Innehållsförteckning för May 2016 från Racecar Engineering

One advantage of this system is that it provides a degree of redundancy; if the MGU-H fails, the ICE is still able to run as normal It was pure coincidence that the opportunity to interview the architects of the two most successful hybrid racing programmes to date, and to find out how they achieve this under the radical F1 and LMP1 regulations, occurred within two weeks of each other. Having talked to Mercedes HPP’s Andy Cowell (see April’s Racecar V26N4) it was an even greater coincidence to meet him again on the plane to Stuttgart as I made my way to meet with Alex Hitzinger, Porsche’s LMP1 technical director at Weissach. By the end of the visit it had struck me that perhaps this latter meeting was not such a…

The new Abarth 124 rally car is disarmingly small, especially when the potency of the engine is considered There is a third top level in the WRC that sits below World Rally Cars and R5, and for some years now it has largely been overlooked. It officially fits under the Group R regulations, but it is unlike anything else covered by those rules. It is R-GT. Until now only a tiny number of cars have been built to the rules, some privateer Porsches and an abortive Exige variant from Lotus. But then, at the Geneva Motor Show in early 2016, the Fiat 124 Abarth Rallye was revealed. Most in the media believed that this 124 was a mere concept car, or a show car. Those who did think it was…

For the last few months my work has been dominated by a project to adapt ChassisSim for WRC. The tarmac bit was easy, but the tough bit has been adapting it to run on dirt and ice. It has been challenging, yet also incredibly informative at the same time. The challenging aspect has been resolving why you have to run well into the post-stalled region of the tyre, and then resolving how to stay there. But let me state from off; I am not pretending to be an expert on this. If truth be told, I’m actually writing this more for me than you at this point, so I can start to get some things straight in my head. That being said I’ve learnt a lot so far, so if…

Ferrari has spent 23 of its 32 engine development tokens over the winter and now has only nine left for in-season development. This year each of the power unit manufacturers, Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda, is allowed 32 tokens, up from an original 15, while development is to be allowed on areas of the PU that were to be restricted – namely the crankshaft, upper and lower crank case, valve drive and the air-valve system. The FIA confirmed in the run-up to the season opening Australian Grand Prix that Ferrari had, at that point, spent 23 tokens, with only nine remaining to use for the remainder of the season. Mercedes was not too far behind, with 19 spent (13 left), Honda had used 18 and had 14 left in the…

A GT3 version of the new Acura NSX supercar has been unveiled ahead of a full works race campaign in North America next year. The NSX could see action in either Pirelli World Challenge or the GTD class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, or perhaps both. The Acura NSX racecar has been jointly developed by Honda R&D in Japan and the Italian JAS organisation, which is well-known for campaigning Hondas in the World Touring Car Championship. JAS built the first of the NSX GT3s, and also ran the car at its debut test in Italy. The Acura NSX GT3 racecar features custom bodywork and aero components, including a large deck wing spoiler and underbody. It will be powered by a 3.5-litre, 75-degree, twin turbocharged DOHC V6 engine using the same…

Ford has won the prestigious NASCAR Driving Business Award, becoming the first organisation to pick up the prize three times. The Driving Business Award is awarded to the company that achieves the best results in the NASCAR Fuel for Business (NFFB) Council – an organisation that brings together an exclusive group of nearly 60 Official NASCAR Partners. Within the Council, members bring key personnel from across their organisation to construct customised deals that help address specific business needs. Ford has been competing in NASCAR since 1949 and has been a member of the NFFB Council since 2007. Highlights from Ford’s success in generating business in 2015 include: selling more than 3500 vehicles through its Partner Recognition Programme; co-marketing programmes with MillerCoors, Goodyear and SiriusXM which resulted in nearly 900 vehicles…

The use of the Mercedes power unit had a major impact on the layout of the rear end of the car, necessitating a change to almost everything from the driver back When the Manor team filled the back row of the grid at the Australian Grand Prix it was in many ways business as usual. From its foundation in late 2009 as Manor (later Virgin and Marussia and then back to Manor again) the team has always occupied the lower reaches of the field. But when in the opening part of the Melbourne race one of the two Manor MRT05s raced its way up to 14th on pace, it was clear that something had changed. The team collapsed financially before the end of the 2014 season and that looked to…

There seems to be concern in some quarters that the chassis and aerodynamic rules have not been adequately thought through Faster, more spectacular, more exciting, with better racing … This is what Formula 1 should be in 2017, according to plans announced by the FIA. These plans have actually been announced a few times now, but detail remains lacking and with 10 months to go before the cars are due to run on track, there are still no finalised technical regulations. The aerodynamic regulations were a set of bullet points until the end of the first preseason test at Barcelona. A crunch meeting in Geneva (bafflingly scheduled during the opening test) failed to deliver much more detail. However, a few days later a set of regulations was published, though not…

MSV’s BRDC Formula 4 Championship received a last-minute name change just days before its opening race and is now to be known as the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship. This move came in the wake of a request for expressions of interest from the Single Seater Commission of the FIA aimed at promoters wishing to fill the wide gap between national Formula 4 and the F3 European Championship, by running new regional Formula 3 championships. With budgets of up to €750,000 in European Formula 3, drivers have been finding it a huge step up from many of the Formula 4 series around the world, which cost about a third of that on average, and the FIA has now decided it needs new rungs on its single seater ladder. Motor Sport…

