Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2016 i Racecar Engineering

The kinetic energy of an LMP1 racecar at maximum speed is equivalent to 1kg of TNT Motorsport is dangerous – it says so on the ticket. It always has been and always will be, just as descending stairs is dangerous. It’s an activity which is right up there as a cause of accidental death with pedestrian road accidents, drugs and alcohol. Or, to put it another way, motorsport is remarkably safe; if you are going to have a high-speed crash in a car, make sure it is in a racing car. But this was not always the case. The early races, city-to-city contests, had only been going a few years before nine fatalities during the Paris-Madrid caused the French government to halt the race in Bordeaux and ban all open…

The powertrain suppliers had to change emphasis from ultimate power to efficiency, and the need for close collaboration with fuel partners became ever more important Between the start of the 1989 season and the end of 2013 turbocharged engines were banned in F1, and the technical regulations evolved predominantly to govern and reduce displacement and maximum revolutions. But in 2014 all of that changed with the introduction of the current power unit regulations, which saw the reappearance of turbocharging and had fuel flow limitation at their core. Limiting the fuel flow created a very different challenge for the fuel suppliers; namely Mobil 1, Shell, Petronas and Total. Under the flow restrictions the route to performance became all about considering the maximum fuel efficiency by mass. The change from high-revving, normally…

US supermarket giant Target is to cease sponsoring the Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar operation at the end of this season. Target has been involved with CGR since 1990, the year after the team was formed, and CGR cars have won four Indy 500s and 11 championships bearing the famous red and white livery. Recent changes within Target’s management structure are believed to be behind the decision to quit IndyCar – though the company will still be involved with CGR’s NASCAR Sprint Cup operation, remaining in place as the primary sponsor on Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet in 2017. Team owner Chip Ganassi said he understood Target’s decision. ‘It’s the greatest sponsor in racing, ever’ he said in a quote issued by the team. ‘They’ve been nothing but good to me. They developed…

‘I never stopped being amazed by the ingenuity of the teams working in Formula 1’ Max Mosley has done it all: lawyer, racing driver, racecar manufacturer – he was even a part time paratrooper for a spell in the 1960s. But, in motorsport at least, it is for his time as president of the FIA, which ran from 1993 until 2009, for which he will be remembered, covering as it did the safety advances in the wake of the Ayrton Senna tragedy, the emergence of cost control as the hottest of hot topics, and the introduction of energy recovery into the sport. The last of these, with hybrid power units, is now a major part of both Formula 1 and LMP1, but how this all came about in the first…

Lisa Noble has resigned from the post of president and CEO of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), a role she stepped into in 2013 after serving on the SCCA board for six years. Noble said she now aimed to pursue other challenges, although she conceded that she had ‘philosophical differences’ with the SCCA board. The SCCA is now searching for a new president and CEO. Mick Jones, the former competition boss of Ford Motorsport and a legendary rally mechanic, has died at the age of 83. He played a major part in the development of the Capri rallycross car and the Escort Twin Cam rally cars, and led the team that built the first RS200 Group B car. For a time he also ran Ford’s motorsport programme in…

Competitive exchange rates will allow UK companies to grow exports It’s only been a couple of months since the UK decided to leave the EU and create a new government under a new Prime Minister, yet it already seems a long time ago. UK motorsport companies are entering a period of unparalleled change, but with careful management and business planning they can seize many opportunities for growth as they arise, and there will be plenty. Competitive exchange rates will allow UK companies to grow exports fast but at the same time import prices for vital materials and supplies are rising fast, so management has to work hard to protect their margins. As UK motorsport operates globally, we need little encouragement to chase exports However, new trading conditions will be created,…

Databytes gives you essential insights to help you to improve your data analysis skills each month, as Cosworth’s electronics engineers share tips and tweaks learned from years of experience with data systems When analysing vehicle performance you may wish to look at all four wheel speeds and car speeds overlaid on a time distance chart This month we are going to be looking at wheel speed data and describing how to view this in the logged data, and what information it can provide about how the racecar is behaving. Some championships have restrictions on how many wheel speed sensors you are allowed and this can be a combination of only one front and one rear, or only on the undriven wheel speeds. However, in this example we are going to…

