Warbird Information Exchange

VR930 is awaiting funding as I understand it.

A friend of mine flies Sea Furies for a collection in the States. He very much likes the R-2800 conversion. The aircraft becomes vastly simpler and cheaper to support because of the far more common spare parts for that engine.

And it's lighter in weight, so the overall performance doesn't change much -- particularly since in the modern peacetime flying regime you never draw anything like full power.

Dave

I believe the Sanders' experience with Argonaut showed a loss of about 20 mph in average lap speed at Reno - around 420 mph with the R-3350 against 400 mph with the R-2800.

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think Argonaut was one of the 3350 Furies that ever made 420+. The first year they had the 2800 in it Mark qualified a little over 400. Of course they could still run it that fast if they needed to, but in the less competitive Unlimited field it's unnecessary (even though Sherm qualified at 380 last year, which would be ~390 on the old timing).

I think the best it ever did with the 3350 was a little over 410. So yes, probably slower, but after seeing CJ Stephen's mayday play out I think there's a good tradeoff. I bet if they tuned that 2800 like Czech Mate they could have a really fast plane on their hands that's relatively stock, and much more reliable. Maybe that's something the Thibodeau's can try out?

Right. Only a 20 mph loss. Good trade-off.

Sanders Aeronautics has a write-up of the R-2800 Powered Sea Fury Conversion

From that article;

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old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers