If we look at the high end of the market as far as racecar alternators are concerned, we see very special productions by only a few manufacturers. Such alternators are chosen for a number of reasons, not least of which is their notable compactness. They are permanent magnet machines, and can be found nestled alongside the engines in Formula One cars. The same technology is used widely in industry and the military, and is also commonly found in various hybrid systems, Read more…

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…

There has been a flurry of activity recently in motor racing associated with the use of electric power, either in the form of a hybrid system or as ‘pure electric’ motorsport. Motorcycle racing has been in the forefront of this movement. For those wanting to develop electric or hybrid vehicle technology, motorcycles offer a cheap route to doing so; they also encourage well-packaged, low-mass engineering solutions to any problems. Read more…

When (or if) we watch a Formula One race on television this year, the commentators will probably talk about the KERS system, and how (or if) it is being used. The KERS units have yet to attain the same impressive level of reliability of the highly stressed internal combustion engines used alongside them. This is hardly surprising; we understand combustion engines pretty well after having developed them for more than 130 years, and modern race engines, in series where regulations are essentially static, have incrementally increased Read more…

As we move ever further along the road of increasing the efficiency of race engines and drivetrains, we will see energy recovery play a more important part. Turbo-compounding, where energy is recovered from the exhaust flow, remains strictly for commercial vehicles for the time being. However, regenerative braking is very much a current technology, both for roadcars and in racing. With Williams, Flybrid and Zytek active in sportscar racing, and the Formula One engine manufacturers running KERS this season, energy Read more…

In the recent Alternative Energy Focus article in Race Engine Technology magazine (issue 53, March/April 2011), the subject of KERS and its different strategies were discussed. The car manufacturers - thus far at least - have opted to use a purely electrical system. A large combined motor/generator converts kinetic energy recovered under braking into chemical energy stored in a battery, and then the stored energy is re-used at will once the vehicle is no longer traction limited. The technology is well understood and the car manufacturers Read more…

The subject of ‘alternative energy’ is soon to be covered in the pages of RET magazine (issue 53), and will cover various technologies aimed at making motor racing more environmentally friendly.

One very topical subject is that of the various hybrid technologies that seek to make our race vehicles more efficient by storing and re-using the kinetic energy normally converted to heat under braking. This is being very actively developed by roadcar manufacturers - for Read more…

Energy recovery, based on the capture, storage and re-use of braking energy is not new in motorsport, and several series had pioneered the technology before Formula One embraced it and called it KERS - and then let go fairly quickly before embracing it again for 2011! Whatever the method of storage and redeployment of energy though, the aims are the same: either more power and a quicker lap time, or the same lap time with greater fuel conversion efficiency. Greater efficiency is in keeping with the aims of both the motor industry and various governments. Read more…

There have been a number of articles in the press on the benefits of a flywheel-based hybrid system for motor racing - indeed, Porsche has been racing a flywheel hybrid system in selected GT races. This is based on the same technology that Williams had begun to develop for its Formula One car for the 2009 season, but which didn’t race. In this system, the flywheel and alternator are combined, so the system is a mix of the benefits of flywheel energy storage and the well-known technology of the electric motor. Read more…

During 2010, Porsche achieved another significant first when it won an important motor race using a hybrid vehicle that stored its energy mechanically. When Formula One embraced KERS technology in 2009, the teams which raced these systems did so successfully using chemical storage of energy in the form of batteries.

Williams had developed, but didn’t race, its flywheel/electric system. Flybrid’s pure mechanical Read more…