RACE TECH Issue 115

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I N T E R N A T I O N A L

MAY 2010 NO. 115 UK £4.95 USA $9.99 www.racetechmag.com

The quest to make Lotus a force in Formula One

LIVING UP TO A LEGEND

THE SECRETS OF INDY 500 SUCCESS

750FORMULA BUILDPROJECT UNDERWAY

WHY LOOSE WHEELSDRIVE US NUTS!DRIVE US NUTS!DRIVE US NUTS!

PAT SYMONDSSPECIAL REPORTON COATINGS

LPG’S BID FORBTCC HISTORY

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May 2010 www.racetechmag.com 3

INDUSTRY NEWSRadical options discussed for next F1 tyre contract; DeltaWing wind tunnel testsreveal 50 per cent drag reduction over current Indycar; BTCC reprieve for rear-wheel drive; new NASCAR spoiler performs well

FORMULA ONEPat Symonds examines the generation of temperature in racing tyres and thedifferent strains the rubber endures

Why loose wheels drive us nuts! Pat Symonds sheds new light on a familiar problem

A frank account of the tempestuous infancy of Hispania Racing

ENGINE TECHNOLOGYThe LPG engine project that is ruffling feathers with its pace in the British Touring Car Championship

THE SECRETS OF SUCCESS IN THE INDY 500The Indy 500’s special place in the US racing industry

When everybody has the same technical package, what gives teams the extra edgeit takes to win the Indy 500? We find out

Why the future of the great race relies on technological innovation

MOTORSPORT’S GOLD RUSH: SPECIAL REPORT ON COATINGS Why an ever-increasing number of applications are being found for sophisticatedsurface coatings in motorsport

PRACTICAL RACERFront wishbones are on the agenda as Graham Templeman and Rod Hill embark ontheir T5 750Formula build programme

RACE EQUIPMENT DIGEST The latest products launched in the motorsport sector

COVER STORY - PAGE 28

LIVING UPTO A LEGENDTHE QUEST TO MAKE LOTUS A FORCE IN FORMULA ONE

Volume 17 Issue 7

Published May 2010

The next issue will be published

in early June 2010

ISSN 1356-2975

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May 2010 CONTENTS ISSUE 115www.racetechmag.com

3

Contents 115.qxd:Section.qxd 30/4/10 21:19 Page 1

THE NEWS that Williams has increased its stake to 78% of Williams

Hybrid Power would seem to indicate that there are still great

opportunities to be had in developing hybrid technology. It also

vindicates the decision by the FIA to encourage Formula One teams to adopt

KERS (kinetic energy recovery systems). It is just a pity that it has been dropped

by the teams this season.

When I interviewed Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport, he was very

complimentary about Williams Hybrid Power, saying that when his company

was investigating hybrid technology that it was the British company that not

only had the right answers but also asked the best questions. The fact that

Porsche, of all companies, should be progressing this technology really is a sign

of the times. A class win in only its second race speaks volumes and makes one

wonder just what the future will hold once the Weissach carmaker really gets to

grip with this technology.

I remember a few years ago when Toyota and Honda were making hay with

their production hybrid models. Much to the surprise of the domestic and

European carmakers, these Japanese companies managed to ride the wave of

green motoring. While the German carmakers in particular were promoting

diesel technology as the sensible powertrain of the future, and were committing

vast resources to it, Toyota and Honda were winning the PR war in the ever-

important US market. I remember being briefed by senior executives from

virtually all the European car companies 10 years ago that hybrid technology

was just a flash in the pan and that once the benefits of the common-rail diesel

were explained that it would see the end of alternative powertrain technology.

That, of course, did not happen. While hybrids have not really caught on in a

big way in Europe due to the diesel stranglehold, the reality is that there is a

market for them and carmakers also need to be seen to be going that route. If

the carmakers go that route, then so should the sport’s governing bodies. They

should be encouraging different series to adopt hybrid technology, not at the

expense of petrol and diesel engines, but devising formulae so that no one

particular technology has a big advantage. In other words, not to follow the

Autombile Club de l’Ouest’s example whereby the petrol car is so heavily

disadvantaged to the diesel. That really does not do anyone any good at all.

We have entered a new world, one where energy conversation is very high on

the agenda and one to which motorsport must be responding to in a more

considered manner than it currently does.

William Kimberley EDITOR

PORSCHEPOINTSTHE WAY

EDITORWilliam Kimberley

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTChris Pickering

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Pat SymondsJohn CoxonSteve BridgesFrançois LassalleGraham TemplemanMatt Youson

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ART EDITORPaul Bullock (maluma.co.uk)

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www.racetechmag.com

May 2010 www.racetechmag.com 5

INTRODUCTION ISSUE 115www.racetechmag.com

5

Intro 115.qxd:Section.qxd 30/4/10 12:01 Page 1

MOTORSPORTS PROFESSIONALwww.racetechmag.com

May 20106 www.racetechmag.com

6

By Chris Pickering

MELKSHAM, UK – Michelin

may not be the only tyre

company contemplating a return

to Formula One. Cooper Tires is

also understood to be in

discussion with the relevant

parties over a plan to supply tyres

through its UK-based Avon Tyres

Motorsport operation, although

there has been speculation that

an F1 bid would use the Cooper

name as Avon is less well known

outside the UK. Either way the

company has refused to

comment at this stage.