CVC set to sell F1 stake? According to respected business news agency Bloomberg, CVC Capital Partners is poised to sell off its majority stake in Formula 1. In a report in August Bloomberg said that CVC was looking to unload its multi-billion dollar stake in the sport ‘possibly in a matter of weeks’. It also claimed that well-known US multi-national banking firm Goldman Sachs had been brought onboard to help find a buyer and that CVC had set a price tag for its share in F1 of close to $10bn.…

Engine development and consultancy company Mahle Powertrain has opened a new half a million pound Vehicle Engineering Centre (VEC) in Northampton, UK, in the heart of Motorsport Valley. The VEC houses a new, fully-equipped workshop with six vehicle build stations, and two new project offices capable of accommodating up to 50 members of staff. The state-of-the-art facility will see Mahle Powertrain further its work on various projects such as 48V supercharging, advanced engine downsizing, EV range extenders and developing parallel hybrid technologies. It will be used for a variety of services, including the development of prototype vehicles, installation of alternate powertrains and developing thermal management systems. It will also serve as a base for Mahle Powertrain’s real driving emissions (RDE) testing, with two sets of PEMS (Portable Emissions Measurement System)…

Former IndyCar boss Tony George has been appointed chairman of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway board. George was president and CEO of the Indianapolis 500 venue and the IndyCar series until he was ousted in May 2009, and then removed from the board in 2011. He rejoined the board in 2013. In the past George was responsible for bringing the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Formula 1 and MotoGP races to Indianapolis, while he also helped to fund the research and development in to the SAFER barriers. Dan Gurney has been awarded the Peter Bryant Challenger Award. This accolade is named after the late racecar designer Peter Bryant, who designed and engineered many well-known competition cars, among them the cutting-edge Ti22 and UOP Shadow Can-Am racers. Gurney received the award for his achievements…

Former F1 driver and sometime racecar constructor Chris Amon has died at the age of 73 after losing his battle with cancer. While the New Zealander is widely known as one of the unluckiest F1 drivers in history – he never won a grand prix but came close on a number of occasions – he also tried his hand at fielding a Formula 1 racecar that bore his name, the Amon AF01, though the project was not a success. Amon started 96 grands prix between 1963 and 1976 and finished on the podium on 11 occasions, driving for Ferrari, March and Matra, amongst others. He retired from racing in 1977 after a spell with Wolf in Can-Am – his seat was taken by Gilles Villeneuve, but Amon then recommended the…

ASI has played an influential role in driving business in the industry Autosport International has built its reputation over the past 26 years as Europe’s premier preseason motorsport event and is the must-attend show for trade and industry professionals from around the world. But if that’s not enough, here’s 10 more reasons why you should book your place at ASI 2017: 1. It’s the first major event on the calendar Exhibitors from all four corners of the globe choose to showcase their newest and most sophisticated products within the Trade and Technical area at ASI and at Autosport Engineering ahead of the new season. 2. Where the industry does business Leading suppliers and buyers of motorsport technology attend ASI to keep up to date on the latest developments in the…

One problem with this suspension design in the original Lotus application has been that there are very high points of load at the pivot under the diff QUESTION The other day I was looking at ads for racecars and I saw one for a very competitive SCCA GT3 car which I believe said it had a Winters solid axle and incorporated a Lotus link. Is this a type of four-link with side location, unlike either a Panhard bar or watts-link? Anyway, what is a Lotus-link configuration? What is the complete configuration, how does it work, and what are advantages or disadvantages compared to regular three- and four-link setups for a car with a solid/live axle? THE CONSULTANT I haven’t seen that exact term used before, but I would assume this…

The shift in balance took the downforce to approximately 50 per cent front, at which it would work well in steady state cornering This month we continue with our MIRA full-scale wind tunnel session with Team BMR’s Subaru Levorg GT, the BTCC’s newest entrant. We documented the intense construction schedule of this project – designing and building four cars in just 87 days – in our July issue (V26N7). The compressed time-frame gave no opportunity for aerodynamic development before the car’s track debut, and the aerodynamic package that the team started the season with was based on chief designer Carl Faux’s previous experience (with RML and Triple Eight Racing prior to joining Team BMR). The car came to our wind tunnel session in mid-June in this guise, fresh from scoring…

