Mountune Racing, the race engine division of Roush Technologies, is to be the new exclusive engine supplier for the UK Series SCSA American Stock Car Championship. The Series was formerly known as ‘Days of Thunder’ – and historically, ASCAR.
Within the new agreement, Mountune Racing and Roush will build the sealed engines and will support practice and race days with a team of technicians.
The tightly prescribed race engines are derived from production units and built to comply with US SCSA American Stockcar technical regulations. The units are based on General Motors’ LS1 unit, commonly known as the ASA Vortec 5700 – and found in versions of the Corvette, Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. The 5.7 litre (346 cu.ins) 90° V8 develops 340 brake horsepower at 6300 rpm and a massive 583 Nm (430 lbs /ft.) of torque at 4700 rpm. The Series demands that the engines are ‘red-lined’ at 6500 rpm.
The engine is naturally aspirated with a fuel injection fed, single 75mm throttle body. The aluminium block features cast in, cast iron liners. A single big cam is used to pushrod operate two valves per cylinder at the top end, inside aluminium cylinder heads. All the units are fitted with dry sump lubrication.Roush Europe’s Managing Director, John Mitchell says, “The Roush name has become synonymous with success in the US NASCAR arena, recently winning back to back Championships in 2003 (Winston Cup) and 2004 (Nextel Cup), whilst also running teams in the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. Whilst in Europe, Mountune’s pedigree has been born from the successful supply of engines to top WRC, Endurance and Touring Car teams.
“The selection of Mountune and Roush as the exclusive engine provider for the new SCSA American Stockcar Championship demonstrates our growing ability to apply, support and deliver our combined experience for the benefit of competitors and the sport – not only in the US, but in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. This development is also indicative of our future forward direction and support for motorsport in Europe,” says John Mitchell.Championship Promoter, Sonny Howard says, “Introducing Roush and Mountune as the engine supplier for the new UK Series ensures that all our teams will have access to some of the most competitive - and consistently reliable performance engines in the sport. That is good for the Series, good for the teams and good for the spectators. You have only to look at Roush’s success in NASCAR – and Mountune’s reputation at WRC and Sportscar level - to realise that we have been fortunate enough to find a partnership which has an already proven successful track record across a wide spectrum of motorsport.”