Not only does this revive

competition to Michelin’s bid

after Bridgestone pulled out of

talks, but it is also understood to

be a rather different proposition.

Michelin stated several provisos

for its return to F1, including

that it wanted to be in

competition with another tyre

manufacturer, it wanted to be

paid for its involvement, and,

crucially, it wanted to switch

from the current 13 inch

diameter wheels to 18 inch rims,

making the technology more

relevant to road car tyres.

The principal objection to the

French firm’s bid so far is cost.

The projected bill is thought to

be around £45 million in total,

but the Cooper Tires bid is

rumoured to be far lower. Allied

to this, sources suggest that

Cooper would retain the 13 inch

wheel size, virtually eliminating

the need for a costly redesign.

Commenting on the switch to a

larger diameter, Race Tech

contributor Pat Symonds said: “If

you assume the tyres’ outside

diameter and width are to

remain roughly the same, then

the fronts will drop from an

aspect ratio of around 66%

down to around 40%, and the

rears from 50% to around 30%.

Those are pretty low profile tyres

and they’re likely to be pretty stiff

as a result, which could mean

some big changes.

“At present the suspension

geometry is very much dictated

by aerodynamics. The wishbones

are steeply inclined upwards

towards the inboard end on the

front of current Formula One cars

simply because the chassis has

been placed so high. That leads

to things like high roll centres

and poor camber compensation,

but to a certain extent you can

get away with that when you

have a nice big compliant tyre.

When you’re looking at a 30 or

40% aspect ratio, you’re going to

have to examine the geometry

far more carefully in order to get

the contact patch flat on the

ground though.”

Currently the tyre sidewalls also

account for something like 50%

of the wheel movement in an F1

suspension system, meaning that

significantly softer, longer travel

springs would be needed to

News 115.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 18:10 Page 1

MOTORSPORTS PROFESSIONAL

www.racetechmag.com 7May 2010

www.racetechmag.com

7

compensate. The upside to this,

of course, is that more of it could

now be controlled and adjusted

with the dampers – and that is

not the only potential benefit.

Larger wheels are likely to give

more room to position the

outboard suspension pickups.

Likewise, it would provide more

room to package the brakes in,

and this may even mean it's

possible to make the brakes last

longer, reducing costs.

THE RACE IS ON

“A smaller volume would also

result in less gas in the tyres, so

they would be less pressure

sensitive, which could even raise

the possibility of abolishing

blankets,” Symonds noted. “This

would make the drivers fight to

warm the tyres up when they

come out of the pits in order to

retain track position, which

strikes me as a good thing.”

The potential change would be

a mixed blessing to the

aerodynamicists. Stiffer tyres with

less sidewall deflection are likely

to make the aerodynamics more

consistent and – sticking with

our assumption on overall size –

the basic frontal area would not

change much. The larger wheel

diameter would, however, clearly

put more aerodynamic emphasis

on wheel design. Finally, there is

also the safety implication. A

lower profile tyre with a smaller

gas volume would contain less

elastic energy than the current

tyres and would therefore

bounce around less if liberated

from the car in an accident.

The final agreement on next

year’s tyre suppliers is due to be

announced at the Spanish Grand

Prix this month. One thing is

certain – only one wheel

diameter will be allowed, so we

are highly unlikely to see

Michelin and Cooper fighting it

out on the track. Until the

decision is made, however, the

fight for Formula One is very

much still on.

BELOW The debate is on as to whichcompany will become the tyre supplierto Formula One in 2011




www.racetechmag.com

8

BATHURST, Australia – Aston Martin, Ferrari,Lamborghini, Mosler and Porsche could all beracing at the Bathurst 12 hour race next year asthe classic endurance race is opened up to otherbrands next year. However, the news has notbeen received with universal acclaim with someentrants stating that they will boycott the race.Some GT drivers have also expressed the viewthat a 12-hour race for their cars will make amassive dent in their race budgets.

“The momentum for this exciting initiative hascome from our drivers and entrants and it is a

natural progression for the expansion of the GTcategory and brand to compete in the 12 hour atthe iconic Bathurst circuit. A race of this nature iswhat GT cars are all about,” said a press releaseissued in the names of GT directors MartinWagg, Rachael Wagg and Terry Little.

“The GT Championship has growntremendously in recent years and thesevehicles will now join production cars in the12 Hour Race enabling the event to growfurther including the attraction of aninternational audience,” said, James O’Brien,

the Bathurst 12 Hour promoter.He added that when the 12 Hour was

reintroduced in 2007, it was always the intentionto incorporate GT vehicles but that the timinghad to be right. The introduction of GT vehicleswill assist in attracting more competitors, morespectators and a larger viewing audience viatelevision and the internet.

