Innehållsförteckning för November 2020 från Racecar Engineering

Earlier this year I wrote a column on how IMSA had put restrictions on the number of personnel allowed at the track this year due to the pandemic. Limited to 15 team members per car, we had gone into Daytona not knowing anything different as that was all we had anyway. We hadn’t had to reduce our numbers because we already run a lean team, so were able to make the best of it and performed pretty well. But if you are used to having 30 people per car it’s more of a challenge. You have to think about which jobs to cut out, or work out who can do two jobs, and what they should be. We are now allowed a team of 35 people, but that’s the full…

Of the stewards decisions, number 108 caught the eye. AF Corse’s Ferrari no.51 was investigated as the ignition advance did not match what was on the data sheet that forms part of the homologation of the cars and is supplied by Ferrari to the FIA. The sheet is used as part of the Balance of Performance process, and the FIA and ACO use it to help determine lambda and pBoost settings.AF Corse argued that the team has certain control strategies that set performance under different conditions to ensure reliability and that ignition advance is one of these, and is therefore not part of the performance balancing act. No further action The stewards were satisfied that, as the ignition advance is measured using the teams’ own data and not an FIA…

Q I am building a ‘somewhat vintage reproduction’ track car for the Barber Road Course. It would be best compared to the Camaros and Mustangs that raced the Trans-Am circuit in 1969-’70. The brake package and front steering / suspension is modern and very robust. However, the rear suspension is slider-mounted, 200lb/in, Chrysler-style stacked leaf springs with a Panhard (though I plan to try a composite monoleaf at some point in time). The sliders on the rear of the springs will give me up / down and / or angular adjustment, and are within the rules. Bird cages / links and floating calipers seem unnecessarily complicated to me and are more than I want to deal with, or package on this car. I know there are probably better ways to…

One of the biggest bugbears I have with motorsport engineering is when people ask what is the optimum camber setting? Or what is the magic ride height relationship through a corner? Or is there a single metric to use for the lateral load transfer distribution through a corner? To me, these questions not just miss the point, but also illustrate motor racing’s perpetual, and destructive, obsession with quick solutions. In recent years, this has been further amplified with engineering education moving away from first principles and seemingly becoming more interested in breeding a generation of computer-aided engineering jockeys. The key to answering these questions is to know how to ask the right question in the first place. This is what we are going to be exploring in this article. Make…

Time was, for those who appreciate form that follows function, creativity and, yes, even sculpture, racing engines were objects of beauty. Even inanimate, without the adrenaline fix of their sound and fury, they could make one pause a breath or two with wonder and nod with appreciation at their concept and fine engineering. Gleaming cam covers with multiple inlet trumpets standing proud between them, superb castings and forgings, purposeful-looking superchargers, even machine-turned cylinder blocks – all stand out as examples of manual rather than digital manufacturing skills. Think of pre-WWII Alfa Romeos, Bugattis and Mercedes-Benz engines. Post-war, a racing straight six, be it from Jaguar, Aston Martin or Maserati, still today encourages a bystander to take time and study it. The 1.5-litre Coventry Climax and BRM V8s of the 1960s…

In the last article we stated that spring stiffness choice is based on experience and subjective appreciations, as much as it is on objective science. The determination of the spring stiffness is dependent of the track macro (bumps, kerbs, slope, banking) and micro (asphalt roughness) definitions, the track temperature, the car mass, inertia and aerodynamic properties, the tyre (in itself a dark science) grip, wear and thermal characteristics, the effects that suspension stiffness can have on the car reliability and, finally, driver skill. Most of these inputs are not easily qualifiable and quantifiable. However, there are two fundamental engineering tools that we can bring into our decision process. Shapes of things The first one is the definition of track bumpiness. What are the shapes of the track bumps and how…

Strange times everywhere, so don’t worry if you feel confused, you’re not alone! After six months of restricted access, we’re just beginning to open up. Despite fears of a second wave of the virus, we need to get business moving again. Using MIA links, I talk with a wide range of business people from motorsport and high-performance engineering around the world, and things are heading in the right direction. Motorsport entertainment is moving forward due, in part, to leadership from Formula 1, NASCAR and series who’ve accepted there being no live audience. This is welcome news for competitors, sponsors and suppliers, but without major commercial impact as yet. The return of live audiences and amateur motorsport will take time, so much of the business value of the 2020 commercial and…

Michelin is sole tyre supplier for LMDh and LMH and plans to use the opportunity to introduce new technology into its range. ‘Today we have the technology to put a sealant in the tyre, which makes it resistant to puncture,’ explains Michelin’s Matthieu Bonardel. ‘You put a gel in the tyre and that fills the puncture and keeps the pressure. We have that technology, but when you try to put 200g more weight into each tyre, so almost 1kg, it could cost half a tenth, and then the driver says it is slower. What is the risk of the puncture? They then don’t want it. That started with Audi. We told them we could get rid of punctures if you guys want it, and they said no, they want the…

According to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), there are seven distinct categories of additive manufacturing processes. Not all of these are relevant to motorsport applications, but it is wise to at least acknowledge their existence. Vat photopolymerization This process uses a vat of photopolymer resin, which is cured in layers using UV light to form a net shape. This was one of the first technologies utilised in motorsport, with teams using SLA (Stereolithography) to produce wind tunnel parts. Most teams still use such machines as they are capable of producing detailed parts, relatively quickly, sometimes with useful properties such as translucence. Material jetting Much like an inkjet printer, material is deposited layer by layer either as a jet, or in droplet form. Each build layer is then…

There were no fewer than 121 stewards’ decisions at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours and the only blessing was the FIA did not seek financial recompense for every breach of regulations. Time was added to pit stops or, in the case of the final one for the Inter Europol Competition team, a driver missed his driving time by 33 minutes, which was converted into a nine-lap deletion of their race distance. Teams that checked brake pad wear and accidentally touched the car during refuelling were investigated although there were no penatlies, the stewards perhaps realising their zeal had overcome the spirit of racing at Le Mans, but long gone are the days of the 24 hour race through the trees being the Wild West. Stories of cars that had…