Innehållsförteckning för February 2022 från Racecar Engineering

As a reference, with a car at sea level you can expect air density to be around 1.2kg/m3 In June 2019, Robin Shute became the first British driver to win outright at Pikes Peak, Colorado, the gruelling, 12.42-mile mountain course that winds its way up through over 150 corners from a start line at 9390ft above sea level to a finish line above the clouds at 14,115ft. As a quick reality check on those heights, that means it starts at a point twice as tall as the UK’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, and finishes at a point just below Base Camp on Mount Everest. Pikes Peak International Hillclimb is a far cry from the venues we find in the hotly contested British Hillclimb Championship, where competitors regularly see a finish…

Think downforce and aerodynamic development, and the mind naturally turns to the world of Sportscars and single seaters. However, since the World Rally Championship (WRC) introduced new rules in 2017, the importance of aerodynamics has grown immeasurably in the sport, becoming an area of intense R&D for teams. Come 2021 and the arrival of new hybrid machines with spaceframe chassis and silhouette bodies, the rules were being pegged back once again and many of the aero flourishes of the past era will be consigned to the history books. So, what have the teams been up to over the last five years? Aero through the ages Of course, aerodynamics has been a consideration in rallying for years, but it was only in the late ’70s and into the ’80s, as speeds…

Brake specialist, Brembo, launched an all-new brake system for Late Model racers at the PRI Show in Indianapolis in December. The system is engineered specifically for competition and includes calipers, discs, brackets and hardware for an accessible price, says the company. The forged aluminium, asymmetric calipers are radial mounted, offering a robust stopping solution for dirt and asphalt racing, as well as improved driver pedal feel. The internal fluid passages offer a smooth external design that will not be affected by the dirt, rocks and other track debris that can gather in calipers with external fluid lines. Brake discs comprise premium materials cast at Brembo’s own foundry and come in multiple sizes. The calipers are designed for extended wear life, greater thermal capacity and are machine balanced to Brembo’s standards.…

The 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship was the most competitive of any since the birth of the hybrid era in 2014. A battle from the outset between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes AMG Formula 1 teams saw the fight to decide the victor rage on until the last few corners of the last lap of the last race of the championship. Two powerhouse cars of the sport, with arguably the biggest difference in Formula 1 car design philosophy throughout the paddock, battling it out at every circuit made 2021 a season to remember. Here, we look at the Red Bull Racing RB16B and unpick its technical accolades with Red Bull Racing’s chief engineer of car engineering, Paul Monaghan. Before the gantry lights went out for the first race of…

The final round of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch in October 2021 marked the end of an extraordinary era. For 12 years, Swindon Powertrain has serviced a contract that is unique in topflight racing, providing an unbranded engine to any team or manufacturer that wanted to use it in the championship, and at a cost that was affordable to all. During the 12-year cycle of the engine it has undergone two major upgrades due to regulation and contract changes, been re-branded as the TOCA race engine, and has achieved every goal that the championship organisers set for it. During the lifetime of the contract, Swindon’s engines have covered nearly 600,000kms, won 119 races, scored 49 pole positions, and powered more than 100 drivers in the championship. There…

There used to be a popular bumper sticker that read, ‘Old Fords never die, they just get faster’. When it comes to old Formula Fords it might better read, ‘…they just keep racing’. There’s been a place to race older FF1600s since the early 1980s, with the Pre-’74 Championship in the UK, and there have been many variations on this theme since. Now there’s Historic (pre-’72) and Classic (pre’82), and often a class system for different age groups within regional championships. Historic FF1600 has been remarkably successful, boasting grids averaging 27 across 2021 and enjoying a profile that is, arguably, even higher than that of the National Championship for modern cars. ‘The rules are the same as modern Formula Ford,’ says Mike O’Brien, who runs the Classic Team Merlyn operation…