“The Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour has thecapacity for a 72 car grid, and with 42 carsentered for the 2010 event we are targeting a50 plus entry for 2011,” he said.

GT CARS TO RACE AT BATHURST 12 HOURS IN 2011

By Chris Pickering

INDIANAPOLIS, IN –

DeltaWing Racing Cars’ radical

concept for the 2012 Indy

Racing League, featured in our

March issue, has now

completed preliminary wind

tunnel testing at the Windshear

facility in North Carolina. Until

now the aerodynamic

development had been carried

out exclusively with CFD, and

DeltaWing LLC’s designer and

chief technical officer Ben

Bowlby was keen to stress that

the physical tests were largely

for the purpose of validation:

“The tests went extremely well.

I’ve never gone as far with the

development of any car using

only CFD, let alone one so

unusual, so we were

anticipating a few surprises, but

in reality the correlation was

extraordinarily close.”

The headline grabbing figures

produced by the 140mph full

size test were a drag reduction

of over 50% and a proportional

level of downforce to the

current car: “At Indy we race at

about 760lb of drag at

200mph in typical ambient

conditions. By comparison, the

DeltaWing is going to be

somewhere around 330 to

350lb of drag. Under the same

conditions, we generate around

the vehicle’s weight in

downforce – so around 1,800lb

– and the DeltaWing will also

pull its own weight, this time

around 1,000lb.”

The dramatically low drag

figures, allied to reduced

weight, would allow a modest

300 to 350 bhp engine –

around half the current figure –

to produce straightline

performance comparable to

today’s IndyCars. DeltaWing’s

simulations predict that overall

lap times on street courses

would be two to three seconds

a lap quicker than the current

cars, and fuel consumption

could be as low as half.

“The goal was to produce

something that was a

stepchange in efficiency –

something that could

demonstrate the performance

capability of modern

technology,” said Bowlby.

“We wanted something very

lightweight and very efficient

that’s still at least as fast and

as spectacular as a current

racecar.”

It was not just performance

that was under scrutiny, either.

According to Bowlby a wet

road simulation showed

minimal spray from the front

of the car hitting the cockpit

area and also significantly less

spray behind the car. The

design is also intended to

promote close racing.

Following cars are said to

only suffer half the loss in

downforce that those behind a

traditional open-wheeler

would. Likewise Bowlby said

the wind tunnel tests appear

to confirm the CFD predictions

of greatly improved yaw

stability over a conventional

machine. Current single-seater

designs tend to suffer a

dramatic fall in downforce at

relatively modest yaw angles,

but the DeltaWing’s yaw range

could allow the aerodynamics

to remain effective at far

greater slip angles. The idea is

this could see a return to the

more flamboyant driving style

of the pre-downforce era and

produce a more dramatic

spectacle as a result.

“We want to put the

Indianapolis 500 back at the

cutting edge of development,

with something truly relevant

to the auto industry,” Bowlby

summed up. “Wind tunnel

testing is a critical step for the

project and allows us to move

forward towards a final design

with growing confidence. We

are now more convinced than

ever that the DeltaWing

concept will meet or exceed

the parameters that the IZOD

IndyCar Series has established

for the 2012 chassis.”

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

RTRT

RTRT


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BELOW BTCC series director Alan Gowhands rear-wheel drive a reprieve



www.racetechmag.com

10

BTCC REAR-WHEEL DRIVEREPRIEVE ANNOUNCED By Chris Pickering

LONDON, UK – TOCA, the

touring car association that

administers the British Touring

Car Championship, has

confirmed more details of the

forthcoming Next Generation

Touring Car rules and

announced its suppliers for

2011. Perhaps the biggest news

was the decision to include a

provision for rear-wheel drive

cars. Initially the NGTC formula

only covered front-wheel drive

machines, meaning that cars

such as the BMW 320si would

cease to be eligible when the

current Super 2000 based

regulations were phased out.

Although there are several

teams actively campaigning

rear-wheel drive machines in the

BTCC the last factory entry was

way back in 1996. When the

NGTC rules were previewed last

year it wasn’t thought there was

enough interest in rear-wheel

drive to justify it. At the time,

BTCC series director Alan Gow

argued that it did not make

sense to compromise the new

regulations and raise issues of

parity for the possibility of

including a single manufacturer,

but the option was left open.

“After we released details of

the NGTC programme last year,

I stated that we would revisit

the question of incorporating

rear-wheel drive in the

regulations if there was enough

interest or commitment from

teams and manufacturers of

rear-wheel drive cars to support

it,” he stated recently. “Having

now had those discussions, I’m

confident that there is and so

we have now included it.”

