Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Racecar Engineering

When Honda decided to continue its endurance racing programme in the US, it pulled a clean sheet of paper from the drawer on which to work. ORECA was designing an all-new prototype for the regulations and Honda Performance Development (HPD) wanted to continue its relationship with the French manufacturer. There were options for the California-based company to re-use certain key elements, such as the 3.5-litre, twin-turbo engine it already had, which would undoubtedly have saved money, but with the president of the company also being the technical director, and with a reputation for innovation in racing that is enjoyed by Honda, the company embarked on an all-new, 2.4-litre, twin-turbo engine instead. Although it shares its capacity with the IndyCar engine that was due in 2024, there was little crossover between…

Duntov elected to use [4WD] because his calculations showed it could provide a higher cornering speed, as well as much-improved acceleration with a very powerful engine This amazing, four-wheel drive automobile was conceived in the autumn of 1963 as a contender for victory in the great international long-distance races. Styling staff marked the official beginning of project XP-817, as it was known, as 27 September 1963. A year earlier Ford had unveiled its mid-engined Mustang at Watkins Glen. It was an early stage of Ford’s Total Performance initiative, openly promoted as the forerunner of a future Ford sports racer designed to compete on the world’s great racetracks. Ford’s negotiations to buy Ferrari for this purpose hit the buffers in February 1963. And so, on 1 July that year, the company…

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company has been confirmed to continue its supply of NASCAR’s top three national series in a new multi-year agreement. This continues Goodyear’s designation as the ‘Official Tyre of NASCAR’, as well as the title sponsor of the Goodyear 400 held at Darlington. ‘From our manufacturing plants to offices around the world, racing is ingrained in our culture, and the importance of our relationship with NASCAR is reflected in the quality, performance and engineering we put into every Goodyear Eagle race tyre,’ said Richard J. Kramer, chairman, chief executive officer and president at Goodyear. ‘Our performance on the racetrack plays an active role in the success of the sport and inspires the development of our consumer tyres, fuelling our commitment to take performance and innovation to…

Ford plans to discontinue production of its iconic Fiesta in mid-2023. This A-segment model not only won over entry-level drivers and two-car families alike, but also numerous World Rally Championship rounds. Shortly after it ends production of the Fiesta, the Blue Oval will also cease to market the Fiesta’s high(er) riding IC-engined sister, the Puma, which also enjoys WRC successes, as it switches to a battery electric range. Given the direction the motor industry has been forced into by emission legislation, such developments are no surprise and likely to be emulated by most, if not all, manufacturers of A-segment models. As batteries add enormously to the basic weight and cost of vehicles, sales are expected to plunge. An equivalent electric vehicle is expected to price 60 percent higher than fossil-fuelled…

TECHNOLOGY – ADVANCED MATERIALS For rollcage and chassis work, there tends to be regional variations in the materials used, depending whether one is talking US, British or European standards Materials development has been intrinsic to the advancement of racecar technology since Count Jules-Albert de Dion chugged into Rouen in 1891, to win the world’s first motor race. Materials science has been a key enabler in the realisation of many an engineer’s ideas, which more often than not have outpaced the capabilities of whatever is the ‘current’ state-of-the-art for materials. One only has to look at the the Lotus 88 and McLaren MP4/1 with their carbon chassis, which re-defined the application of fledgling composite technology. It is, however, easy to give motorsport too much credit, as in the world of industry…

IndyCar has confirmed it will not run the new 2.4-litre V6 engine in 2024 as originally planned, retaining the 2.2 litre twin turbo V6 engine instead. IndyCar’s two manufacturers pushed for the decision in order to focus on the introduction of a hybrid system. The American single-seat category had planned a new chassis for 2023, but elected to continue with the Dallara IR18 as it remains fit for purpose. The series had also planned to introduce the new 2.4-litre, twin-turbo engine and hybrid one year later but that, too, is shelved. With its partner manufacturers, GM and Acura, placing emphasis on the introduction of hybrid and a sustainable fuel, the decision has been taken to continue with the current 2.2-litre engine rather than introduce a new and expensive replacement. GM…

ENDURANCE – DAYTONA LMDh TEST The LMDh category has been a long time in gestation but it’s finally here, and ready for competition debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona at the end of January. The cars had a final group test at Daytona early in December and, although each of the manufacturers that were present, including Cadillac, Acura, Porsche and BMW, had car-stopping problems, the teams set about fixing them in test conditions, rather than a race weekend and go into the first race with some optimism after a challenging year. This test was the first time teams had sight of the new tyres from Michelin that will be used next year, and was supposed to be a performance test to help organisers with the Balance of Performance for…

The pit garages on the Saturday of the Formula Ford Festival weekend at Brands Hatch in late October were occupied by cars from the Modified Ford Series, a wonderful collection of bewinged and fat ’arched Escorts and other Blue Oval favourites, all supporting the main event. Except for one garage, that is, within which sat a racecar that could not be further from a flame-spitting Sierra Cosworth in looks, concept and certainly sound. That car was the Formula Foundation FF-E1 electric racer, which was to complete a few demonstration laps in the lunchbreak. Regular readers will be familiar with Formula Foundation, because Racecar featured its proposed entry-level racer, the RSR 001, in the V32N6 issue. For those that missed it, this was a car designed to be cheap and easy…

Something unexpected can always happen, but this can even become an opportunity, if teams are flexible enough to react quickly Top motorsport classes are often associated with an environment where the quest for pure performance is the heart of every decision, both on track and out of the circuit. Indeed, the main goal of a racecar is to perform better than its competition. Winning races is not ‘just’ this though. In the past, with less advanced tools at engineers’ disposal, reliability was a crucial factor, and the really good drivers knew they had to be kind to their hardware during a race to avoid a retirement. Nowadays, retirements because of reliability issues are much less frequent than they once were, but there are still important aspects that transcend pure performance…

The Japanese Super GT series is set to introduce carbon-neutral fuel for the 2023 season and has completed a test day with it following the final round of the series in November. The GTA has announced its Super GT Green Project 2030, an environmental road map for cutting total CO2 emissions resulting from the entire Super GT series in half by 2030 as part of efforts to make the entire series carbon neutral. The fuel is part of that strategy, and is derived from non-fossil fuel-based biomass, produced by Germany’s Haltermann Carless. During the test, the new fuel was compared to the existing fuel and drivers were quick to comment on the different smell, and engine characteristics. ‘The GT500 car has what you could call an ‘aggressively designed engine’ with…

Ford has introduced the final, and most extreme version yet of its GT, the 2023 Ford GT Mk IV. Produced in conjunction with Multimatic, only 67 of the track day-only versions of the company’s Le Mans-winning GT and production car will be built. The Mk IV has a unique body, powertrain and suspension system, as well as a twin-turbo EcoBoost engine that produces more than 800bhp, a racing transmission and a longer wheelbase for improved handling on track. Deliveries of the hand-built, S1.7m car will start early in 2023.…