Innehållsförteckning för March 2024 från Racecar Engineering

FORMULA 1 – AUDI In 2026, Audi will become the second major OEM from Germany to enter Formula 1, after Mercedes, and when Audi announced its commitment during the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix, it couldn’t resist a little side swipe at its country folk in the press release: ‘This is the first time in more than a decade that a Formula 1 power unit has been built in Germany,’ it stated. Although Mercedes has been an engine manufacturer in Formula 1 since 1994, the engines are developed and manufactured in Brixworth in the UK. The Stuttgart-based car maker had gradually taken over engine manufacturer Ilmor, which itself had emerged from Cosworth spin-offs, Mario Illien and Paul Morgan. The last Formula 1 engines to actually be made in Germany came from…

In the United States they say sidewalk, in Britain we say pavement. They say cookie, we say biscuit. They say stock car, and we say hot rod, which is especially confusing for ‘car guys’, but that’s another matter. That’s simplifying it, but in essence National Hot Rods (NHR), one of the most popular and quickest of the United Kingdom’s many short oval formulae, can be compared to NASCAR, or its lower divisions at least. The main reason they’re not actually called stock cars over here is that another, older, British category uses this name. To muddy the waters even further, in the US, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) governs drag racing, not short oval racing. Nomenclature aside, there’s no doubt NHR provides great racing, and the hot rods themselves…

The Autosport International Show kicked off the 2024 season with a flourish over a four-day show, two of which were trade only. There was no shortage of stories and interesting displays throughout the event, and not only in the Autosport Engineering section. Revolution demonstrated its car update (see p77), while oil giant ROWE attended, having set its sights on the UK motorsport and automotive sectors through its new importer, MediaCo Imports (MCOIL). AER celebrated 25 years of business with its range of engine designs for all applications of the sport, including sportscar, prototype, rallying and single seater racing. The British company has supplied engines for the IndyCar IndyNXT series since 2015 and has also been involved at the top level of endurance racing, finishing on the podium at Le Mans…

INDYCAR – HYBRID SYSTEM IndyCar will this year become the latest top-level race series to introduce hybrid technology and, in doing so, will be the first to race on an oval with such a system. It has been an intense and thorough route to fruition, but the series is now confident that, following validation tests at the end of January with production-spec parts and software, it can deliver a safe and robust system that is unique to the series. IndyCar first introduced the idea of a hybrid system in 2019. The series invited companies to tender for the contract and be ready for 2022. It also announced that its two partner manufacturers, Honda and General Motors, would introduce new engines, increasing capacity from 2.2-litres to 2.4. However, under pressure from…

Eyebrows were raised in early December when Podium Advanced Technologies was announced as the chosen battery supplier for the fourth generation Formula E car in 2026-27. The Italian engineering firm was a relative unknown compared to the likes of McLaren Applied and WAE Technologies, which had previously held the post, so its selection came as a surprise to some. For the people working at Podium’s expanding headquarters in north west Italy, it was a just reward for their hard work behind the scenes. Podium is an very busy company, with its hands in many pies, from motorsport to marine. It was founded as Podium Engineering in 2011 and has grown since then to become capable of winning a major FIA tender just over a decade into its journey. With that…

RACECAR FOCUS – RENAULT RS10 History was made during the 1979 French Grand Prix. The epic fight between Gilles Villeneuve in a Ferrari 312 T4 and René Arnoux in a Renault RS10 is the stuff of legend. But however tantalising the wheel-to-wheel fight was, it was ‘only’ for second position for, while all eyes were on the brawling duo, Jean-Pierre Jabouille was making history as he drove his Renault to the very first grand prix win for a turbo-engined Formula 1 car. Three seasons in the making, Jabouille’s victory did not come easily. The first Renault grand prix racer was dubbed RS01 but, especially in the British media, was often referred to as the ‘yellow teapot’ as the French V6 engine that powered it had a habit of expiring quite…

Test drive, adjust, test drive, repeat. This was the common pattern for suspension development and tuning in the past. Recognising the inefficiency of this process, suspension specialist, KW Automotive, has successfully streamlined these iteration loops using modern technology. This has not only saved time, but also significantly reduced costs. The suspension system is one of the most crucial components of any vehicle, encompassing all components that connect the vehicle to the road. These include the wheels, tyres, suspension, damping, stabilisers, axle design and steering as well. It is often said that there are suspension designs that can do it all but, truthfully, this is not the case. All suspension systems are basically a compromise, developed to suit their market and relevant applications. To minimise this compromise, OEMs, aftermarket companies, motorsport…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS – GEN3 Last year saw the debut of the ‘Gen3’ regulations in Australia’s Supercars Championship. Gen3 is a technical regulation overhaul focused on reducing costs, improving competition and maintaining relevance to the road market. Supercars aimed to achieve this by controlling component design, reducing downforce and using engines derived from OEMs, among other changes. The 12-round season has now been run, and won by Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki, so let’s take a look at the regulations and their impact on Australia’s premier motor racing category. Project Blueprint The first major technical regulations overhaul in Supercars history came as Project Blueprint in 2003, which aimed to improve parity by regulating engines, aerodynamics and suspension between the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon models. Engine port angles and deck heights were…

The Glickenhaus 007 was a car built to LMH regulations and, like Toyota, it had to make compromises throughout as the demands changed to accommodate teams that never arrived. Originally, the LMH rules attracted the likes of Aston Martin, and the engine power requirements were raised to cater for the V12 unit that was fitted to the Valkyrie. That forced Glickenhaus to ditch its original Alfa Romeo twin-turbo V6 and go for a more powerful V8 engine from Pipo Moteurs. But once Aston Martin confirmed it was not coming, leading to the creation of LMDh, the power demands were reduced again. In the middle this, Jim Glickenhaus and his partner team, Podium Advanced Technologies, were trying to accommodate these changes and build a competitive car. Arguably, Podium did a better…

All-electric racing may not be taking off at the same rate as EV road car sales but, over the past decade, motorsport has provided a valuable proving ground for the technology. Though the spotlight is often turned on hardware, the honing of energy management strategies is just as important. In a previous issue of Racecar Engineering, we discussed the challenge of energy management in Formula 1 hybrid systems but, if one looks to pure electric racing, and Formula E in particular, it is energy management throughout a race that ultimately determines the winners and losers. Of course, hardware has a crucial role to play. In the case of Formula E, the battery is a fixed quantity, but teams are allowed to develop the rest of the powertrain. This has seen…