As expected, the rear-wheel

drive layout can only be used if it

is featured on the car’s standard

production equivalent and, like

the front-wheel drive cars, it

must also use standardised TOCA

front and rear subframe/

suspension assemblies. The units

will be produced by Berkshire-

based GPR Motorsport and

both layouts will feature

double wishbone suspension

with coil-over dampers.

Meanwhile AP Racing provides

the brake package and pedal

box, along with the clutch,

mated to an Xtrac 6-speed

sequential. Cosworth

Electronics has also been

confirmed as the electronics

supplier with a package that

includes the mandated ECU,

dashboard, data-logger and

scrutineering logger.

The NGTC package effectively

represents a kit of components

around which teams or

manufacturers can build their

own car. However GPR

Motorsport will also offer an

assembly service based around a

production car of the customer’s

choice. The bodyshell must be

based around a 2, 3, 4 or 5-

door car freely available in the

UK through the manufacturer’s

dealer network. An equalised

width of 1875mm and various

aerodynamic enhancements

such as a flat floor and a

standard rear wing profile will

be specified. The cars will also

feature stylised front and rear

wheelarch extensions which

are intended to give them a

more dramatic look, similar to

those of the old Super Touring

Cars. A rendering released by

the organisers points the way

to how a typical NGTC car

might look.

The main thinking behind the

NGTC rules remains cost

reduction. TOCA is aiming to

halve the budget needed to run

a current BTCC car, through

significantly lower parts and

maintenance costs. "At around

£100k, plus engine, they will

then have a better car - which is

easier to maintain and has

greater performance potential at

about half the cost of a current

one,” said Gow. “It's a win-win

situation for everyone.” RT

TOP & BELOW A rendering of the Next Generation Touring Carthat will be open to both front and rear-wheel driven cars


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www.racetechmag.com

12

By Andrew Charman

FORT WORTH, TX – Drivers in NASCAR’s

top level Sprint Cup series have reacted

positively to the first races with a new rear

spoiler on their cars, after NASCAR

abandoned the aerodynamic rear wing that

was such a signature feature of the Car of

Tomorrow introduced in 2007.

While the first races with the new spoiler

were at the short tracks of Martinsville on 28

March and Phoenix two weeks later, the

acid test of the changes was always

expected to be at Texas on 18 April. The

speedway is a 1.5-mile track like many of

the Sprint Cup schedule, and it is at these

tracks where the characteristics of the

spoiler are expected to be most keenly felt.

Despite rain washing out much of the vital

practice at Texas and delaying the race by 24

hours, drivers were very positive about the

spoiler when questioned after the race.

Drivers remarked that the cars had more

grip and were more drivable, particularly

when running side-by-side with rivals. This

had been a major criticism of the rear wing,

drivers complaining that the characteristics of

the aerofoil made it very difficult to run

alongside cars and pass them.

Denny Hamlin, who won the Samsung

Mobile 500 at Texas in his Joe Gibbs Racing

Toyota, said that the spoiler produced better

racing. “The car seemed to be planted to

the race track quite a bit more – you could

race around guys without the air being

taken off of you as much as it did.”

The spoiler is 64.5 inches wide and four

inches tall, placed at an angle of 70 degrees

to the car’s rear deck. It has been estimated

to add 20% downforce to the rear of the

car. For the Texas race a side fin was added

to the decklid with the aim of further

improving side forces on the car.

Some drivers have repeatedly commented

on the increase on drag caused by the spoiler.

Following tests at Charlotte Motor Speedway,

Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch said that the car

felt very stable but had a far more drag. “We

are going slower down the straightaways but

we can maintain that speed in the corners.

“We’re getting the difference we’ve

needed to help us run side by side better. It

has slowed us down by around 200rpm so

NASCAR will likely need to work on the

gearing. However, the car feels stable, that’s

the best thing, that’s a thumbs up.”

Four time champion Jeff Gordon suggested

that the spoiler would see an end to the

crab-like look of cars racing in the Sprint

Cup. “We learnt that with the wing if we ran

the car slightly sideways we could make up

for the loss of drag and downforce with

some side force. With the spoiler we don’t

have such an amount of side force but we

make up for it with overall downforce.”

Gordon added that the spoiler improved

the look of the car. “I like the way the cars

look with the spoiler, that’s a plus.”

NASCAR’s rear wing era lasted 93 races,

just under three seasons.

IN OTHER NEWS

In a move that sees it being gradually

phased in this year, all four Roush Fenway

Racing and four Richard Petty Motorsports

Ford Fusions ran the new-generation FR9

engine in a race. The new engine is said to

provide superior cooling and centre of

gravity as well as better handling.

“It’s really the first across-the-board running

for the FR9,” said Ford Racing engineer David

Simon. “We ran them at Daytona, of course,

in the (Budweiser) Shootout across-the-

board, but the Talladega race is the first full

one for it as the primary engine for us. The

reason it’s a milestone is that we’ve gone

through the validation process on the plate

package, so, at this point, we’re ready to race

the FR9 full-time in restrictor-plate form. In

the second half of the season, as the

validation process gets completed, the FR9

will become the primary race engine for us in

both the open and plate races.”

