LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Sauber: Races
built 288 days ago
Sauber said that this year's success was ... due to another potential drawback that became an advantage: his drivers. In addition to hiring the unproven Nick Heidfeld, 24, away from Prost, he hired Kimi Raikkonen, a Finnish driver who had only driven in 23 car races and was only 21 years old.
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In only their second year since acquiring Sauber, few expected BMW to be such potent force in ’07. True, they may score the occasional point, but podiums? It all seemed a little unlikely. In reality... the squad proved much stronger, becoming the only competitor, apart from McLaren and Ferrari, to take points in every race.
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Sauber was particularly interested in the recently introduced, all-alloy five litre V8 engine, known internally as the M117. Mader was commissioned to turn this street engine into a full Group C powerplant by adding two KKK turbochargers. With Group C fuel limitations in mind, the engine was not only developed for outright performance, but ... to get sufficient mileage. In qualifying trim the engine easily produced 700 - 800 bhp, but in racing spec 650 bhp was the more sensible output. The newly developed twin-turbo V8 was mated to a familiar Hewland five speed gearbox.
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The engine block featured on the new eight-cylinder comes from BMW's light-alloy foundry in Landshut near Munich, which ... builds the engine blocks for the supreme racing machines entered in Formula 1 by BMW Sauber. The crankcase is made of a special aluminium/silicon alloy eliminating the need for conventional cylinder liners, since the cylinder surface is formed instead by exposing the hard silicon crystals integrated in the alloy. The iron-coated pistons thus run directly in these uncoated, honed cylinder bores.
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