Innehållsförteckning för September 2020 från Racecar Engineering

We’re racing again! After a five-month pause, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship re-started at Daytona International Speedway on July 4, right where it left off at the end of January. The re-start provided us with a welcome change, but also a new challenge. I’m happy to admit I felt apprehensive about going on a ’plane again, and the prospect of wearing a face mask throughout a transatlantic flight. Heathrow was eerily quiet, and the Department of Homeland Security check freaked me out when they said they had been waiting eagerly to meet me! The ’plane carried 60 passengers to Miami and there were only two of us in my cabin, so I felt safe, and going through security in Miami for my connecting flight to Charlotte was nice and quiet,…

Inerters are often characterised in terms of an electrical circuit. The suspension spring is an inductor, the damper a resistor and the inerter a capacitor. In the same way that a damper creates force relative to velocity, and a spring creates force relative to displacement, an inerter creates force via acceleration. This acceleration reaction is what Professor Smith at the University of Cambridge identified as previously missing from traditional vehicle suspensions, which rely solely on dampers and springs. As a vehicle’s suspension compresses, the spring stores energy while the damper tends to dissipate, or control, the energy of the suspension movements. As the suspension moves faster, the damper forces change according to the damper’s characteristics. There comes a point where the suspension can reach a speed and / or frequency…

Paul Thomas has had a very varied career in engineering, and in his early professional life worked with three exceptional racecar designers. ‘At TWR as a junior engineer in the 1990s, I worked with Tony Southgate, who was a great man who has done everything in motor racing,’ remembers Thomas. ‘He gave me a lot of his time and knowledge, and I helped him with the wind tunnel model of the Nissan R390 at Imperial College. I did the mechanical design, electrical design, data and systems engineering, gearbox and gearshift development… everything, including sweeping the floor, and turned the lights out at the end of the day. It was brilliant race car engineering schooling.’ Thomas then took that work ethic and expertise to Toyota and worked on the GT-One and…

Q I was looking at the pic of the DSR racer in your column in the February 2020 issue of Racecar Engineering and one thing about it struck me – they were using a cog belt drive. Cog belt drives are seven to 10 per cent more efficient than a chain drive, so at first this appears to be a pretty good way to improve power without adding engine stress. However, when I contacted Gates Application Engineering with my specifications for the small lakester my son and I race at Bonneville that uses a motorcycle engine with chain drive, they recommended a belt tension of over 700lbs to ensure it stays engaged! That level of tension almost surely requires some sort of swing arm suspension be used at least on…

Multimatic has seen huge business growth over the last 30+ years so, to manage this growth, the Canadian-based company’s approach has been to split the business into smaller and more agile operations. Following this business model, earlier this year, Multimatic created a new division called Special Vehicle Operations group (MSVO), the fifth group within the Multimatic structure. ‘It’s just got so big we had to split it to make it sustainable for the future’ Led by Larry Holt, MSVO is responsible for all of the company’s motorsport engineering projects, such as the Mazda DPi programme, as well as all race team operations. Also falling under the MSVO umbrella is low volume chassis manufacture, carbon fibre part production and the various niche vehicle engineering  development programmes. The mainstream engineering business, Multimatic…

There is something refreshing about the Formula 1 scene at the moment. Stripped of all the paraphernalia surrounding the race series, suddenly it has become a lot more attractive. Gone are the motorhomes, the hospitality units filled with beautiful people and hangers on, gone are the multiple trucks that ferry all the kit around. Instead, front and centre, are the racecars and the race teams, while on track the racing is no less intense. It may be a bit strange to see the drivers getting out of their cars to the applause only of their teams, and they don’t seem to know how to celebrate, but that’s okay. I have been to enough British Formula 3 races in the 1990s to understand the crowd isn’t everything. At Pembrey, the sheep…

In my years as a motorsport engineer, a particular memory that will stay with me is a time I attended an MIA conference in 2019. It was held at Force India’s HQ and lots of senior motorsport representatives were present. It was a great event as I had the opportunity to network and engage in some very interesting conversations, but rarely in my adult life have I felt ‘all eyes on me’ in such an intense manner. Reason being I was the only attendee of dark skin, and I definitely felt it. There was no overt negativity aimed towards me, but I felt a strong sense that, because of my appearance, I was an unknown and extraordinary quantity. I felt the uncertainty and unfamiliarity that comes with being a black…

Power unit: 2020 Ferrari Hybrid 1.6-litre V6; 90-degree bank angle; 80mm bore; 53mm stroke; four valves per cylinder; max speed: 15,000rpm; direct injection at 500bar; battery energy: 4MJ per lap; MGU-K max speed: 50,000rpm, max power: 120kW; MGU-H max speed: 120,000rpm Chassis: Carbon fibre monocoque Front suspension: Double wishbone, inboard spring and Multimatic pushrod-actuated dampers Rear suspension: Multilink, inboard hydraulic pull rod-actuated suspension Brakes: Brembo six-piston calipers; Brembo carbon-composite discs and pads Transmission: Ferrari eight-speed, quick-shift, carbon gearbox, longitudinally mounted, carbon-composite clutch Dimensions: Length: >5,500mm; width: <2,000mm; wheelbase: approx. 3,600mm; height (without overhead camera): 950mm; track width front: 1,650mm, rear: 1,550mm; weight: 746kg minimum (including driver)…

To say motor racing has a Jekyll and Hyde relationship with technology is an understatement. When things get tough, the technology that exists is always the first scapegoat for why things have gone awry. A recent example of this has been the banning of chassis data downloading during the races as V8 Supercars came out of Covid-19 hibernation. However, this attitude has zero basis in fact and, as we shall see, not only is data acquisition and simulation motorsport’s best friend, it is critical to a level playing field. First though, we need to call out the elephant in the room that inspired this article in the first place. I recoiled in horror when I learnt that when V8 Supercars resumed at Eastern Creek on June 25-26, chassis downloading for…

On face value, Andrew Green and his design team at Racing Point have done an exceptional job in producing a 2019 Mercedes-like car, a move which has propelled the team to much nearer the front of the F1 grid. However, results haven’t quite met initial expectations. No matter how intense the scrutiny, their engineers cannot know – just from observation, anyway – such details as the W10’s suspension set-up and diff’ settings, let alone PU and braking energy recovery calibrations. This information is crucial, in wet conditions especially. This might explain the poor performance of the cars in the Styrian GP’s soaking qualifying, in stark contrast to their pace in dry practice. In any case, having a good car, even a great one, is only going to lead to success…

Nissan’s top three objectives for the programme: Year one, to finish the race (this was the reason Darren Cox said ‘mission accomplished’ at the conclusion of the 2015 LM race. Not because he was happy with the outcome, but because he had to say something positive). Year two, to score a podium. Year three, to win the race. The top three key points for the technical success of the project: 1. Ultimate ERS recovery from the front wheels and deployment through the rear. 2. Efficient front downforce with the use of through ducts (this was not conceived as a low-drag feature, it aided front downforce). 3. Efficient tyre use through weight distribution (as was a goal with the DeltaWing, but now with a different layout for a different set of…

In 2012, the DTM series introduced a new base car developed in conjunction with its three competing manufacturers, Audi, Mercedes and BMW. The latter joined the series on the proviso that this car become a global platform, available to be used in multiple race series, but that plan was only a partial success. Eventually, the series did reach an agreement with the Japanese Super GT series to also use their components, and it seems they will continue to use the German-developed chassis in future. However, while that model appears to be working in Japan, in Germany things have taken a turn for the worse. Mercedes withdrew from the series before the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine regulations were introduced and, at the end of this year, Audi departs, leaving BMW the sole…