The lesson from the V12 is how much the
harmonics impact the performance. “We often
think that we’ll know when an engine is going to
hit its rev ceiling,” says Nelson. “We can normally
predict it pretty well based on the weights of the
components, particularly in the valve train, and the
shapes of our cam profiles. Normally we are dealing
with 8 cylinders and 32 valves and we know when
we normally expect the power curves to start
flattening out, some of our V8s are going to well
over 10,000rmp, but its normally in overrun at that
point. With the V12 at 9,500rpm the power curve
is still dead straight and still climbing, with this bore
and stroke, we never expected it to be quite like it
is.”
This means the V12 is very smooth, “We have yet
to get anywhere near its maximum rev range. At
this stage we only have the one prototype, so we
are keeping the revs down, but in time we will start
to push it a bit harder.” The 12 cylinder smoothness
has had an incredible effect on the power curve.
“I honestly am blown away that the power curve
is still climbing at the rate it is. Because of our
cam profile or our port shape, it’s just another race
motor, we’ve just done all the same things we’ve
always done, but we’ve just done more of it,” says
Nelson. “It took me by surprise, I didn’t expect it to
be that smooth and keep pulling that many revs.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we end up taking it to
11,000 or 12,000rpm.”
The breakdown of this project is that Hartley funded
most of the development work, with the intention
of eventually selling more units. “For me this was a
passion project,” says Nelson. “Jaron and Kester
were super patient with how long it took, I don’t
think they realised quite how far I was planning
to go, I don’t think even I quite realised how far
I was planning to go! They run on a pretty tight
budget, but we all got really excited as the project
progressed.
“The car they have built is world class for drifting
and the exposure we have been getting as a
team has been phenomenal,” continues Nelson.
“Obviously the engine cost them something,
but I tried my hardest not to charge them for
development, just for the end product, the great
thing about it was that they were very patient… and
prepared to wait.
“When I took it on I thought we could sell heaps
of parts to people wanting to modify this V12,
but partway through the project I started to
re-evaluate,” continues Nelson. “At this stage I’ve
actually stopped wanting to sell the parts, because
it’s actually too good to sell someone parts and
for them to essentially just hot up their road car.
No doubt we could sell a lot of parts for them, but
for now I am trying to look at the bigger picture, I
first need to evaluate the market for a product like
this, the moment I sell even a few components,
especially the cosmetic ones, I have instantly
devalued the complete engine as an exclusive
Hartley product.
N I C H E M A R K E T
“What I really want to do is a small production run
for a small exotic car maker – offer them a bespoke
engine that no one else has, with a Hartley name
on it – yes there is still the Toyota block and heads
in there somewhere, but its definitely not an off the
shelf crate motor from America, and nobody has
had to partner with BMW or Mercedes to get it. As
far as marketing is concerned, it’s a Hartley V12,”
continues Nelson. “It’s still got a Toyota connection,
albeit a small one.”
More and more exotic sports car makers are
bringing their limited production run cars to market,
while the more established companies can afford
to develop their own motors, a lot of the newer, or
younger companies must partner with somebody
else. “I love seeing some of the new sports cars
HARTLEY
and hyper cars coming out, but there is nothing
more disappointing than finding out they have a
Chevy LS7 crate motor in the back of them – they
go to the trouble to design an exotic carbon fibre
‘designer’ vehicle and put an off the shelf motor
in it. I can offer an exotic V12 with 800bhp in NA
(naturally aspirated) form or 1200bhp with turbos.
Plus I can offer exclusivity,” says Nelson. “And of
course, there’s the Hartley connection, it would
be a shame not to try and cash in on my brother’s
success,” Nelson jokes.
PA R T N E R I N G U P
“I’ve had some interest already – we definitely
haven’t advertised yet,” continues Nelson. “I am in
no hurry to go into production, but when the right
partnership comes along I will be right into it. I’m
looking for someone that wants to build a unique
car for footballers or oil barons and doesn’t want to
use a Ford Coyote crate motor or they don’t want
to use the same engine as their competitor. They
would rather have something raw and exotic. We
can definitely offer that. It’s a bit of a risk for me
taking on a project like that, as it’s focusing a lot of
effort in one direction, but it’s potentially interesting.
No doubt someone will tell me that’s a terrible
business model, but sometimes you have to follow
the jobs that are exciting to keep yourself able to
do the jobs that are repetitive.”
There’s a CAD model of every part and Hartley
has no problem re-engineering any of it to suit a
potential client. “As it is currently, it is a very cool
motor, but it would need to be slightly different for a
road car. We’d have to have e-throttle and catalytic
converters and various performance modes – there
are companies within New Zealand that deal with
emission controls and I’m quite keen to keep most
of the development downunder,” says Nelson. “We
punch well above our weight in this country, and I
am all for using local engineering.
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