A glance inside the engine bays of either M-Sport or Toyota’s 2017-’21 WRC machines reveals a plethora of complex, sculpted ductwork. While these undoubtedly contribute to cooling the powertrain, control of the inlet and exhaust flows from the engine bays were also put to good use in influencing the cars’ aerodynamic performance. Taking the M-Sport Fiesta as an example, air is fed through the intercooler from the front grille, pulled by a pair of large fans sited behind the air-to-air heat exchanger, before being vented out over the bonnet. One engineer explained that this high temperature air rejoins the flow over the front of the car at the trailing edge of the front wheelarches, the idea being to create a separation boundary layer in this area, forcing the air that…

Mid-December, the FIA confirmed that new F1 engine regulations will be introduced in 2026, and laid out the key objectives that have been thrashed out over the course of the 2021 season for the units. Following extensive meetings with manufacturer representatives, the FIA was able to push through its vision for the future of the most watched motor racing category in the world. Four key objectives were planned for the future regulations. These include: a powerful environmental message and the use of 100 per cent sustainable fuel; significant cost reduction through technical, operational and financial regulations; to make it possible for newcomers to join the sport at a competitive level; to protect the show with high-revving power units and the ability for drivers to race. For the power unit specifically,…

FIA World Endurance Championship Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez took victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship, opening the Hypercar era of endurance racing with their second title together. Driving the Toyota GR010, which also dominated the overall results from the start, the trio started the season third at Spa after Kobayashi went off, finished second at Portimao in June, and then won at Monza as their team mates Brendon Hartley, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi hit problems with debris blocking a fuel filter. They then followed that with a further win at Le Mans despite a similar fuel filter system problem. The trio powered to victory in the first of two races in Bahrain and finished five points clear of their team mates. The Hypercar regulations…

The internet can be a hit and miss method of research, involving lots of cats and craziness. But every now and then you stumble upon something quite fascinating, such as a list of Formula Fords produced before 1974 in an old rules document (search ‘brsccff1600 technical regulations’). It’s an interesting read, not least because it contains the likes of Lotus, Lola and March, but also because it’s so very, very long. From Alexis to Winkelman, by way of Blackjack, Cougar, Ladybird and Raven, there are 66 marques listed in all. That’s a lot of racecars. That’s a lot of racecar manufacturers. Things have changed since then. Dominant marques took over in Formula Ford in the ’70s and ’80s and the smaller constructors fell by the wayside. In the process, the…

A contemporary generation Formula 1 car is made up of around 25,000 components: 11,000 in the chassis; 6000 in the power unit (PU), electronics another 8500. Each of those must perform within a very specific window for the team and the driver to extract performance potential out of the car. To understand what the individual components are doing, they must be instrumented and monitored by a host of sensors. The most complex system onboard the cars is the power unit. Currently in F1, this comprises two motor generators, an internal combustion engine (ICE), battery store and control electronics. All of these are sub-systems in themselves and need constant supervising to ensure all elements are operating in the desired way. With power unit control strategies being the key to Formula 1…

Austrian company, AVL, has extended its partnership with the DTM and DTM Trophy and will continue to provide the Balance of Performance service to the series in 2022. The company had already proved its worth in 2021, balancing seven different brands competing with GT3 cars, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren and Porsche with its own exclusive BoP system. ‘The DTM-specific method, based on state-of-the-art virtual simulation of cars and the environment of the vehicle with great depth of detail, taking into account a large database and without the real-life insights of a test driver, has proven to be eminently reliable,’ said Michael Resi, director of competition and technology at the ITR. ‘Just like our new race director, Scott Elkins will be responsible for both DTM and DTM Trophy…

British gearbox specialist, Xtrac, has officially unveiled its new gearbox, the 1359, which will service each of the LMDh cars that are eligible to compete in IMSA and in the World Endurance Championship. The seven-speed gearbox is designed to accommodate the new hybrid system from Bosch and to help teams adapt to new regulations that are coming for the 2022 season. LMDh cars are eligible to run in 2022, but it is believed that most will compete for the first time in 2023 as none have tested at time of writing. New regulations will limit the number of ratio sets available to teams throughout the season in a bid to control costs, and so the extra gear, compared to the 1159 ’box currently run in the DPi chassis, will help…