Uncertainty surrounds the future of Richard

Petty Motorsport after it was revealed that the

team had defaulted on a $90 million loan,

caused by car manufacturer Dodge ending its

financial support of the team – Petty has since

switched to racing Ford chassis.

Team owner George Gillett, who is

currently trying to sell his stake in Liverpool

Football Club in the UK, said that the loan

was not an issue, describing it as a

technical problem which would soon be

solved by a restructuring.

However, Petty was further troubled by the

news that its star driver Kasey Kahne will not

renew his contract at the end of the season,

heading instead to Hendrick Motorsports. The

team fears that lucrative sponsorship from the

Budweiser beer brand, which is built around

Kahne, could follow the driver to Hendrick.

In another move, Shell/Pennzoil is replacing

Mobil as the Penske Racing team’s official fuel

and motor oil supplier next year. It will also

sponsor the Kurt Busch No 22 car.

NO SPOILINGNASCAR’S PARTY

ABOVE The new Sprint Cup spoiler, seenhere on Juan-Pablo Montoya’s Chevrolet.(Photo: Rusty Jarrett for NASCAR).

ABOVE Team-mates Jimmie Johnson and JeffGordon battle at Texas in their now be-spoileredcars. (Photo: John Harrelson for NASCAR)

RT


BELOW John Watson's McLaren atthe Caesars Palace GP in 1982. Is areturn to Las Vegas on the cards?



www.racetechmag.com

14

F1 TO RETURN TO THE US?

GAS TURBINES BACKON THE AGENDA

SHANGHAI, China – Formula One could

be returning to the US following informal

talks between Bernie Ecclestone, the F1

commercial rights holder, and Tony George

the former Indianapolis Motor Speedway

and Indy Racing League chairman.

George attended the Chinese Grand Prix

in Shanghai at Ecclestone’s invitation to

examine how and where to get a Formula

One race back to the US. Despite George’s

links with Indianapolis, Ecclestone is known

to favour other venues, his first choice

being New York. However, he is also said to

be considering Las Vegas, Miami and San

Francisco and possibly even two races in

the country following strong support for

the idea from sponsors.

Although he retains a share in the

Speedway, where he spent around

$30 million of the Hulman-George

family fortune to build the 2.6-mile

road course needed for the US GP,

George is a free agent.

The US GP has struggled to find a home

in the US since leaving Watkins Glen in

1980. Long Beach in California was the

home to eight grands prix but the two

events in Detroit and Las Vegas, the single

event in Dallas and the three events in

Phoenix never caught on with the US

public. However, the event left after George

and Ecclestone could not come to an

agreement that made financial sense for

both sides. Reports from IMS management,

though, have stated that they would be

interested in bringing an F1 race back to

the Speedway under the right financial

circumstances, the stumbling block being

the high F1 sanctioning fee.

Athens, Greece: The turbine engine, last

seen in Formula One nearly 40 years ago,

could make a return. Project 1221, a

specialist company based in Athens that is

dedicated to creating and marketing gas

turbine vehicles, claims that it has

approached F1’s commercial boss Bernie

Ecclestone with a proposal. It says it could

have an engine ready to power a car by 2013.

The company claims it is working on

different turbine engines for land, sea and

air, working on new concepts to power

supercars, ‘superyachts’ and even

‘supersonic business jets’.

According to Andreas Andrianos, Project

1221’s CEO, gas turbine engines would be

cheaper to run than an internal combustion

unit. While fuel consumption would be higher

than with the current breed of petrol-fuelled

V8s, the inefficiency would be more than

offset by use of bio-diesel fuel, which would

make the engines more environmentally

friendly. With no traditional cooling required,

the engines present fewer packaging

problems, although the units could not be

used as stressed members of the car and

would also cause challenges with the gearbox.

Williams F1 recently acquired a majorityshareholding in Williams Hybrid Power(WHP), increasing its stake in thecomposite flywheel specialist to 78percent. It comes after WHP’stechnology made a successful racingdebut in the Porsche 911 GT 3 R Hybrid,which won its class at the second race ofthe VLN series last month.

PersonnelAnd finally...The recent spin-off of McLaren Automotive fromMcLaren Group has led to a fundamentalmanagement restructure with Ron Dennis willresuming his role of executive chairman ofMcLaren Group as Sir Richard Lapthorne resignsfrom being the non-executive chairman.However, he will continue is his role as aconsultant to McLaren Automotive.

Reporting to Dennis will be Tim Murnane, group

legal director and company secretary, and AndyMyers, financial officer, both of the McLaren Group.

Meanwhile Martin Whitmarsh has beenappointed to two new roles – chief executiveofficer of McLaren Group and deputy chairmanof McLaren Automotive. He will also continue inhis role of team principal of Vodafone McLarenMercedes. Antony Sheriff will continue in his roleof managing director of McLaren Automotive.

