Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Racecar Engineering

How we think, and how profoundly irrational we can be, actually comes from the way our brain is laid out and how it evolved. You have an area of your brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and your baseline software is the limbic system. The limbic system is operational when you are born but the PFC will slowly mature up to your mid-20s, normally. So, for your first years you are more reliant on the limbic system. The limbic system will flood you with dopamine when taking risks or being impulsive, which was presumably a good trait when we were in the Stone Age. The corollary is that as you mature the prefrontal cortex starts making you more responsible and will help you make more rational decisions and the really…

We really want the rear suspension stiff in ride, not just soft in roll QUESTION Following on from last month’s question regarding my 2.6 Lagonda, I have a more ambitious objective for another car, which is to make it into a track day and hillclimb car. This is to be created from a 2.6 Lagonda that is in need of total restoration. It will never be a competitive proposition, as with a dry weight of 29cwt (1473kg) it is going to be far too heavy, so this project is just for fun. The original tyres were 600x16 cross-ply on 4in wide rims. Radials seem to be a much better modern alternative, and the equivalent is 185x16: options are Avon Turbosteel, Vredestein and Michelin X. All need wider than a 4in…

I came up with my own empirical formula that used some basic thermodynamics to fill in the blanks; it’s not perfect but it’s a start One of the most difficult tasks for a race/data/performance engineer is estimating hot tyre pressures. It’s a critical job because if you mess up the tyre pressure the car will be massively out of its performance window. However, despite the importance of this there are few analytical tools that can help. Fortunately six years ago, when I was developing the internal tyre temperature algorithms for ChassisSim, I happened to stumble upon a rough rule of thumb that has proven to be quite useful. We will be discussing this at length in this article. However, before we begin a number of things have to be made…

Bob Dylan once sang: ‘You’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changing’. After hearing Ross Brawn outline the proposed changes affecting the future of F1, these lyrics seem particularly relevant. We now know, unequivocally, that the primary aim of Formula 1 is to entertain a substantially increased number of fans. Although based on the ‘cornerstone of engineering technology’, F1 owner Liberty Media’s research identified current fans appreciate the high technology of the sport, but not at the expense of seeing one driver beating another using their skill and control. I can see some negatives but if these plans, over the next decade, deliver a stronger, more equitable financial reward base from an entertaining and popular Formula 1 which secures increasing income for…

Out of desperation to make Formula 1 more exciting and attractive to fans – or to be more precise to attract new fans – and to reinvent the business model for competing teams such that non-manufacturer outfits are sustainable, Liberty Media launched a set of proposals in Bahrain. These covered: power units, costs, revenues, sporting and technical rules and regulations, and governance. No details were provided to the public, teams being sworn to secrecy until they had been thrashed out. Interestingly, they were billed as ‘take it or leave it’. We are not concerned with the commercial and financial, or the governance issues here, however important they may be. The key proposal objectives that concern a reader of Racecar Engineering are the following: ‘The PU must be cheaper, simpler, louder,…

Besides his leading role at OptimumG, Claude Rouelle also often offers his services as a design judge in many Formula Student competitions. He started his 40-year racecar engineering career by designing and building a racecar and a wind tunnel; it was his engineering degree master thesis. The challenges he faced then were similar to those faced today by students building a first car for Formula Student competition. He is then, ideally placed to offer his advice. Below are his final 26 short engineering and team building tips (see the last three issues for the first 75). And if you’re not a student? Well many of these gems are also applicable to professional race teams. 76. When you design your Formula Student car, think about the installation on the chassis of…

‘From a business perspective we are in a good place now, the paddock is healthy, the outlook is bright’ We’re always told it’s supposed to be an entertainment-based business, so aesthetic appeal should be important in motor racing – and perhaps the furore that’s greeted the introduction of the Halo in Formula 1 proves that it is. It was certainly recognised as an essential element when IMSA and GrandAm got together to form the United Sportscar Championship in the States in 2014. A couple of years later, out went the dumpy Daytona Prototypes, in came the svelte Daytona Prototype Internationals (DPi), complete with their manufacturer styling cues. But it was not just about looks; in came a new way of doing things, too, and – so far – with one…

The proposals dictating the future of F1 that have been released by Liberty seem to lean more towards entertainment than technical development, but are pretty much what is needed to bring Porsche or Audi into the Formula 1 family, and F1 would like a VW brand in there sooner rather than later. Although Porsche has the engineering team to do F1, it makes little sense. Other than Ferrari, manufacturers competing in F1 are volume car brands (Renault, Mercedes, Honda), while Porsche remains small fry in terms of market share. An F1 programme for Porsche doesn’t make sense, but then little in this modern world of racing does at the moment. Liberty’s proposal for Formula 1 indicates a standardisation of parts, for example. It follows an FIA trend to reduce development…

Modern F1 is not noted for its sympathy to those involved in it who suffer misfortune, but recent incidents have highlighted this in a sorry way. Kimi Raikkonen took his generally laid-back ‘I don’t care’ demeanour to a new high (low?) in Bahrain, receiving much criticism concerning his disregard for his injured wheel-changer, not even being aware of Francesco Cigarini’s condition when interviewed later. Contrast this with Romain Grosjean during the previous Australian GP, consoling the weeping wheelman whose pit stop fumble had just cost the Frenchman a probable top-six result. Williams, while constantly bemoaning the difficulties of competing in F1 as one of the mid-field teams, recently played a less than sympathetic card by being the only outfit to veto Force India’s request for some up-front prize money from…

The stand-out parameters that were most enhanced by the addition of rake were the car’s front downforce and the overall downforce We have been fortunate enough to spend some time in the MIRA full-scale wind tunnel with one of RLR Motorsport’s Ligier LMP3s recently. Team principal Nick Reynold’s objective for the session was ‘to find the most efficient way down the straights’, a somewhat different emphasis to most of our sessions where we are generally chasing total downforce and best balance. However, it seems that as the cars have been set up at the various tracks that LMP3 races on, the Ligier has developed more drag than the opposition, and RLR wanted to address this issue while preserving or improving balance and overall efficiency. In the previous two issues we…