Formula racing in Europe has something of a complex ‘ladder’ scheme, by which drivers can try to reach Formula One, the pinnacle of the open-wheel sport outside the US. It might equally be described as a climbing frame, where there are many routes one can use to get to the top.
The various Formula Renault series though do provide a good graduation scheme, starting with relatively cheap Read more…
An issue often not immediately considered when discussing an engine component such as a cylinder head or engine block, or any cast or forged part of them, is the way the machined features are positioned into the rough part. These features need to be positioned - or ‘targeted’ - correctly onto the casting, in order to get to a fully functioning component as the end product. So what are the important points during this initial machining, which will create the basis for all other machining features? It seems simple, but in reality this Read more…
We live in interesting and uncertain times - that much at least is certain. The world may be hovering on the point of economic disaster but in 2011, despite the proliferation of other types of fuel (such as ethanol, methanol, CNG or diesel) the performance fuel of choice is still gasoline. A mixture of up to several hundred types of hydrocarbon chains of varying length and shape, gasoline can be tailored more specifically to the precise characteristics of an internal combustion engine than perhaps any other fossil fuel. And of its many properties Read more…
When we look at a bespoke fastener for a race engine, it is often clear that a great deal of thought has gone into its design, and considerable effort into its manufacture. Fasteners for use in race engines typically see much higher stresses than a typical production engine fastener, and they also tend to accumulate stress cycles at a much faster rate than in most other applications. We should not therefore be surprised that a lot of attention is paid to fastener design, especially with Read more…
The British Touring Car Championship is in a state of flux at the moment, with cars running to different sets of rules and with different engine regulations in play. As we might expect, no ’side’ is happy when the others are winning. It would appear that teams operating under the new rules, with the so-called Next Generation Touring Cars (NGTC) such as the Toyota Avensis campaigned by Dynojet Racing and driven to good effect this year by Frank Wrathall, are becoming more successful, at the expense of teams operating under the more established Read more…
Pollution would seem to be an inevitable result of 21st-century life. Sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides and PM10s are destroying the quality of our air; industrial and farm effluent together with excessive use of fertilisers are contaminating our rivers; and general domestic waste, used for landfill, are all visible sources of our times. However, one source of pollution - not quite so readily observed and not generally recognised as such, but increasing daily - is that of electromagnetic radiation. Read more…
In previous issues of RET-Monitor under this keyword, the focus has been on dynamometer systems designed for measuring running engines. This month the focus will be on systems that do not operate on a running engine, and specifically their use for monitoring movement in reciprocating components using laser measurement systems.
The use of lasers to measure the movement of the Read more…
Yamaha is the only company running an I4 in the MotoGP series, a layout to which it has been loyal since the inception of the current four-stroke formula; all the other engines are now V4s. Having the cylinders in a vee, rather than in a line, allows the crankshaft to be shorter and stiffer, with fewer main bearings, and the engine to be narrower. This is, however, perhaps not such a great advantage. Read more…
The matter of how to positively locate the two halves of a conventional split con rod together is one to which there doesn’t appear to be a single solution that everyone has adopted. In terms of production cars, the approach of using a controlled fracture is now very popular, and is being applied to stronger grades of material.
Traditionally, racing rods have had their mating caps Read more…
The use of plasma-sprayed coatings has been slow to proliferate; the technique isn’t very new, and the range of coatings is immense. Whereas other coating methods can be limited - by solubility of metal salts in electrolytes, for example - plasma coatings are generally limited only by the availability of material in the correct form and the ability of the coating material to be melted. Read more…
