The Mercedes-Benz M291 engine is a 3.5-liter

flat-12 A flat-twelve engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-twelve, is a twelve-cylinder piston engine with six cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. Flat-twelve engines are less common than V12 engines, but they have been used in vari ...

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

, designed, developed and produced by

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

, for their

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

racing program. It was introduced in 1991, along with their new

Mercedes-Benz C291 The Mercedes-Benz C291 was a sports-prototype racing car introduced for the 1991 World Sportscar Championship season. It was Mercedes-Benz’ final car in the Group C category. Introduction The 1991 season marked the introduction of the FIA� ...

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

race car chassis.

Background

The 1991 season marked the introduction of the FIA’s new, and controversial, 3.5-liter formula which replaced the highly successful Group C category that had been used in the

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing series run for sports car racing, sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), from 1953 World Sportscar Championship, 1953 t ...

since 1982, though due to a small number of entries for the 3.5-liter formula heavily penalized Group C cars (which were subject to weight penalties and started behind the new-style C1 entries on the grid) were allowed to participate in the season's C2 category.

Engine

The primary feature of the new regulations was the use of a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated engine. This made it impossible for Mercedes-Benz to use the engines from its previous Group C cars. Also, to produce similar power to the Group C cars a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated engine had to be very high-revving and be constructed from different materials in order to rev highly. Unlike Jaguar's XJR-14 who had the readily available and proven Ford HB V8 engine from the

Benetton B190B The Benetton B190 is a Formula One racing car designed by Rory Byrne in collaboration with Benetton's Technical Director, John Barnard, a designer with experience at racing companies McLaren and Ferrari and arguably the most successful Formula ...

Formula One car (the engine regulations for the new 3.5-liter formula were identical to Formula One), Mercedes-Benz had to design an all-new purpose-built racing engine and its M-291 3.5L

Flat-12 A flat-twelve engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-twelve, is a twelve-cylinder piston engine with six cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. Flat-twelve engines are less common than V12 engines, but they have been used in vari ...

unit was the result. The engine only produced about , compared to over produced by 5.0 litre V8

twin-turbo Twin-turbo is a type of turbo layout in which two turbochargers are used to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case of a direct-injection engine). The most common layout features two identical or mirrored turbochargers in ...

found in the C291's predecessor, the Sauber-Mercedes C11.

Applications

Mercedes-Benz C292 The Mercedes-Benz C292 was a stillborn Group C prototype race car intended for the 1992 World Sportscar Championship season as an evolution of the Mercedes-Benz C291, but never raced due to Mercedes-Benz withdrawing from sportscar racing after ...

(stillborn

concept A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, ...

)

References

{{reflist Mercedes-Benz engines V12 engines Engines by model Gasoline engines by model