RT

RT



www.racetechmag.com

16

Pat Symonds examines the generation of temperature in racing tyres and the different strains the rubber endures

track, there are three distinct areas of tyre

tread we should distinguish when we are

considering the thermal equilibrium.

Figure 1 shows a tyre running on the track

before it has reached thermal equilibrium.

The segment of the tyre that is marked (1)

is the part of the tyre that is adherent to

the road, the segment marked (2) is the

part of the tyre that is sliding and the

segment marked (3) is the large part that

is rotating in contact with the air.

In the adherent area (1) the thermal flow

is from the tyre to the road by means of

conduction (assuming that the tyre is at a

higher temperature than the road). In

segment (2) there is a lot of sliding

IN THE first part of this article, we

examined the peculiar properties of the

rubber mix used in tyres and identified

why temperature, amongst other things,

was fundamental to the grip that a tyre can

produce. We will now go on to look at the

generation of temperature in tyres and the

effect of the various strains that a tyre

undergoes in racing conditions.

TEMPERATURE EQUILIBRIUM

Before we look at the generation of the

temperature, we should first think about

the temperature equilibrium of the tyre.

If we consider a tyre running on the

A GRIPPING

FORMULA ONE PAT SYMONDS ON TYRE GRIP

FIGURE 1

Formula One-Pat Tyre Grip Part2.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 13:52 Page 1

BELOW With each revolution theracing tyre gains and losestemperature in three distinct areas

FORMULA ONEwww.racetechmag.com

Subscribe +44 (0) 208 446 2100 www.racetechmag.com 17May 2010

17

energy and strain energy putting work into the tyre and hence

producing a large heat flow into the tyre. In the final segment

(3) the tyre is generally at a higher temperature than the

surrounding air and loses heat to the air by the mechanisms of

convection and radiation.

If we consider the temperature of the tyre surface as a function of

time through one revolution and if we assume that the tyre is

hotter than both the track surface and the air but not yet at

thermal equilibrium, we will see the conditions shown in Figure 2.

Area 1 shows the decrease in temperature as heat flows from

the tyre to the tarmac. Area 2 shows the very rapid increase in

temperature as the tyre does work through slippage and area 3

shows the loss of temperature of the tyre as it is cooled by the air.

This follows an approximate Newtonian cooling law.

It can be seen that in the cycle shown above the finishing

temperature of the tyre is higher than the starting temperature by

an amount . This implies that during this one revolution of the

tyre it is still increasing in temperature. Even with pre-heating in

tyre blankets, it still takes some time for the tyre to reach full

working temperature. True equilibrium can take six or seven laps

to be reached and, of course, this equilibrium temperature may

be above the ideal working temperature.

We achieve thermal equilibrium when

where Cp is the specific heat capacity of the tyre and Q is the heat

energy. The inflow of heat arises from the environmental conditions

and external heating discussed below. The outflow of heat is the

conduction to the road and the convection to the air while the

generated heat is the main source of heat energy that we will look

into in some detail.

At this point it is worth trying to decide what we mean by tyre

temperature. Rubber is a very good insulator. It has a coefficient

of thermal conductivity of only 0.16 Wm-1K-1. By way of

comparison, the Styrofoam used for insulated plastic cups is

about a fifth of this value and aluminium is over 1,500 times as

conductive. This means that the heat generated in any part of a

tyre moves very slowly through it. In Figure 2 we are considering

the tread temperature but this can be quite different to the bulk

temperature of the tyre.

Race teams tend to make three measurements of the temperature

of the tyres. When the car is running they can measure the tread

surface temperature. This is measured by remote infrared sensors.

They can also record the temperature as measured by the tyre

pressure measuring system (TPMS) which relates to the bulk

temperature. Both have drawbacks and need to be treated with

caution. The measurement of tread temperature is very sensitive to

the aim of the focal point of the sensor. Typically, a sensor will have

a viewing angle of around 15 degrees and will average the

temperature of all it sees in its viewing spot. This means that at a

distance of 250 mm it is averaging the temperature in a spot of

over 65 mm diameter. There is obviously a temperature gradient

across the width of a racing tyre that needs to be considered and if

the tyre has grooves or a tread pattern then large inaccuracies can

be present. TPMS systems tend to measure the temperature of

the gas in the tyre cavity. This is, in general, a reasonable

indicator of the tyre rubber bulk temperature. Unfortunately the

TALE

FIGURE 2


ABOVE The flow of heat from thebrakes into the tyres can be avery significant factor


FORMULA ONE PAT SYMONDS ON TYRE GRIPwww.racetechmag.com

18

sensors themselves are difficult to insulate

from the wheel and therefore can be

influenced by the fact that the wheel is

heated quite strongly by the brakes.

The final measurement used is that

made by the tyre technicians in the pits.

