Racing spark plugs

As the name says: Racing spark plugs are special spark plugs for the motor sport, and, because of their special characteristics, not so suitable for normal road traffic.

On the one hand, they will not provide any substantial extra power in series engines, and on the other hand, their life would be too short for daily travel.

But the use of racing spark plugs does make sense when permanently high speeds (>10,000 rpm) are linked with high specific power output (>100kW/l), as is the case with sport engines. Because in racing long service life is not of particular importance, the requirement is to be able to cope over a certain period of time without failing with the vibrations, thermal loads, and gas velocities arising at extremely high speeds (Formula 1 currently approx, 17 - 18,000 rpm). This is possible for the extremely cold racing spark plugs (NGK heat range 9-12) which are of a special streamlined design, preventing the "blow-out" of the spark due to turbulences of the fresh gas. Therefore, racing spark plugs are different to "normal spark plugs".

They have particular spark plug faces (oblique ground electrodes, ring electrodes, as shown in the photograph. With this sophisticated design vibration damage due to destroyed electrodes is efficiently prevented.

"Specialities" have a price. Spark plugs specially developed and produced for racing are, of course, more expensive than volume products. The demand is limited because racing spark plugs are only being used by works' teams, semi-professional teams, tuners, and in cart's sport. There, they can demonstrate and prove their particular capabilities in sporting competition and allow maximum performance. And in order to make sure that for each particular field of application the most suitable racing spark plug is used, NGK is providing a special catalogue for these target groups, containing all the available design features and thermal ranges.

Just another word about service life: It is not possible to predict accurately the service life of racing spark plugs because the individual conditions in operation differ too much. The experience of users has shown however, that one can expect to cover 1- 5 racing events, depending on the motor sport class.