Despite the promise that kinetic energy recovery has offered in Formula One, even several races into the new season very few teams are choosing to race it. And, of those that are, the favoured solution seems to be based on a motor/generator for energy transfer and batteries as a storage medium. Both Ferrari and Renault have taken this route while McLaren, which is being tight lipped on the matter, certainly has such a system and may well be using it. In the battle to optimize all the variables, weight distribution seems to have been the main driver in this choice. The freedom to place the batteries low down and far forward is beneficial to car balance and this is where most of the ballast that the KERS system will be replacing normally sits.
Archive for June, 2009
Italian solution
Sunday, June 14th, 2009Keeping a cool head
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
There is no doubt about it, the engine in your average family saloon car has come on a long way in the last 30 years. When once we struggled to get 100 bhp out of a 1.6 litre engine, today 100 bhp per litre is now easily achievable. Such are the improvements to the humblest of engines, the latest 1.6 litre Duratec although rated at 100PS (98.6 bhp) in the Ford Fiesta produces the thick end of 160 with only slight changes to the cam and induction / exhaust system. But for 200 bhp per litre it’s a different matter.
E is for Additives
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
It has been almost twenty years since the European Union introduced the world to E numbers. Initially seen as a somewhat crude attempt to control the use of artificial additives in food, the automatic reaction from the public was to label anything with an E number as being bad. This despite the fact that many well-known and healthy foodstuffs (for example Vitamin C – E300), are essential requirements in a well-balanced diet.
Back to Basics, Part 1
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
I have little doubt that, for many of you reading it, much of this short article and those that follow will be a case of ‘teaching Granny to suck eggs’. However, for those who are involved in engine design, possibly as beginners, an understanding of how a fastener develops load via the application of torque is a useful lesson. These articles don’t pretend to be a full guide to fastener and joint design (there are some very authoritative books on the subject), but will help give a basic understanding. This month’s article looks at the relationship between force and torque.
No room to manoeuvre
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
The modern racing engine, benefiting from many hours of dyno development time and a great deal of simulation, should at least have a well-optimised exhaust system in terms of length. When compared to a Formula One car, sports cars have a lot of room in which to lay the exhaust system out without requiring extremely tight bends.
In Formula One however, there are much tighter constraints on the exhaust, particularly in view
Chip crazy
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
The silicon chip has made the task of performance engine design incomparably easier. An effective revolution in engine design for both gasoline and diesel units was made possible by close control of fuel and ignition through what were and are rugged on-board computers.
For the first decades of engine development, the performance characteristics of the engine were set through the original design: valvetrains, carburation, ignition timing and their relationship to engine revs were the tools that were used to optimise engine performance.
Jaguar measurement
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
RET was recently invited to Jaguar Land Rover’s PCC – Product Compliance Centre – at its Solihull plant to witness the CO2 emissions testing of the 2009 BTCC race cars. In last month’s Monitor we examined the chassis dynamometer and vehicle restraint system; this month we will focus on the gas analyzing equipment.
The PCC consists of two rolling road dynamometers, Cell 1 and Cell 2. Hatton Systems Ltd is responsible for the dynamometer equipment and control systems and HORIBA for the gas analyzing technology.
Crankshaft Steels
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
As was mentioned in the previous RET Monitor article on crankshafts, it is our belief that nitriding steels are the most commonly, if not exclusively used materials. This month we take a closer look at nitriding steels for crankshaft manufacture, expand a little more on the importance of the ‘cleanliness’ of these types of steel and touch briefly on the benefits of nitriding.
The bar-stock used to make an Formula One crankshaft is not necessarily much different from that used
Big End Design
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
After the article last month which looked briefly at the small end of the con rod, we shall look this month at the opposite end of the con rod. Referred to as the ‘big end’ or ‘large end’ this end of the con rod houses the bearings which transfer the piston and con rod loads to the crankshaft. Again we shall concentrate on the type of con rod found in the four-stroke engine typical of Formula One and many other racing series.
One of the main jobs that the big end has to do is to house and retain the bearing which is almost
Micro perfection
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
Finding a material that fulfils all of the performance demands especially in a race engine is an almost impossible task. The result has been the growth in the use of coatings, used either to protect the load bearing core or to reduce frictional losses or both. Perhaps the best known are the various carbon and graphite coatings (often called DLC for diamond like coating) where a super thin layer of as little as 5 microns is deposited onto a finished surface using some form of vapour deposition. The results are dramatically reduced friction and extended part life, allowing the use in many cases