This is done with a needle thermocouple

that is stabbed into the tyre. It is essential

to use a thermocouple that has a depth

stop on it so that the temperature is

always measured at the same distance

into the rubber. The technician will

normally make three measurements across

the width of the tread and again it is

important that he makes the

measurements in the same place every

time as, particularly near the shoulders,

there can be large temperature gradients.

This method can be quite accurate as the

slow heat flow in the tyre actually helps

make this a stable measurement. It relies

more than anything on the driver driving

consistently hard on his in-lap – something

all drivers should be required to do

anyway. In absolute terms the conditions

on entry to the pit can make a difference.

For example at Spa, when using the F1

pit lane, the temperatures are highly

influenced by the high loadings at

Blanchimont but for comparative

purposes this does not matter.

SOURCES OF TYRE HEATING

There are three primary sources of heat

generation in racing tyres. The first of

these is the heating from what may be

termed the environmental conditions. In

a racing car, a large part of this will be

heating from the brakes. Secondly, there

is the heat generated by the strain energy

loss in the constantly deflecting tyre,

which occurs in the tread bulk and

carcass area, and finally there is heat

generated by the friction of the tyre on

the road or more specifically that caused

by tyre slip. This occurs largely in the

tread surface of the tyre.

Environmental conditions, particularly

track and air temperature, will play a part

in determining the running temperature of

the tyres but is not, at least in the first

order, a source of heating.

Although generally the environmental

conditions will dictate a net heat flow out

from the tyre into either the tarmac or the

surrounding air, there is a particular case

when there can be additional heat flow

The flow of heat from the brakes into thetyres is not something that is commonlylooked at outside the racing industry’


into the rear tyres from the exhaust plume. This has been used as

a tuning aid by at least one Formula One team that had exhaust

tail pipes that were angled toward the rear tyres for use in cold

conditions and away from the rear tyres for use when the tyres

were easily able to achieve their operating temperature.

The flow of heat from the brakes into the tyres is not something

that is commonly looked at outside the racing industry. In a car

with carbon brakes it can be very significant. In racing there is

little that can be done to alter this effect other than to polish the

inside of the rims if it is desired to minimise this effect or to coat

them in a dark colour if it is desired to use this heat energy.

Thermal barriers on the brake cowlings can also have some

influence. This effect is not completely unique to motor racing,

however, as a paper was published in 1998 by authors from

Mercedes-Benz and Pirelli in Brazil that examined the effect of

brake heating on urban bus tyres after a number of tyre failures

on buses in Sao Paulo!

STRAIN ENERGY LOSS

The strain energy loss is a function of the tyre forces in X, Y and Z

directions as well as the camber angle, rotational speed and

inflation pressure. There are other factors, for example while the

slip angle is mainly thought of as a generator of frictional heating,

the deformation of the tyre carcass resulting from the slip angle

causes an additional source of strain energy loss. Strain energy

arises from the tread bulk area.

This strain energy loss contributes around 90% of what is termed

the rolling resistance of the tyre. It is largely generated by the

vertical deformation of the tyre as vertical load is applied to the

carcass as it enters the contact patch area and the relaxation of

that deformation as it leaves the contact patch area.

In Figure 3 we can see that as the tyre flattens in the contact

patch area there is a longitudinal deformation of the crown that

leads to bending as well as shearing and the compression that

arises from vertical force. The angle shown as α is known as the

“de-radialisation” angle which indicates the angular deflection

which leads to shearing in the sidewalls.

The distribution of energy dissipation is approximately 14% in the

bead area, 25% in the sidewalls, 27% in the shoulder and 34% in

the tread. Approximately 70% of the heat build up is therefore in

the tread and shoulder (edge of belt) area. Anyone who worked

with extremely soft qualifying tyres in the past will remember that

they often blistered on the straight. This is the reason why.

Let us look at the strains involved before reminding ourselves of

how these heat the tyre. Firstly we have the bending strain in the

rubber entering and leaving the contact patch. This strain depends

on the change from the initial curvature in the upper part of the

tyre, through its curvature in the transition zone at the leading

edge of the contact patch, and through and out of the contact

patch. In the contact patch itself the radius is of course infinite as

the tyre is flat on the track surface. A simple model known as the

Koutny model can be used to construct the geometry of curvature.

The maximum strain of the tread subject to bending is

where h is the tread thickness, Ri is the initial radius of curvature

and Rf is the final radius of curvature. Note that when an object is

flat its curvature radius is infinite and hence 1/R equals 0.

The second strain is the compression strain of the tread and is

defined as the ratio between its deformation (Δh) and the initial

height (hinitial) such that

The compression strain depends on the pressure (σ) exerted on

the tread and the modulus of rigidity of the material (M) but the

modulus of the material is also a function of the pressure exerted

on it. This is because rubber is in fact essentially incompressible.

If you apply a load to a block of rubber it will deform in the

direction of the load but at the same time it will bulge out

sideways if unconstrained. This bulging (known as dilation) is

not, however, infinite. Even when unconstrained, the more load

that is applied, the more the rigidity increases. To take this into

account the compression strain may be calculated by the

following formula:

where σ is the pressure, M10 is the modulus at 10% stretch or

compression and F is the aspect ratio of the tread footprint defined

as shown in Figure 4.

