Innehållsförteckning för December 2024 från Racecar Engineering

NASCAR – HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS Anyone who has been to Hendrick Motorsports’ campus cannot fail to be impressed. Housed on 140 acres in Charlotte, North Carolina, the facility runs up Papa Joe Hendrick Boulevard to a series of factories that has steadily grown in size from 5000ft.sq in 1984 to an incredible 430,000ft.sq today. On site is a full race shop for teams competing in various NASCAR-sanctioned championships, a museum that celebrates the 40-year history of the team, and a state-of-the-art engine facility that produces one of the highest number of bespoke power units per season in world motorsport. Since April 1984, when Geoff Bodine won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville, products of the engine shop have powered winners every year, bar 1985. In the middle of this year,…

‘I just want to build the fastest car possible.’ Those were the words of Rod Pobestek, the owner and visionary of RP968, who goes on to say he doesn’t consider winning the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) event at Sydney Motorsport Park five times in a row a measure of success. ‘It’s nice to win WTAC, but the car can go faster. I am going to keep learning, making improvements and finding the next gain.’ That raison d’être has driven the development of the RP968 every year since its conception in 2014. Every area of the car has had at least one major overhaul since the first version competed in 2015, and further upgrades are constantly being investigated. Racecar introduced the RP968 in the V30N2 issue after it set a…

Technical controversy erupted at the United States Grand Prix when it emerged that Red Bull Racing had developed the capability to adjust its car’s ride height in parc fermé. The reigning champion squad admitted to having a device in the cockpit that could alter the height of the undertray’s leading edge. F1 teams pursue low ride heights to enhance their cars’ aero efficiency whilst trying to minimise side effects such as plank wear and porpoising. The FIA found no conclusive evidence that Red Bull’s tool was being used under parc fermé conditions, which would be illegal, nor was it able to confirm whether it had been used in the past. ‘While we have not received any indication of any team employing such a system, the FIA remains vigilant in our…

It has been a disparate season for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team. On the one hand, its Mercedes-powered AMR24 has underperformed. The car became marooned in fifth place in the World Constructors’ Championship, unable to break into the top four that its predecessor accessed so spectacularly for part of last year. On the other hand, it has been an exciting period off-track, as team owner Lawrence Stroll’s ambitious vision to create a title-winning organisation continues to take shape. The sparkling new factory at Silverstone is growing by the week, and the building blocks of an all-star technical leadership structure have fallen into place, headlined by the signing of former Red Bull Racing chief technical officer, Adrian Newey. The disparity between a challenging year on the track and a thrilling…

The spirit of the competition is really about trying to get the most from the front-wheel drive format of the original car When the Mini was launched in 1959, it was seen as what we now call a city car, something cute, cheap and convenient for pootling around town. What it was not seen as was a formidable competitor on a race circuit or rally stage. The cheeky little car was having none of that, though, and was quickly mixing it with the big boys, and winning, in both races and rallies. Sports versions such as the Cooper were soon in production, while tuning companies dedicated to getting the maximum from Alec Issigonis’ minimalist design proliferated, until the Mini was seen as the quintessential small competition car. Meanwhile, the cars…

Toyota Gazoo Racing has entered a technical partnership with the Haas Formula 1 team to provide a training facility for young engineers and drivers, while also sharing technical expertise between the two outfits. During the announcement made in October, Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, stressed that the Japanese company has not returned to F1, but is instead increasing the opportunity for young Japanese talent to be involved in grand prix racing. Toyota fielded a works F1 team from 2002 until 2009, but didn’t win a race. In a speech at the Haas partnership launch, Toyoda admitted he regretted the decision to withdraw, but said it was not wrong. That was seen as an indication that the relationship with Haas marks a first toe back in the water for Toyota in F1.…

The new regulations that will govern Formula 1 from 2026 have received a significant overhaul since they were first introduced in June. The change is mostly to the structure of the sporting regulations, which are to be laid out more simply and with less conflict between different articles, but work has also been undertaken to increase the performance of the cars when they hit the track in 2026. As featured in Racecar Engineering V34N8, the cars will have more power from the hybrid system throughout races, and work has been undertaken to revise the aerodynamic rules to allow for the cars to manage that energy better. For example, if energy from the battery is spent, the adjustable aerodynamics are intended to allow the speed to be carried for longer. Aerodynamically,…