Ultimately, Porsche opted to run the same chassis for a second season, and develop the car through 2016 Porsche took a huge step forward between the 2014 and 2015 season with its 919 Hybrid, accelerating an 18-month battery development programme to complete it in just six months, and developing a new chassis. It led to victory at the Le Mans 24 hours, the company’s 17th overall win and first since 1998, as well as the World Endurance Championship title. For the 2016 season, the development programme is not as dramatic. The WEC manufacturers tend to carry the same chassis over two seasons and Porsche is no exception. The 919 Hybrid has the same monocoque as in 2015, which already featured a compromise in terms of the packaging around the battery…

IndyCar opened its new season with numerous technical changes in place for its Chevrolet- and Honda-powered Dallara DW12s. A variety of season-long updates for the 13 rounds of road course and short oval events were unveiled, with special aerodynamic allowances for the three events held on large ovals, including the Indianapolis 500. There are also bespoke updates expected for the 100th running of the Indy 500 this May. On the engine front, IndyCar’s homologation table allows a wider range of development to Chevrolet and Honda. With 2012’s introduction of its 2.2-litre twin-turbo V6 engine formula, the series has alternated development years, with 2014 and 2016 targeted for more ambitious implementations. ‘It is definitely an interesting year because some of the things that they have opened up have not been opened…

When we move the wheel planes outboard there will be some effects on steering geometry QUESTION What effects should be expected from widening the track width on an existing vehicle, say by adding wider wheels with more offset? What changes to wheel alignment and other chassis settings are called for? THE CONSULTANT The effects will vary quite a bit from one vehicle to another. In many cases the biggest factors will be fender clearance and changes in compliance effects. In other cases a big change in wheel width or offset will be accompanied by changes to ride height. Sometimes these are to increase ground clearance. Sometimes they are to lower the car for competition or just for appearance. Sometimes they are simply necessary to get the wheels and tyres on…

The lessons learned were that downforce reductions on the RE 2017 V1 car when behind another were, not surprisingly, still in evidence At the time of writing, the 2017 Formula 1 regulations had yet to be published and indeed were delayed until April (see page 66). As this article is written mid-February 2016, it appeared that the 2017 proposals for modified aerodynamics that had been previously hinted at in the motorsport media had been watered down somewhat. But in any case those proposals seemed to be at odds with general thinking with earlier FIA proposals to create F1 cars in which drivers could more easily follow each other closely and, thus, potentially execute more frequent, genuine overtaking manoeuvres (as opposed to artificially aided position changes using DRS or during pit…

The human factor – that inescapable and mysterious combination of physiological and psychological elements that defines the usage and operation of the end product Creating artificial worlds has been part of the history of humanity from the very beginning, probably. Valhalla, Olympus and other realms of the gods were all dreamt up by someone, somewhere. But the creation of useful artificial reality has been a relatively recent development, first proposed in science fiction with some wonderful machines such as Pygmalion’s Spectacles. But later the machines and the virtual reality started to become very real. Simulation, in its many guises, has now been a part of the vehicle design and development process for more than a century, though for most of the 20th century it consisted entirely of slide rule-driven, on-paper…

Formula 1 bosses have hit back at suggestions by the sport’s own head Bernie Ecclestone that F1 is now run by a cartel of the leading manufacturers. Ecclestone made the comments in relation to Mercedes and Ferrari, in particular, who he has accused of forming a duopoly to try to hold on to their current dominance, but he has also criticised the other teams on the Strategy Group, who have voted to stop some new regulations he was in favour of, chiefly the alternative low cost engine supply. The F1 chief has said the top teams are operating as a ‘cartel’, and added that F1 is now so bad ‘he wouldn’t spend money to take his family to watch’. Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene reacted angrily to this, saying: ‘I…

McLaren Automotive has announced it’s to invest £1bn in to research and development over the next six years. The investment is part of the company’s Track22 Business Plan, which also includes a commitment that Automotive – part of the wider McLaren group which includes the Formula 1 team – will continue to focus purely on the development of two-seater sports and supercars. At the heart of the business plan is a commitment to 20 to 25 per cent of turnover invested in research and development for future products and technology over the six-year business plan period, which represents an investment of £1bn, and will lead to the launch of 15 all-new cars or derivatives. In the wake of its success with the petrol-electric hybrid-powered McLaren P1, McLaren Automotive has also…

It’s been reported that Nissan and BMW are both looking at racing in the FIA Formula E Championship and could be on the grid, in commercial partnerships with existing teams, as early as season three. Nissan, which pulled out of its disastrous LMP1 programme with the GT-R LM at the end of last year, has confirmed it is conducting a ‘fact-finding’ mission as part of its long-term motorsport strategy, while both it and BMW are said to be already in talks with existing FE operations. One possible barrier to Nissan’s involvement is the presence of sister Renault-Nissan Alliance company Renault, which is currently in the series as a partner to the e.dams operation. If Nissan was to join FE it would be the championship’s first Japanese manufacturer. BMW has actually…