I wanted to win races, despite not being able to afford performance engines. That I was able to extract improved performance to the point where I would occasionally pick up a trophy, is testament to my perseverance, at least. Much good understanding of the precise nature of a technology has been born from a need to explore it, rather than from just the desire to be taught about it. Over the past forty-two years, I have studied every aspect of both the engine and the racecar in such fine detail, that I doubt there can be many others in the world with such a deep and thorough understanding of the fundamental principles. Way back then, I found myself unable to accept all of the perceived wisdom about engines, even as proclaimed in text books. Suffice it to say, over the past forty-two years, the textbooks have changed.

The first thing anyone does when they want to 'hot up' a stock engine, is skim the head to raise the compression ratio. It always works, because the combustion process is more efficient at the higher pressures - due, of course, to reduced entropy. Skim too much off, however, and the engine will go like 'stink' – that is, until it melts. Everyone in racing knows this. Even when I figured out how to inject a tiny amount of water into the combustion chamber close to BDC, I didn't actually produce the fastest engine in the class. But it did allow me to race the over-skimmed engine without melting it, and to start winning trophies. Many people would look at the engine of my racecar and shake their heads with amazement. And yet, injecting a small amount of water through the side-wall just before BDC was no engineering miracle! The miracle was that I was the only one doing it.

I won't bore you with all the details, but I will say that I experimented with indirect injectors, compound fuel mixtures, power assisted suspension, "ram air" units, roller type main bearings, hydraulic variable cam timing units, 'arc' ignition systems, et al. And all of this, using the very best "state of the art" test and recording equipment. My experiments with fuel injection were particularly useful. That is an area where the textbooks are still wrong.

Then one day a mechanic assembled an engine for me, but, unaware that I was going to fit a turbocharger, he left the head spacer off. My fault for not telling him (or noticing it for that matter). Anyway, it had an ignition system (of my own design) which had a fault, an open circuit sensor cable, the result being that it fired only at TDC (the default). Before that engine melted, it introduced me to the experience of spark initiated adiabatic combustion. It was more like a dream than a real experience – like being told you've won the lottery when you haven't even bought a ticket. I just couldn't understand where all the power was coming from! Trust me, I knew that racetrack like the back of my hand, and I'd driven everything from Minis to 800 BHP single seaters around it, so I do know when a car is exceeding expectations. What's more, that (saloon) car was wheel spinning in fifth gear, where it would not normally get out of fourth. It made my previous "super-cars" look like snails.

In a gasoline IC cylinder, it is of the utmost importance that every fuel molecule is able to meet up with the oxygen that it needs - but it is of very little importance that an oxygen molecule meets up with a fuel molecule. There's no conflict there. If the fuel requires one zillion oxygen molecules and there are three zillion in the chamber, what could it possibly matter that a couple of zillion will be disappointed? (So why was it that a number of – so called – top scientists, backed up by current text books, were able to insist that this was not the case, just a few short years ago? Oh, yes they did!)

By the mid 1980s, I was convinced that I had destroyed enough engines to have figured out how to develop a stable 'arc initiated adiabatic engine'. I also had my own company, good workshops, skilled employees, and enough credibility to be able to raise the cash to do it. Looking back, I realise that was an amazing thing in itself, given that my backers were aware that some of the 'top' design engineers in the business were saying that I was mad! At that time, most of the engine designers were claiming that it was not possible to directly inject gasoline into a high compression cylinder. One major engine builder – who must remain nameless (for the time being at least) did take me seriously. Too seriously – as it happend.

Anyway, I put all my ideas together, failed miserably to convert a stock engine, made good progress with an ancient single cylinder (side-valve) which was amenable to being 'considerably' reconfigured, then got my hands on a big horizontally-opposed, twin cylinder, two-stroke generator. The rest was just a matter of putting in the time and effort.

When I realised that we'd been ambushed by the US legislators, I dismantled the engine and took all the special bits on a sailing trip - I guess they must have fallen overboard. The stock engine held no real clues to the design and the old single pot had been stripped for the new engine anyway. (When you've worked for the defence industry, you do tend to take security seriously). And just as well, because I've no idea what happened to those engines. We came home one day, and they were gone! There were plenty of valuable tools and stuff lying around the workshops, but all that was missing were the engines from the back store, and the PC from my office desk. It wasn't even the best PC in the place. They knew what they were after, and I know they didn't get it. The best bit, though, is that I didn't file patents on any of the stuff that I figured wasn't obvious. What's more, I was right. I only have to look at the feeble DCI engines that are out there now to see that.

One day, I hope, someone will be curious enough to build a VLB engine. When that happens, it might be interesting if some calculations are done on the amount of poisonous pollution and greenhouse enhancing carbon dioxide that the legislators dumped on the world, not to mention all that oil that was wasted .

John Allen