Innehållsförteckning för March 2021 från Racecar Engineering

We spend a lot of time discussing cost saving measures, but perhaps there are some extreme examples we should be looking at. I am thinking here of track time at an event. Are there other options for a weekend schedule that makes racing cheaper and easier for the teams, while also improving the racing for the fans? I think there are. Due to the tight scheduling, we lost a session from the weekend in last year’s IMSA season, which meant less fuel burnt and fewer tyres used. That’s the easy fix to save money, but there are other ways, too. Minimising running time before a qualifying session shifts some of the priority from qualifying simulation runs to race preparation, especially if the timing of sessions is the same as the…

Bodywork: Carbon fibre composite Gearbox: Transverse with seven gears, sequential Driveshafts: Constant velocity tripod plunge-joint Clutch: Multidisc Differential: Mechanical locking differential Suspension: Independent front and rear double wishbone, pushrod system Springs: Torsion bar Anti-roll bars: Front and rear Steering: Hydraulically assisted Brakes: Akebono monoblock alloy calipers with carbon ventilated discs Rims: RAYS magnesium alloy 13 x 18in Tyres: Michelin radial 31/71-18 Length: 4900mm Width: 2000mm Height: 1150mm Weight: 1040kg Fuel capacity: 90 litres Engine: V6 direct injection twin turbo Valves: Four per cylinder Engine capacity: 3.5 litres Fuel: Petrol Engine power: 500kW / 680ps Hybrid power: 200kW / 272ps Battery: High-powered Toyota lithium-ion Front motor / inverter: Aisin AW / Denso…

Engine: Front-mid; 3.5-litre, twin turbo V6; single plenum / throttle; dry sump oiling Power: 400bhp Torque: 700Nm Transmission: Four-wheel drive; six-speed sequential shift gearbox; front, centre and rear differentials Chassis: High strength steel tubular structure; carbon and natural fibre composite bodywork; built-in hydraulic jacks Suspension: Double wishbone front and rear; two fully adjustable dampers per wheel Interior: Carbon fibre seats; six-point safety harness; dual fire extinguisher system; lightweight lithium-ion battery; navigation system Fuel system: 500 litre in FIA-spec safety cell Brakes: Six-piston front and rear calipers; vented discs Wheels and tyres: 16 x 7; BF Goodrich All Terrain Dimensions: Length – 4500mm Width – 2000mm Height – 1800mm Wheelbase – 2900mm Dry weight – 1850kg…

TECHNOLOGY – THE CONSULTANT I’ve received some correspondence about the article on sliding pillar suspension in the last issue [RE V31N2], with some further thoughts and resources. This from Doug Milliken: ‘Related to your recent article on sliding pillar suspension is Multimatic’s in-wheel suspension. Larry Holt explains in the video on this page: www.fluxauto.com/?p=6368or you can see the system in action in the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w7_N9Aenn8 THE CONSULTANT This [pictured right] is a sliding pillar system intended for the street rod market. Unlike other sliding pillar systems, it is compact enough to fit inside a 17 or 18in wheel rim, rather than needing to be inboard of the wheel, as in a Lancia or Morgan. This makes the system useable with modern tyres and wheels without a large steering offset…

The paddock at Daytona in the mid-1990s was a very different place to the beautifully laid out, fan-friendly structures that are around today. The paddock garages are now open plan and feature windows for fans to watch race teams prepare their cars. The roof forms a viewing platform, which is mightily popular with fans. The DPi cars are of the highest standard in terms of build quality and safety, while the GT paddock features cars sold from factories such as Porsche, Lamborghini, Corvette and Ferrari, so there is no lacking in quality there. The paddock is, today, world class. That wasn’t always the case. The old paddock featured rows of garages, billet-style, with no discernible logic behind their allocation. The only way of finding anyone was to walk them all…

With my birthday following the start of the New Year, I should be making good resolutions. However, I figure if I haven’t sorted my lifetime habits by now, it probably isn’t going to happen in 2021. What came to mind instead, though, was a list of technical matters to which I wish I had paid more attention during my own race-driving career, such as it was. Although racing has changed beyond imagination since then, and professional teams of any competence nowadays have a much more sophisticated handle on running a racecar, some of this may still strike a chord today, if only at historic, amateur or semi-professional level. Example: I didn’t make enough of being friends with my tyre supplier’s engineers and pushing for advice and tips on pressures, wheel…

Q: What is the GR010 like to drive? A: It is different to what I was used to. The restriction of fuel per lap is gone, so it gives you the feeling that we are back to pure racing where you brake as late as you can, as hard as you can, and don’t have to save fuel and recover as much as possible. You still recover energy, but you don’t have to adapt your driving style to maximise the effect of the hybrid system. It is a lot of pleasure because it is back to what it was years ago. The car is heavier and less powerful, but nice to drive. There are many things we were able to improve over the last car. Q: As a driver, what…

In the last few articles we have reviewed the art and science that help us to define our targets of spring stiffness and dampers force vs velocity curves. The next logical step then is to explain how to determine anti-roll bars stiffness. But to do so we will have to first make a little detour in the world of magic numbers. The best way to predict the future is to look at the past. Sometimes the best simulation, the best performance prediction, is provided by the exploitation of previous data collected on track or in lab tests. When your car satisfies some objective and subjective performance criteria, there are in the analysed test data and simulation outputs some key performance indicators (KPI), or ‘magic numbers’. Call them best references if…

A hot topic of debate in motor racing right now is in which direction do we take the sport? In particular, the focus on green racing has led to the introduction of KERS in LMP1 and F1 and the emergence of Formula E. While these are necessary and important steps, a key question has been lost. Is this of real engineering benefit and, more importantly, will it make the cars quicker? We’ll explore these questions in depth in this article in relation to a GT3 category racecar. To focus this study, we’ll be narrowing our discussion down to a contender for the Bathurst 12 hours. Note the use of the word contender in that sentence. One of the problems with motorsport these days is, due to the challenges we are…

Tamiya enjoys a unique relationship with motorsport and the wider automotive world An accurate insight into the workings and drivetrain of a racecar It says in the instructions for its radio control kits that Tamiya models are not toys, and so it has been proven. With R/C cars, and its famous line of scale plastic assembly models, Tamiya products have been a tremendous starting point for budding engineers for decades. A young Adrian Newey built a Tamiya 1/12 scale Lotus 49B with his father, a moment which would change both his life and, in turn, possibly the shape of modern day Formula 1. In recent interviews, Newey has openly declared it was that big scale kit of Graham Hill’s Gold Leaf machine (a car he would later own) that fired…