Innehållsförteckning för February 2020 från Racecar Engineering

The introduction of the new IndyCar chassis has now been delayed at least until 2022, partly due to the aero team focussing on the Aeroscreen. The initial plan was to change chassis in 2021, giving the teams a year adapting to it and then bring in the hybrid engine in 2022, but the new chassis may not be available until 2023 now, according to Tino Belli. The new chassis is in the early planning stages and the design targets are only now being set. They will be based on the outgoing DW12, which was introduced in 2012 but which has been extensively developed since. ‘The DW12 monocoque has been strengthened considerably pretty much on a yearly basis, and we have never gone back and measured the strength of the DW12,’…

For the first time in motorsport history Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche are competing as factory entities in the same series Whether you like or even agree with the concept of electric cars or not, you simply cannot deny the monumental success of the Formula E championship, which has now been granted world championship status by the FIA, from season seven (2020/2021) onwards. With the category’s sixth season already underway, the grid is now 26 cars strong with 11 of the 12 teams manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz EQ and TAG-Heuer Porsche, who have both entered their rookie season in the championship. This means that for the first time in motorsport history Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche are competing as factory entities in the same series. The closest this had come to…

Despite the abundance of modern racing technologies, component failure can still end a driver’s race and even their chances in a championship. In the 2019 F1 season alone, there were a total of 58 retirements, 25 of which can be attributed to either component or pit stop issues or failure (not including crashes). Although with 20 cars running in 21 races, that’s a failure rate of only 5.6 per cent, which is a huge improvement over seasons in the past. Yet failure is still a part of motorsport, and this is because racing is such a brutal environment for any component or system to endure. However, as the regulations continue to restrict the number of components a team can use within a season, for both cost and equality reasons, parts…

The FIA World Council is also going to promote the creation of an electrified GT category (E-GT), which will be either hybrid or all-electric, with final regulations to be announced in March – this will be to the GT3 regulations in all but powertrain. It will be solely for manufacturer racing, and races will be short and not part of the main GT3 event. Volkswagen’s announcement that all of its factory motorsport will be electric in future might have partly driven this initiative, as this could see the acceleration of this technology into mainstream racing, and the FIA is perhaps concerned that GT racing will be left behind. The rough outline for E-GT is that the cars will be a second a lap slower than GT3 machines, with a speed…

From a branding perspective, GM wanted its top models represented on the race track In 2020, Chevrolet will be the only manufacturer introducing a revised body into NASCAR’s Cup series, with the arrival of the Camaro ZL1 LE. Due to the series gaining an all new regulations package for 2021 (which is detailed on page 24), this car will only run for a single season. In 2018, Chevrolet brought the Camaro body style to the top level of stock car racing, replacing the short-lived SS (the US market version of the Holden Commodore) which in turn had usurped the long serving Impala. Now there’s a new version for 2020. ‘The Next Gen car was then still in the planning stages and I don’t think that even NASCAR thought it could…

The next generation of Formula E racecar (the Gen3), to be introduced for season eight (2022/2023), is to include rapid charging with full front axle regeneration on what will be two-wheel drive designs. The plans for this have been largely agreed, and the idea is that the racecars will be difficult to drive fast, and that energy-boosting pit-stops with rapid charging will also be introduced. The full front axle energy recuperation will also allow the Formula E team’s designers to reduce the weight and the size of the battery due to gaining more energy from the regen. Meanwhile, the FIA has set out a separate tender to companies that can supply rapid-charging infrastructure and hardware that is capable of charging a car within 30-seconds. The main concern is believed to…

A racecar’s suspension is defined as a system of components mechanically connecting the road wheels to the chassis of a vehicle while allowing relative movement between them. The suspension’s job is to communicate and manage all the forces generated at the tyre-track interface (the contact patch) into the chassis of the vehicle. Undulations in the track surface, lateral accelerations experienced in cornering, longitudinal accelerations due to braking and throttle, as well as steering inputs, all pass through the racecar’s suspension components. In reverse, the suspension system also defines how forces are transferred from the chassis into the contact patch through aerodynamic loading and weight transfer. Load and balance The manner in which the suspension system is designed and then set up is imperative in influencing not only the peak cornering…

