Innehållsförteckning för February 2021 från Racecar Engineering

There are going to be 23 Formula 1 races in 2021. That is a lot of travelling, a lot of being away from home and a lot of work for the F1 personnel. A few years ago I was doing the Le Mans Series, the American Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans itself, which worked out at a similar number of races. What did I learn? Well, I learnt that it’s not particularly healthy. The schedule ran from January to December that year and it was a killer. We were either in Europe or flying back and forth to the US, and to do those long-haul flights every couple of weeks was really tough. The F1 teams will be going from one event to the next…

2020 has been a peculiar year. Apart from the immense Covid-19 test operation the FIA has successfully mounted to enable a World Championship that qualifies as such to take place, the only significant technical activities in F1, apart from DAS (dual-axis steering) have been to do with the regulations. DAS, Mercedes’ driver-operated front tyre heating system, was deemed too expensive for others to copy, and so summarily banned for 2021. Ferrari’s 50-odd horsepower gain in 2019 was discovered by the FIA, but so clever was it that it couldn’t be proven, allowing pundits to hypothesise and participate in 2020’s favourite pastime of creating conspiracy theories. Racing Point’s strategy of copying a Mercedes as closely as it could, but painting it pink, and rising up the finishing order opened up the…

In REV29N7, I wrote an article exploring the current state of play of electric powertrains. That was over 18 months ago now, though, and quite a bit of water has flowed under the bridge since then. Both BMW and Audi have recently pulled out of Formula E, no doubt due to European governments constantly talking about banning sales of internal combustion motors post 2030. Consequently, re-visiting this topic is now more important than ever. In recent times it has become virtually impossible to have a rational discussion about this because the subject of electric powertrains in motorsport and automotive applications has become polarising. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a subject promote such extreme reactions. On one hand you have Utopian optimists who contend that battery-powered electric propulsion will…

A problem needs action in order to solve it, or to at least to alleviate its effects. The constant critical issue of Pirelli tyre management creates massive headaches for drivers and engineers alike. This has required huge amounts of effort to combat, and led to Mercedes inventing its controversial DAS steering system. However, a relatively simple mechanical aid could be adopted that I suggest would certainly help. It’s been around for more than 40 years and, guess what, it’s the driver-adjustable anti-roll (sway) bar. Ideally fitted front and rear, such devices would allow drivers to assist in controlling tyre temperatures and degradation and balancing the handling of the car as it alters through a stint – especially if conditions change drastically. Operated without external input and adding to driver skills,…

The 2021 edition of the Dakar rally sees the rise of a new breed of pioneers developing low-emission electric vehicles capable of winning the rally. Audi announced it will join the category in 2022 with an electric prototype powered by a high-voltage battery that can be recharged on the go. Five-time winner, Cyril Despres, and his colleague, Mike Horn, are targeting a podium spot in 2023 with a hydrogen-powered vehicle, and will be taking part in 2021 with a Peugeot 2008 to gather data to help with their design. Meanwhile, Guerlain Chicherit’s GCK team will unveil in Neom an electric vehicle currently in development and also with a targeted 2023 entry.…

GILL SENSORS 4223 liquid sensor Gill Sensors has a lightweight liquid level sensor that is compatible with fuels, oil and coolants. The 4223 comes with standard and custom mounting options, and has a temperature range of -40degC to +125degC. The standard output range is 0.25-4.75V, but the maximum can increase up to 10V. The size of the sensor is 100-750mm in 1mm steps and it weighs 36.5g for a 100mm probe with a 1000mm cable, with 0.34g added for every millimetre added. The probe works with diesel, petrol and biofuels, with hydraulic, gear, motor, vegetable, synthetic ester, polyalphaolefin and polyglycol oils, with ethylene glycol and water coolants, as well as salt water. For more information, www.gillsc.com EEC PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS e-POD endurance fuel rig EEC Performance Systems has spent lockdown developing…

In the last article on Balance of Performance (BoP) in RE V30N11 we explored two key concepts: the physics of vehicle performance, and the options available for making changes to the balance of performance. In this article we will examine the actual process of making BoP changes. It is important to keep in mind that the challenge of balancing disparate vehicles is an engineering physics problem, and the potential solutions can usually only be drawn from the list of available parameters to change. But how can we know if a change in performance is required, or which vehicle parameter to modify to affect this change? Despite what many pundits may believe, the process of making BoP changes is not black magic, nor based on a random number generator, it is…

Q I recently discovered a fascinating car from the 1950s that I’d never heard of before. It’s called the Lancia Aurelia. The car had the first production V6 engine, a transaxle and really interesting suspension. The front was a sliding pillar system that Lancia apparently introduced in the 1920s. There were two different rear suspensions. The cars are rare, but there seems to be a resurgence of interest in them lately, especially in England. I’d be interested in your thoughts on their suspension systems. What are the pros and cons of sliding pillars? They look to be a simple and elegant solution, but nobody uses them nowadays. Apparently, the first type of rear suspension was independent, but they later replaced it with a DeDion. THE CONSULTANT I was somewhat aware…

Earlier in 2020, US drag racer, Steve Huff, became the first to crack the 200mph barrier over the quarter mile in his Current Technology electric dragster. Huff’s ET of 7.520 seconds at 201.07mph is an impressive feat given his nearest competition was Don Garlits and his Swamp Rat 38 dragster. To achieve the record-setting run, Huff’s car harnessed a pair of axial flux motors supplied by Swiss company Phi Power, giving a combined torque of 2400Nm and a power output of 1.6MW. The motors were dual core units, meaning each housing contained a pair of rotors stacked in line with each other. Running at 800V, the motors were controlled by four Rinehart controllers, rated at 700A, fed by a lithium polymer battery pack. With the motors running to a peak…

Welcome to an exciting new decade, when businesses see change as both a challenge and an opportunity for positive action. We face change on a scale unseen in most lifetimes as the world, urgently and determinedly, rises to meet environmental and economic challenges. Opportunities will arise when the UK becomes an independent nation on January 1, eager to make productive trade deals around the world. With such freedom comes challenging new limits and regulations, which we must learn to live with if we are to grow our businesses. Motorsport is relatively secure, having taken some action already – major series restricting budgets and offering more value to sponsors, audiences and participants. We have six months or so to rebuild revenues to reasonable levels as our sport becomes re-established after the…

Manufacturers have started the challenging process of re-aligning their racing activities, and the next few years the racing world will look very different. Honda announced its withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of the 2021 season, and Porsche stepped back from the US GT racing programme, but there was far more to come in December. Audi announced it will withdraw from Formula E to concentrate on the rather lower profile Dakar rally with an electric car, and return to Le Mans with the LMDh, looking more than ever like a customer racing programme. VW then announced it will withdraw from motorsport activities entirely, impacting the WRC and the Pikes Peak ID.R. Next, BMW followed up on its announcement that it will withdraw from the DTM (which has already lost…