[MtnClimber]

The Ford GT350 has been getting great reviews. The Ferrari 458 Italia is a legend with it’s flat plane V8.

[yarddog]

Crankshafts have always struck me as being extremely difficult to manufacture, tho I guess they have had it figured out for a long time.

I do recall a historical restoration of a Messerschmidt ME-109. They found a crashed one buried in the ground in England. Fortunately they engine was relatively undamaged.

Rolls Royce agree to rebuild it but warned the people who recovered the engine to be extremely careful of the crankshaft as they would never be able to replace it.

[mountn man]

We were using flat cranks in our race engines 20 years ago.

[Jack Hydrazine]

A Flat-Plane Crankshaft keeps you from spilling your beer while you are driving your tank!

[o_1_2_3__]

It looks from the animation that the flat plane forces the cylinders to fire in groups of two...essentially making the motor a V-4. Or do I misunderstand something?

[virgil283]

Thanks for posting this- its all new to me.

"When the connecting rod journals are spaced 180 degrees apart, it leads to a long gap (relatively speaking) between combustions in the engine. By putting the journals only 90 degrees apart, the firing happens quicker, which makes each combustion less apparent."

So are there more power strokes per cycle or is it smoother power strokes ? anybody?

[Jack Black]

I find this amusing because flat-plane cranks have been the norm on inline 4 motorcycles (most sportbikes, except Ducati's) and Yamaha recently made a big splash with a cross-plane crank in their R1 sport bike.

Yamaha Video on Cross Plane Crank