Rodin Motorsport will take delivery of a new Dynisma Motion Generator (DMG) driver simulator for its plethora of junior single-seater programmes. The UK-based, New Zealandowned team, formerly known as Carlin, will use its new DMG-1 rig for car set-up, tyre strategy, driver training and circuit familiarisation. Rodin runs cars in FIA Formula 2 and 3, as well as F1 Academy, GB3 and Spanish F4. Dynisma works with many top-level race teams and has also supplied its simulator technology to automotive OEMs. The DMG-1 has a motion latency of 4-5ms and a bandwidth of 50-100Hz. ‘Having a simulator on site of the standard of DMG-1 is going to be a game changer internally for how we approach our seasons,’ says Rodin F2 team manager, Benn Huntingford. ‘Not only will we be…

AP Racing, Fortescue Zero and Jota were among the winners at the 2024 Motorsport Industry Association Business Excellence Awards, held at Silverstone in October. The ceremony highlighted the achievements of key players in the global racecar supply chain in front of more than 400 guests. Brake manufacturer, AP Racing, collected the MIA Business of the Year award for companies with sales over £5 million (US$6.5m). The company launched its entry-level Pro Sport caliper range earlier this year. Fortescue Zero, previously WAE, won the MIA Technology and Innovation award for its efforts to accelerate the commercial decarbonisation of industry across many sectors, including motorsport. Jota, the British race team that will run the factory Cadillac programme at Le Mans next year, received the MIA Teamwork award based on its success at…

The 10-hour Petit Le Mans was the final round of this year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship and, at the conclusion of the race, Porsche won both the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles in the top class with its 963 prototype. The preceding six-hour race at Indianapolis saw BMW take a one-two finish, marking a distinct turnaround for both brands. BMW’s impressive result at The Brickyard was the only time an M Hybrid V8 finished on the podium in the US sportscar series this year, and only the second win of the vehicle’s career, the other coming at Watkins Glen in 2023 after the winning Porsche was disqualified for excessive plank wear. For Porsche, the 2023 season saw the factory squad outshone in the FIA World Endurance Championship by customers, and drivers had…

The decade of the 1960s was one of dramatic experimentation and transformation for the classic 500-mile race at Indianapolis. It witnessed the changeover to rear-engined cars, the surge of turbine power, spectacular tyre improvements and the triumph of turbocharging. Four-wheel drive was another feature of new cars, both successful and less so. None was more adventurous than Albert H Stein’s Porsche-powered 1966 entry. In fact, Stein’s creation had both Porsche and Indy credentials. Its drive principle was the same as that exploited by Lou Fageol at the Speedway 20 years earlier and subsequently in his twin-engined sportscars. Al Stein powered his racer with two air-cooled Porsche sixes, each one driving the pair of wheels at its end of the car. A mechanically precocious Californian machinist, Stein grounded his motorsport experience…

The adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles has introduced new sources of heat that engineers now must manage. Batteries, motors, inverters, and the associated cabling that make up the high voltage arm of modern powertrains, all have electrical current flowing through them. As Georg Ohm discovered in 1827, wherever there is current, there is resistance, and this resistance generates heat. The need for speed in racing translates to a push for power, forcing even more electrical energy through these components. Take the motors used in Formula 1, for example. The original KERS system in 2009 used 60kW motors, whereas the MGU-K system of today uses motors with double that power. It’s a similar story in Formula E. The Gen1 cars of 2014 had a maximum regeneration capability of 100kW, and…

Cars that raced between 1991 and 2000 are now eligible to compete in historic racing, the FIA World Motor Sport Council has confirmed. The update will bring many of the world’s most iconic race and rally cars back to competition. These include Formula 1 cars from the turbo era that were previously only approved for demonstration runs, along with grand prix cars built between 1987 and 2000. Also now eligible to compete are Le Mans cars of that era, including the Mercedes Benz CLK GTR, McLaren F1 GTR and the Ferrari F40 LM. Fans of super touring will soon be able to see Audi, Opel, Renault and Alfa Romeo back in harness, as well as hugely popular Group A rally cars, including the Subaru Impreza and Ford Focus WRC.…