We actually have a Tech Talk Archive thread with links to the entire Tech Talk series as well as the relevant discussion thread where available. Elio does provide a lot of good information through this series even if the information is sometimes delayed by up to several months as EM wants to be sure of the information before posting it publicly.
http://www.elioowners.com/threads/tech-talk-archive.1128/
Nothing to worry about Joe mostly baseless speculation going on here
It does take time to develop a new engine however this engine has already been in development for some time as current development technology allows for several generations of designs to be refined using very good computer simulations before moving to real world testing for tweaking which is what IAV and EM are doing right now and will continue to do over the next year prior to production.
The reality is that there is a time delay between when things happen and when an article appears in the Tech Talk series. This delay in information can be several months as Elio Motors takes their time studying the results and vetting everything before releasing the information as they know it will be heavily scrutinized. While these Tech Talk were released together somewhat recently we have actually known about the castings, and even had some pictures posted on here, for some time now. The block casting happened in late February and the head casting happened in late May. The pictures shown are of the raw casting right after they were removed from the molds and allowed to cool. A lot machining and testing has likely been completed in the months since the pictures were taken.
From the casting dates you may realize that there is a three month gap between the two castings. What I have been told is that this truly was a development delay as IAV was not completely satisfied with the airflow test results from the original head cast with the engine block. This delay in the cylinder head design, while not really publicly discussed very specifically by EM, has been alluded to a number of times when EM have mentioned a delay in the engine development process. This kind of delay is exactly why EM waits to publish information until they are sure things will proceed forwards.
Based on what we know about when things happened and when information was released we can deduce that the machining and preliminary testing has already happened as this was very likely the trigger for block and head information release. Based on that information the next steps final assembly and testing, are either underway, or will soon begin at the IAV testing facility in Michigan.
We do know that the upcoming P5 build will have an actual IAV/Elio engine installed and it is expected to begin construction in either August or September as confirmed directly by Technosports which is the company which builds the prototypes for Elio Motors. The P5 will be the template for the roughly two dozen 'E' series pre-production vehicles which are expected to be built pretty quickly after the P5. These 'E' series vehicles will be used for crash and/or read testing and development ahead of production next year. It is true that there is a lot more development ahead however they have a year to do this work and over most of that time there will also be a lot of engines and vehicles being tested simultaneously both on the road and in the lab.
Z
