Before working at Shaws Motorsport, I probably looked at an engine the same way most people do. It was just something that made the car move. As long as it started and kept running, that was about the limit of my understanding.
Coming from karting, most of my attention had always been on the carburettor. That was where you made adjustments and found performance. Moving into Formula Ford has shown me just how much more there is to an engine than I ever realised.
The more time I’ve spent with Mark, Dave and Ben Simms, the more I’ve understood that tuning an engine isn’t about finding one magical adjustment. It’s about getting dozens of different components all working together perfectly.
The best way I can describe it is like playing an online shooter with your mates.
You might have one person who’s a brilliant sniper, another who’s the medic, someone else who specialises in explosives and another who’s carrying the big machine gun. Individually they’re all good at what they do, but if everyone works together, knows their role and supports each other, the whole team becomes incredibly difficult to beat.
That’s exactly how I now think about an engine.
The carburettor, ignition timing, spark plugs, leads, distributor, valves and countless other components all have their own job to do. On their own they’re just individual parts. When they’re all working together in perfect harmony, the engine comes alive.
What I’ve also learned is that fault finding isn’t always straightforward.
A misfire might make you think there’s a faulty spark plug or ignition lead, but the real cause could be somewhere completely different. The difficult part is understanding how every component influences another and knowing where to start looking. Watching experienced engine builders diagnose problems has given me a huge amount of respect for what they do because they’re not just replacing parts, they’re understanding the whole system.
The biggest thing this has taught me is that an engine isn’t simply a collection of mechanical components. It’s a team. Every part has a role to play and every role matters. When one component isn’t performing properly, the whole engine loses performance. When everything works together, that’s when you get the very best out of it.
That’s why I no longer think of engine tuning as chasing horsepower.
I think of it as getting the whole squad working together.