SIMULATION Super computer Boston Intel has introduced its Select Solution for simulation and modelling, which gives your supercomputing infrastructure access to Boston’s extensive industry and design expertise for High Performance Computing applications. This solution has been workload-optimised to accelerate the process of selecting the right hardware and software for your simulation and modelling workloads. To help clients make informed decisions about new technologies, this Intel Select Solution is available for testing in Boston Intel’s research and development facilities. bit.ly/ISSIPC19 SCALES Weight and see EEC Performance has brought a wireless corner weight scale system, that has been developed with race engineers, to the market. The seven-inch colour touch screen control, combined with a well-thought through layout has made the system easy to use, the company tells us. The Wi-POD can run…

IndyCar’s Aeroscreen was widely considered to be more aesthetically pleasing than the Halo, but that wasn’t the reason why it was adopted Motor racing purists, it seems, have lost the argument over whether single seaters should carry head protection. Halos are now common on many high-level single seaters, including Formula 1, F2, F3 and Super Formula. More importantly, since its introduction in 2018, the then much-maligned device has been credited with saving the lives of race drivers in F1, F2 and F3. Now, two years on from the debut of the Halo, IndyCar will introduce its head protection system into competition for the first time. The Aeroscreen has been developed by IndyCar in collaboration with Red Bull Advanced Technologies, and although the construction of the structure is totally different to…

The 2021 season will see a seismic shift in NASCAR, with all-new regulations moving the cars away from a template that has remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s. The current NASCAR Cup machinery retains many features that have been present for decades, not the least of which are chassis that feature ‘truck arm’ rear suspension, live rear axles and steering boxes rather than racks. The ‘Next Gen’ Cup car will be a radical (by NASCAR standards) departure from the current Gen 6 machines. Tubeframe chassis will be retained, but the fabricated steel suspension set-ups, consisting of A-arms at the front and truck arms and live axle at the rear, will be replaced with machined uprights and double wishbones front and rear. The first prototype chassis were designed by Dallara in…

The World Time Attack Challenge is the perfect playground for racing car designers to release their imagination and challenge their expertise If you have never heard of an Australian racecar known as RP968, then you’re in for a treat. For while it might not have a flashy name, this is by no means an understated car. It’s also a mighty quick machine, as back to back World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) victories attest. Regular readers of Racecar will be familiar with WTAC from a number of Danny Nowlan’s features. In a nutshell this Australian series is close to anything-goes, over one lap against the clock; a recipe which throws up some very dramatic looking racecars. RP968 is no exception, but here we intend to go beyond the huge wings and…

Under the new regulations, a waiver that has been granted to a Bentley can also be applied to a Ferrari New regulations have been agreed for GT3 for 2022 onwards, and passed by the FIA World Motorsport Council in December. The controversial new rules will mean a change to one of the most successful categories motorsport has seen. Yet while there is agreement from manufacturers not to go to extreme lengths in their pursuit of victory, and to respect the customer element of the category, these regulations do allow large scope for car development. The situation has grown out of a problem BMW has had. It is developing its M4 for GT3 competition but has not been allowed into the category, as it stands, due to the M4 being a…

The FIA is looking to upgrade the equipment it’s responsible for over the next five years Making racing safer is a fundamental goal for all motor racing governing bodies, but none have quite the global reach of the FIA. The world governing body has constantly striven to deliver the latest technology and equipment to drivers and team members and at the PRI show mid-December its head of Competitor Safety, Nuno Costa, presented the latest thinking and time-lines for introducing safety upgrades. Safety in numbers The safety team comprises four separate departments; Competitor Safety, Circuit and Rally Safety, Medical Rescue, and Research. Competitor Safety primarily focusses on safety within the cockpit across the range of motor racing activities, and the homologation and regulation of competitor safety equipment. Everything from helmets, head…