Innehållsförteckning för March 2020 från Racecar Engineering

Walk into any team’s base and the immediate impression is of a hive of activity. Workers intensely crafting esoteric parts for a racing gem: attention to detail, concentration, using every tool they have to strive for the exceptional. But teams are composed of individuals, each with their own life and aspirations. And, being human, they are sometimes not averse to using the facilities at work for private projects. I have seen some interesting examples of this in my teams over the years. Some produced works of art on the side. One of our fabricators at Fittipaldi, Pip, who is no longer with us, could do anything with metal, be it steel, ally or titanium. The team stores, with an assortment of metal for the F1 build, could be depended on…

Engine AMG 6.3-litre normally aspirated V8. Transmission Sequential AMG 6-speed competition gearbox. Suspension Double wishbone front and rear; adjustable competition dampers via compression and rebound; adjustable anti-roll bars. Brakes Front 390mm; rear 355mm; brake balance configuration via balance beam. Electronics Motorsport electrics including multi-adjustable ABS and AMG traction control. Wheels and tyres AMG alloys, 18in forged; tyres: front 325/680-18, rear 325/705-18. Fuel tank Competition safety tank; 120 litres. Dimensions Length, 4746mm; width, 2049mm; height, 1238mm. Price €399,000 (sprint spec); €45,000 for update kit for existing car.…

The 2019 Javelin Trackdays Sprint Series winning Ariel Atom of owner/driver Stuart Drewell featured wide span dual-element wings front and rear but, apart from extra cooling capacity and associated ducting, was otherwise fairly standard in the aerodynamics department. Having seen how the wings reversed the car’s natural positive lift and enabled a well-balanced downforce distribution in our previous two issues, we round off the project this month by examining other aspects of this quirky car’s aerodynamics. Guard duty It was evident from the smoke plume that the Atom’s short mudguards would have been creating aerodynamic lift, partly from attached flow over the concave upper surface creating reduced pressure. It wasn’t practically possible to remove the mudguards during our session because of time constraints, and cutting holes was not desired either,…

Recently I’ve driven five very different road cars from equally different eras, all but one being a privilege, really. The two most extreme are my 1961 Mk 2 Jaguar 3.8 versus a contemporary Audi RS3. This experience has served to remind me of the progress in automotive engineering and driver experience that has happened in the intervening half-century or so, also the level of influence that motor racing has played in their development. Of the two cars, the RS3 is clearly far and away the superior vehicle, as it should be. If it wasn’t, the motor industry would have been wasting time for six decades. It has stunning acceleration, a superb seamless automatic transmission, great brakes and cornering ability. If I had to criticise, it would be that the 400+…

Powertrain: Independent front and rear propulsion units which include a permanent magnet synchronous motor, a gear set and an open differential. Battery 90kWh lithium-ion battery, cooled via a water-cooling circuit and the cabin air-conditioning system. Suspension Linear coilover adjustable Ohlins dampers with two-stage Eibach springs. Brakes Bespoke AP Racing hardware combined with Bosch Motorsport ABS. Max Power (limited) Total peak power output of 400PS and 700Nm of torque. Max speed 205km/h (127mph); 0-100km/h (62mph) in 4.5s. Tyres 22in Michelin Pilot Sport. Electronics Bespoke lightweight full-race loom system with control electronics adapted from I-TYPE 4. Cosworth electronics telemetry. Dimensions Overall length, 4855mm; overall width, 2145mm.…

If you’ve been following OptimumG’s articles in Racecar you have learnt some of the metrics taught at our Data Driven Performance Engineering seminars, which are used by our race engineers to analyse a car’s performance. For this year, we’ve decided to tackle another very important topic in racing: springs and dampers. This is because one of the most common questions we are asked at OptimumG is: how do we determine suspension spring rates and damping for a vehicle? It is a difficult question to answer since it depends on many factors, and it’s the engineer’s responsibility to understand what the goals are: minimise body control, or improve the transient response? Since this topic is non-trivial, we will break it down into several articles that will be published in the 2020…

