Innehållsförteckning för September 2023 från Racecar Engineering

Maserati will return to GT competition for the first time since the end of the MC12 programme in 2010. The marque launched its GT2 challenger, the MC20, at the Spa 24-hour race weekend at the end of June. While the MC12 took part in the FIA GT1 World Championship, the MC20 has been targeted at the customer driver in the lower-level GT2 category, and it is scheduled to make its race debut later this year. There are some vital components that have yet to be confirmed, such as the manufacturer and specification of the gearbox, but Maserati is confident it will be ready to contest at least one race this season ahead of delivery to customers for competition next year. How many cars it sells is open to…

CLUB RACING – SPECIAL SALOONS AND MODSPORTS ‘We’re really down to the pamphlet of a rule book that existed in the ’70s. Provided the car keeps its basic silhouette above the halfway line, it’s eligible’ Dave Smith, deputy driver representative for Modsports There was a time when there was a huge appetite for watching cars which differed greatly in their technical philosophy compete against each other. These were races in which lightweight machines with outlandish, track-skimming, glass fibre bodies were pitted against rumbling muscle cars, and very often beat them. In the UK in the 1970s, this was so popular it was even televised, when most domestic motor racing was not. The category was known as Special Saloons. Like many things from the ’70s, such as flared trousers and…

Brakes, alongside tyres, are probably the most important component of any racecar. Even Formula E, which tried to dispense with rear brakes for Gen 3, quickly realised that a mechanical means of retardation is still useful to have. Since Dunlop first brought its disc brakes to Le Mans with Jaguar in 1953 (though the British company was not the first to see the benefits of caliper brakes), the basic principles of operation have not changed, but the level of optimisation has gone through the roof. One only has to look at a Le Mans Hypercar, capable of completing a full 24-hour race on the same set of discs and pads, to appreciate just how impressive modern motorsport braking technology is. Caliper consistency Imagine a brake caliper as the letter C,…

Audi has confirmed it will cancel factory support for its customer racing programmes from the end of this year. The German car firm will continue to support teams running its cars in various championships around the world, but will not provide drivers to customer teams, and will not build any new GT3 racecars after March 2024. The move brings to an end Audi’s intense involvement in endurance racing. The programme started in 1999 with the arrival of the R8R and R8C prototypes, extending into the R8, R10, R15 and R18, while alongside that was a GT3 programme with the R8 road car-based model that started in 2009. Audi has more than 600 cars racing around the world, and the existing cars will have their homologation extended to allow them to…

Lamborghini’s decision to join the sportscar prototype ranks was a long time coming. Achieving board sign off took longer than expected but, once it was given, the team wasted no time in commissioning French company, Ligier, to build a new chassis, and it worked with long-time engine partner, Autotecnica Motori, to build a completely new 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8 engine for it. The manufacturer says it will only run a factory team in the next four years, something of a blow to its customers who may have wanted to step up from the Lamborghini Trofeo or GT3 series. The factory cars will be run by the Iron Lynx team, managed by former racer, Andrea Piccini, on both sides of the Atlantic. An intensive development programme will start in August and is…

Haas’s 2023 season has been a mixed bag to date, with the team only recording three finishes in the points as the summer break loomed. The issues seem to stem from a lack of consistency and unexpectedly high tyre wear, even though the team is now better resourced than ever, operating at the budget cap while still drawing many of its key components from Ferrari. F1’s rules have evolved in recent years to allow teams to purchase a far greater number of parts from other manufacturers. The list of Transferrable Components (TRCs), parts that can be bought in from another team, covers almost all powertrain and suspension-related components. Consequently, Haas buys in not only its powertrain from Ferrari, but also its front and rear suspension, gearbox, hydraulic system and a…

RACECAR FOCUS – BUGATTI TYPE 59 The Type 59 remains a fascinating epilogue to Bugatti’s grand prix story and… a thing of absolute beauty Ettore Bugatti was an artist. One of his sculptures also happens to be the most successful grand prix racecar of all time, the Bugatti Type 35. Introduced in 1924, the Type 35 amassed over 1000 race wins during the subsequent years. But Bugatti was also a conservative. He held on to the same basic design for nearly a decade, gradually evolving it into the Type 59 of 1933, the last of the great Bugatti grand prix cars. Bugatti debuted the Type 35 at the 1924 Grand Prix d’Europe at Lyon in France. There was not one single element that made it stand out, though…

