Innehållsförteckning för April 2017 från Racecar Engineering

It was hard for the drivers to come up with anything meaningful regarding the 2017 cars after the first day of testing. They were in test mode, with the engines running on reduced power, the track was green, and it was more important to learn how the car reacted to set-up changes, pitch sensitivity and so on, before they got to the tricky subjects of overtaking, how the car uses each individual new compound of Pirelli tyre, and how it reacts to temperature changes. However, there were some instances of the drivers following other cars, and the comments after this weren’t encouraging. ‘I was behind a couple of cars out there and it was harder to follow, but that is to be expected,’ said Lewis Hamilton. ‘The tyres are so…

‘Mr Dallara said he was tired of making one-make formula cars’ It is fair to say that Cadillac dominated the opening round of the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, the Daytona 24 hours at the end of January, with two cars battling for the lead to the flag, one from Action Express, the other from Wayne Taylor Racing. No one else was on the lead lap. With pole position, fastest race lap, fastest speed through the traps, and with reliability that was the envy of everyone else, the Cadillacs were in a class of their own. Predictably, in a balance of performance category, Cadillac’s rivals bitterly complained that the system must be flawed. Cadillac then released a time line of development that demonstrated not only four months of development work, but…

While some Ford of Europe funding, and technical assistance from the global Blue Oval empire, has been sent M-Sport’s way to help with the new car, it seems that Ford currently prefers to be involved from a distance. Malcolm Wilson (pictured above) is the first to point out that his operation benefits from ‘very good’ technical support from Ford. But he adds: ‘What we need is financial aid to fight the big manufacturers. It’s too early to say if this [Monte Carlo Rally] victory can change anything.’ Now, it so happens that the director of Ford Performance, Dave Pericak, got his first taste of rallying when he watched the Monte Carlo event this year. He was impressed, saying his team will ‘figure-out’ how to work with M-Sport in the future.…

For motorsport it’s all good news and we will be able to continue to use our reciprocating engines far into the future Back in May 2016, the Nikola Motor Company announced it was developing a 2000hp hybrid truck tractor powered by a gas-turbine-generator. But Nikola soon realised, as did Jaguar with the C-X75, that the energy efficiency of this configuration is inherently poor and it’s not emission-free. So it announced in December that it’s going to use a hydrogen fuel cell stack instead. This seems more credible, given that Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and now Mercedes are already selling fuel cell vehicles. But they all suffer from the multiple problems that are associated with using hydrogen as a fuel in ground vehicles. But recent developments seem to point to a future…

Suspension has become something of a controversial topic in the Formula 1 paddock as it has emerged that a number of teams are using, or have used, a suspension system at the rear of the car which allows it to sit up at lower speeds for better downforce, and then collapse into a low-drag configuration at higher speeds. There is a debate over whether theses layouts should be outlawed in 2017 as ‘moveable aerodynamic devices’ and a technical directive has already been issued, but many feel that it is not sufficient. ‘Unfortunately the regulations as they are at the moment are quite tricky,’ Nick Chester of Renault explains. ‘It’s always been hard to interpret since the World Motor Sport Council decision, when actives went back in 1994. The interpretations of…

Switching away from hybrid is about much more than simply removing the system and the battery It seems fair to say the development of the Acura NSX GT3 car was a drawn out process. The US HPD (Honda Performance Development) organisation wanted to develop the car, firstly as a GTE hybrid to mirror the NSX road car. However, that notion was rejected by almost all the other manufacturers in the GT commission, which led Acura to change its plans and develop a more conventional rear-wheel-drive layout for its GT3. The concept was initially developed in Japan, before it was delivered into the hands of HPD, which got the car ready for endurance and sprint GT racing. Having passed its tests in Ladoux – which ensure that the car is in…