Formula 1 technical chiefs have said they believe the sport should start the process of deciding on the next engine regulations, set to come in in 2021, as soon as possible. The current power unit regulations have four years left to run, but took five years to formulate, and have proved costly for teams. With this and other factors, such as road car relevance, in mind, F1 tech bosses believe talks need to start now. Paddy Lowe, executive director (technical) at Mercedes, said: ‘I think it is about time we started to talk about the engine beyond this [current] one, really. And it does raise a number of very big considerations: how do we define an engine or power unit that is correct for the sport but also relevant to…

The protracted negotiations to sell Silverstone to the Jaguar Land Rover Group (JLR) have taken another turn with the news that the British Grand Prix venue’s managing director, Patrick Allen, has been placed on a leave of absence, due to his relationship with another party also interested in buying the circuit. The British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC), which owns both the track and the Silverstone Circuit Ltd company that operates it, has been in talks aimed at selling a lease on the facility to JLR for some time now. Back in the spring club members voted 54 per cent in favour of accepting the JLR deal that was then on the table. However, Ginetta owner and BRDC member Lawrence Tomlinson had made a counter offer just before the vote and…

Single seater series Formula V8 3.5 is to support a number of World Endurance Championship events in 2017. FV8 3.5 was formerly known as Formula Renault 3.5 (and World Series by Renault) but the French manufacturer pulled out of its long-term sponsorship deal at the end of last year, leaving the series to go it alone under its new title in 2016. The series, which is run by Jaime Alguersuari Sr, will now join the WEC for six of its nine races in 2017. These will include long-haul events such as Mexico, Bahrain and Fuji, plus three European counters – at Spa, the Nurburgring and also at Silverstone. The transport costs for the teams are to be met by media and marketing giant Densu Aegis Network, the company that bought…

Williams and Thales tech tie-up Williams has announced a new technical partnership with Thales, a leader in critical information systems, cyber security and data protection. As part of the agreement Thales will deliver state-of-the-art cyber security solutions for real-time global telemetry transmission to both the race team and Williams Advanced Engineering, the engineering services and technology division of the Williams group. Claire Williams, deputy team principal of the Williams Formula 1 operation, said: ‘With the help of Thales, we will be introducing cyber security systems that keep our data secure from wherever we are in the world.’ ISC improves on first quarter results International Speedway Corporation (ISC), the publicly-owned NASCAR company that owns and operates many of the tracks on which the premier US race series competes, has reported improved…

NASCAR has announced several changes within its executive team. Chief amongst these is Steve Phelps’ appointment as executive vice president and chief Global Sales and Marketing officer. Phelps will oversee Global Marketing, Partnership and Series Marketing, Business Development, Integrated Marketing Communications, Licensing and Consumer Products, and NASCAR Digital Media. As part of the NASCAR leadership team reshuffle (see above) Jill Gregory has been named senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Gregory joined NASCAR in July 2007 after working in executive roles at Bank of America and Sprint. The business areas that Gregory will now oversee include Brand and Consumer Marketing, Brand Platforms, Entertainment Marketing, Driver Marketing, Team Marketing, Social Media and Analytics and Insights. Norris Scott has been named vice president, Analytics and Insights, a new position within NASCAR.…

Cockpit New release of life The new B-G Racing Quick Release system allows for quick and easy removal of the steering wheel from the column, making it much easier to get in and out of any racecar. The product features a 20mm steel splined shaft available in a choice of 5/8in, 3/4in and one-inch diameters, to be welded to the steering column. These are cross compatible. Its steering wheel mounting plate comes with two sets of holes pre-drilled for two different bolt patterns: 6x70mm – to suit MOMO, OMP and Sparco steering wheels – and 6x74mm, for wheels from Nardi and Personal. A master spline positioned dead centre allows the steering wheel to be used as a reference point, thus ensuring perfect realignment every time, B-G tells us. Finished in…

France has seemingly led the way in introducing the summer shut down. Before it became an interruption in the normal racing schedule, it was fiercely observed by the French who, en masse, headed for the seaside in the month of August. Had anyone decided to invade France, August was generally a pretty good month to do so. Now, the summer shut down has been adopted throughout the European racing community, to the envy of NASCAR’s aerodynamicist Eric Jacuzzi who by email considered the practice ‘smart!’. Looking through the race schedules, the Spa 24 hours at the end of July precedes the first sprint race on August 28. Formula 1 shuts down for a few weeks, as does TCR, the World Endurance Championship and now, Formula E, which uniquely finishes its…