AP Racing, the world-renowned brake and clutch supplier, is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth, with 190 people now employed across the business. An increase in demand from OEMs and the motorsport industry has also resulted in the launch of an active recruitment programme by the company. During the last 12 months, the Coventry, UK-based manufacturer has seen business increase at a significant rate as a result of its involvement in key motorsport events. As a result, the firm is now in a strong position to strategically recruit for key new roles in both the UK and the US to drive the business forward. The team are currently recruiting across all departments and levels of seniority. Some of the roles currently available at AP Racing include manufacturing engineer, purchasing buyer,…

Truck racing has taken its first big steps into the world of electrification with the arrival of the eTruck project, announced at the Nürburgring in July. Developed by six-time Truck Racing champion, Jochen Hahn, the new truck is a bespoke design, from chassis to bodywork and powertrain. The decision to build the eTruck came after the FIA World Motorsport Council gave the green light to the project at the end of June 2022. With partners, Bosch and IVECO, work started almost immediately ready for the launch. The current FIA regulations allow all-electric and hybrid powertrains to race alongside combustion-engined trucks in the series. The next task is to create enough power supply at the tracks the series visits to allow the eTrucks to charge up for the races. ‘We have…

LE MANS – GARAGE 56 SAFETY The decision to enter a Gen 7 Chevrolet Camaro NASCAR into the FIA World Endurance Championship race at Le Mans was something of a surprise when it was announced in March 2022. Much of the ensuing controversy surrounded the fact that the Garage 56 entry is meant to be for experimental technologies, and there was no way the Camaro met that criteria. There was an attempt to introduce hybrid technology to the car but, due to a shortage of available parts and time, as well as the added weight and complexity involved, that plan was shelved. The car did ran on standard biofuel for the WEC, developed by TotalEnergies, yet there was more technical development on this car. The story went much further, with…

RALLYING – WRC SAFETY ADVANCES Talk FIA World Rally Championship and motorsport fans immediately recall the helter-skelter days of unrestricted, fire-belching, 600bhp Group B monsters such as the Lancia Delta S4, Peugeot 206 T16 and Audi Quattro S2. Ultimately, these cars were banned by the FIA as being too fast to race after a string of fatalities involving crews and spectators, though they’re still remembered fondly. Less well known, however, is that the current 500+ horsepower hybrid WRC cars are substantially faster per stage kilometre than their predecessors by virtue of the instant torque provided by their 134bhp electric motors, more sophisticated powertrain electronics, improved driveline systems and advances in tyre technologies. Indeed, current WRC cars are the quickest overall in the 50-year history of the series. Increased speeds improve…

The relentless hunt for performance in Formula 1 drives teams to exploit every possible opportunity for development. This leads to comprehensive testing programmes at the racetrack, rig centres, wind tunnels and in simulation. Yet despite the abundance of testing tools now available, there is never enough time for engineers to investigate every test condition. So, to try and test as many scenarios as possible, teams are constantly pushing the boundaries of how much time they can test, and how efficient they can be whilst testing. Track testing This became apparent in the early-to-mid 2000s when F1 teams had grown to engineering armies with budgets that allowed them to spend over 80 days testing at the track per season. These test days took place in between race events as well as…

The SRO has extended its deal with multi-energy firm, TotalEnergies, and will introduce Excellium Racing 100 fuel into the GT World Challenge Europe and Asia for next season. The move to the new fuel for the GT3 series brings it into line with the FIA World Endurance Championship that has already run Excellium 100 for two years, and which next year will introduce GT3 cars to its grid. The fuel, which is produced using the residue from the wine industry and reduces CO2 emissions by 65 per cent over its full life cycle, does require engine re-mapping to run it. However, the French company says that aligning the GT World Challenge and FIA WEC series will reduce the amount of work required for manufacturers and the teams. TotalEnergies’ deal with…