One of the most neglected areas in racecar engineering is the differential. To illustrate this indifference, a Formula 1 car designer (who had actually never won a race) once declared ‘we have so much downforce that the differential is irrelevant’. I must admit in the past I’ve been guilty of this line of thinking as well. However, over the last couple of years – and indeed the last couple of months – a few things have really brought this important matter into very sharp relief. I have a few articles on this coming soon, but to get everyone prepped the below is largely taken from my book: The Dynamics of the Race Car, which, after years of requests, you can now purchase as a hard copy. We’ll start with the…

James Small has been promoted from lead engineer to crew chief on the Joe Gibbs Racing No.19 NASCAR Cup Toyota, driven by Martin Truex Jr. Small, who has worked with Truex in some capacity for the past three seasons, replaces Cole Pearn as crew chief for the 2017 champion, the latter having decided to cease working in NASCAR at the end of last year. Before moving to North America in 2014 Small worked in the Australian Supercars series. Jeff Curtis has joined the Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Cup operation, where he will be lead engineer on the No.19 Toyota driven by Martin Truex Jr (see above), replacing James Small. Curtis, who comes to JGR from Chip Ganassi Racing, has worked with Truex before, when they were both at Furniture Row…

Chassis 4130 Chromoly steel tubeframe. Body Fibreglass. Engine 1000cc Suzuki I4. Transmission Suzuki 6-speed sequential with paddle shift; plate type LSD. Suspension Unequal length wishbones front and rear; two-way coilover dampers. Brakes 274 x 25 mm floating discs; 4-piston calipers front and rear. Electronics Standard Suzuki ECU (remapped); AIM data logger dash. Wheels and tyres 7x13in front, 8x13in rear. Dimensions Length, 3325mm: width, 1499mm; height, 990mm Weight 386kg (850lb).…

Q There is one thing that has been bugging me for some time now. And that is, just how do you prevent lateral migration of the roll centre? The suspension with the higher KRC will have a lot less lateral migration, but that doesn’t mean its behaviour will be better or more consistent A THE CONSULTANT People who have read my material for any length of time will know that I don’t think the ‘kinematic roll centre’ (KRC), or front view force line intersection, actually is the roll centre in an independent suspension. That is, lateral force acting through the linkage, times KRC height, does not precisely equal the geometric roll/anti-roll moment except in a very small percentage of cases, and does not even come close to that in some…

The Autosport International Show marked its 70th anniversary this January – the Racing Car Show, which is its forerunner, was first run in 1950 – and to celebrate this anniversary it hosted more launches, announcements and presentations than ever before. Over 600 brands exhibited across the four days, with trade tickets sales reported to be double of what they were in 2019. The Autosport show, which takes place at the NEC in Birmingham, presents the first opportunity of the year for the motorsport community to reconnect with one another as well as with their fans. Therefore, both teams and championships take this opportunity to kick off their seasons, announcing their new drivers and revealing their new racers. This year was no different, with the likes of the WRC, BTCC and…

Motorsport has always been a peripatetic business, one of trucks and trailers, and this is still the case in Europe and the US. When you start racing on a world stage, however, or competing in the vast and diverse continent of Asia, things are rather different. And in the latter, it’s all about big metal boxes. Mark Goddard, team principal of Asian Le Mans Series (ASLMS) operation Eurasia, knows all about ‘container racing’ as he calls it, but having been involved in motorsport in the region for over 25 years this is no surprise. Goddard, a successful driver in the UK and Europe, came to Asia as a race driver and driver coach in 1994, and eventually found himself in the Philippines, after he was asked to set up a…

There were many topics of conversation at the Autosport International Show, but what struck me was the discussion surrounding manufacturer motorsport compared to customer racing and the long-term future of both. One observer considered the possibility that both Mercedes and Renault’s could take the decision to walk away from Formula 1 and concentrate on building their production car platforms to reflect the new age of transport, be it electric, hybrid or hydrogen. Question marks surround the ACO’s Hypercar manufacturers although at time of writing we are anticipating an announcement at Daytona that the far cheaper DPi platform will be accepted into the top class with a chance of overall victory at Le Mans. The WRC and the DTM are both tentative in terms of manufacturer support and must be looking…