The first decision was to define what would be the desired overall performance as a step up from the pre-existing racecars in the series Fifty years ago Formula Vee was an entry-level category that flourished worldwide. There was much to praise it for, too, this being a concept where parts from the ubiquitous VW Beetle were married to a simple spaceframe, thereby producing a very low-cost racecar. The original VW car had many ideas in its layout that came from a full-on grand prix car, the 1930s Auto-Union in its manifold incarnations. The basic front suspension was a twin-tube trailing link and the rear suspension was a swing-axle on a transaxle with drum brakes on both the front and rear. This meant fledgling Formula Vee designers didn’t have to worry…

Load cells are a bit like romantic movies or fish and chips. They are either really good, or they are really bad, and there is no in-between One of the powers of racecar simulation is in the validation process when things don’t match up. Yes, that isn’t a typo, I just wrote it. The reason it is so powerful is that it instantly highlights something that is wrong, and it can tell you a lot about the racecar. Recently I was doing some training with a customer and the roll didn’t match up. The good news was it showed up something we needed to chase down. The bad news is I made a mistake by not having the intellectual tools at hand to chase down the problem. Fortunately, I addressed…

Suspension Kerb enthusiasm Ohlins has launched a new suspension blow-off valve. The new valves kick in when the racecar hits a kerb at high speed, quickly increasing oil flow and bleeding off damping resistance, allowing the wheel to move quickly after a heavy impact. Dissipating the energy this way improves stability on the ragged edge, while also preventing tyre and wheel damage – which will keep your pit crew happy. The new valve is designed for the TTX46 shock range. The bolt-on unit is lighter than before, with full adjustability, and the blow-off function can even be turned off completely if desired. The new design is also more responsive, and closes off faster after engagement, we’re told. mickgardnerracing.com Steering EPAS for the road and the track Titan has been working…

‘We don’t know every single scenario that might load these cars up, there might be load cases we have not yet anticipated’ Three weeks or so before the 2016 Australian Grand Prix season-opener a statement from the FIA was distributed to teams and the media at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Formula 1’s pre-season testing was in full swing but the statement drew much of the attention away from the new cars, for it contained details of a sweeping new set of technical regulations for the 2017 season. Driving the changes were calls from the promoters and fans to create a better show, with cars being driven flat out all of the time, rather than to a perceived fuel economy target. Additionally, the drivers had called for the…

Pirelli had to introduce a completely new design and construction process One of the big unknowns for the 2017 Formula 1 season was the tyres. They are wider, have a different profile and construction, and have new performance targets. F1 has effectively wound the clock back to a time when visually the cars were more appealing. The wider tyres were a step that most agreed would help achieve that goal but, as is always the case, this has led to consequences for the tyre supplier, Pirelli, which had to introduce a completely new design and construction process. The company’s machines first had to be upgraded to cope with the new tyre sizes and construction. Tyre production takes place in facilities in Romania and Turkey, with one or other chosen to…

Monte was a dream result; Sweden proof that the latest Fiesta has the pace and stamina ‘When the handbrake is applied it locks the rear wheels and it also accelerates the fronts’ After just a day and a half testing, the reigning World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia sat on the start line of the 2017 Rallye Monte Carlo’s first stage in a brand-new Fiesta WRC (the ‘RS’ tag has now gone); a car that was also new to them. Three days later the French crew took the top step of the podium; M-Sport’s first WRC victory since Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2012 Rally GB. Ogier’s team-mate, Ott Tanak ran second on the Monte until a coil pack packed-up on his new Fiesta on the last…

NASCAR continues to use the same basic engine configuration that’s been used for the last 65 years In Milford, Michigan, General Motors recently put its all-electric Chevrolet Bolt, which draws power from a nickel-rich lithium-ion battery, through its final paces before the car hits the showrooms. In Dearborn, Michigan, Ford is moving dirt on its ambitious 10-year plan to transform its aging facilities to ‘further drive innovation,’ with a focus on emerging technologies such as autonomous, electric and hybrid vehicles. In Japan, Toyota engineers continue to advance hydrogen fuel-cell technology. Meanwhile, in Charlotte, North Carolina, a mechanic bolts a 358-cubic-inch iron-block pushrod V8 into a NASCAR Cup car. Ford, GM and Toyota all pump millions of dollars into the Cup Series, and they – along with every other car maker…