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Introduction of the OPS Track Engine, now with 14mm Crankshaft |
| A long standing brand of engines seems to be making a comeback. The brand
name OPS used to be synonimous with top performance and innovative ideas and materials
before any of the current main players even existed. But as time has shown, Italians are
much better engine builders than managers, which is the case even for current top brands. |
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The new crew at OPS is employing all the tricks at their disposal, some
old and some new. The latest onroad engine finally has a 14mm crankshaft which is
lightened with drillings on the outer circumference. OPS has always done that on the high
end engines. I much prefer this method to the center boring and gummi filling of the other
brands because it removes weight that is further out from the center and therefore is more
relevant for reducing rotating mass.The engine case is about 10 years old and used to have
6! mounting points but it is well made, then and now. |
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| Here is what i hear often from racers that are "newbies" when it
comes to the OPS brand."They are modified from the factory...", well, i disagree
because they have always done that kind of thing to their engines and nobody else did. One
must understand that the original group of people involved with the brand were the best
and most knowledgeable engine builders in the world. Many of which are involved with the
success of the more known names today.OPS people were always doing things first and better
than most others. |
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The sleeve comes with the same port configuration as the latest and
greatest engines the competition has to offer except for the "+2" nonsymetrical
cutouts in the piston skirt. This gives some more weight savings and contributes to
keeping the piston cooler as the mixture can flow through the piston in the early down
stroke.Transfer ports are on the large side for an onroad engine and fuel consumption is
not known at this time. While i am sure that power will not be an issue, the 5 minute
runtime is a must. The con rod has a wide beam but is milled out significantly to reduce
weight. |
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How to get a more favorable balance ratio without adding tungsten slugs?
Well, looks like whoever is making the technical decisions at OPS these days is "in
the know". This new engine as well as their current crop of offroad engines are
amidst the best engines in the world. Now if the people at OPS would stop doing the
"Italian Rodeo"- i.e. poor managment and marketing skills and hire a english
speaking marketing manager and find some distributors OPS could shine again. |
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PS: To whoever cares at the current OPS management team in Italy - Your
website is so bad i won't even post a link here. I have seen better ones done by 5 year
old children. Chiao.
Good Racing,
Rich Reid
For questions or comments please e- mail me at rich@reidrc.com
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