The final strain involved in the total strain energy loss is the shear

strain. If a block of rubber is placed in shear then it will take an

angular deformation. If the block has a height of h and is displaced

by a distance d then it will have an angular displacement of



20

FIGURE 3 FIGURE 4


This angle α is the so-called “de-radialisation” angle

shown in Figure 3. It can be shown geometrically that

If we consider these three strain energy losses for a typical rolling

tyre, we may see that the bending strain is around 3% and acts

through both transition areas as well as the footprint itself. The

compression strain will be around 5% (less for a slick tyre as F is

larger) and will act only in the footprint area. The shear strain will

peak at around 8% at the entry to the contact patch and 10% on

exit while reducing in the middle.

SLIPPAGE AND FRICTION ENERGY

In part 1 of this article we considered slippage and friction in some

detail as it is the most fundamental requirement of any tyre, let

alone a racing tyre. Fortunately, it is also much easier to determine

than the various types of strain energy loss. Friction energy arises

from the tread surface area. The total energy from slip is simply the

sum, in the X and Y directions, of the slip multiplied by the force.



22

ABOVE Even after the use of tyre blanketsit can be half a dozen laps before a tyrereaches its full working temperature

The stress-strain curve has “memory” ’


Adverts 101a.qxd:Racetech.qxd 2/3/09 15:02 Page 1

From Figure 5 we can determine the longitudinal slip speed (Slip X)

which can be approximated for small angles to

Similarly for the lateral slip speed (Slip Y)

The slip energies are therefore, from the X direction:

And from the Y direction:

ENERGY TO HEAT

So how do these energies relate to the heat generation? In part 1

of this article, we looked at the phase diagram for a visco-elastic

material. It is reproduced as Figure 6 in a slightly different form.

In this representation, we have applied a sinusoidal stress to the

material just as before and have a phase lag between that stress

and the subsequent strain. As the X axis is expressed as the angle

of the sinusoidal input we can now express the lag as an angle δ.

Engineers will often use this phase lag as a measure of hysteresis

by referring to the property of the polymer known as “Tan δ”.

This arises from the difficulty of determining a single value for



24

70% of the heat build up is in thetread and shoulder, which is whyextremely soft qualifying tyresused to blister on the straight’ ABOVE Track and air temperature

both play a part in determining therunning temperature of the tyres(Photo: Bridgestone Corporation)

FIGURE 5 FIGURE 6




26

the modulus of rubber. The stress-strain

curve has ‘memory’ and does not follow

reversible stress-strain relations. For filled

rubber there is no valid constitutive law.

The higher the value of Tan δ, the more

inherent damping there is in the rubber.

This leads to higher heat dissipation but

also a higher potential for sliding friction.

In order to describe the modulus of

rubber engineers use a descriptor named

the dynamic modulus. In tension this is

referred to as E*. This value is the stress

amplitude divided by the strain amplitude

but, by means of the phase lag δ, allows

the modulus to be split into two parts.

The first is the storage modulus (E’) which

relates to the spring part of the

Kelvin–Voight model we introduced in part

1 and therefore converts kinetic energy

into potential energy. The second is the

loss modulus (E’’) which relates to the

damper element of the model and

therefore converts kinetic energy to heat.

These are related as follows:

So therefore the measure “Tan δ” is:

If we consider the two main sources of

heat generation, friction loss and strain

energy loss, then we find that typically,

even in a racing tyre, the strain energy loss

is the more significant. In general, between

55% and 65% of the total heat generated

by both friction loss and strain energy loss

will come from the strain energy loss.

A NOTE ON TYRE WEAR

It may not have escaped your notice that

the slippage and friction energy is the

energy that has the primary influence on

tyre wear. If we integrate this energy with

respect to time we can determine

and

By integrating the slip velocities with

respect to time, the wear is dependent on

the force and the slip distance. If the limits

of integration are zero and the lap time

then the relevant distance is the lap

distance. This integration shows that equal

wear could be obtained under conditions

of low load and high slip as may be

obtained under conditions of higher load

and reduced slip.

In generalisation, the wear rate will be a

function of the sum of these energies

multiplied by factors that pertain to the

track abrasion, the general compound

wear characteristics and a coefficient that

describes the change in wear rate with

temperature.

ABOVE The theory isn’t confined to the laboratory:tyre companies have worked hard to improve theteams’ assessment of grip and understanding ofthe way the car behaves over consecutive laps




27

ABOVE Energy generated from slippage and friction isthe primary influence on tyre wear. This is RubensBarrichello’s Williams (Photo: Bridgestone Corporation)

RT

USING THIS INFORMATION

It may seem that this information is largely

academic. In fact, this is far from the case. In

Formula One the tyre companies have spent

considerable effort in the last few years to

develop thermal models that can be used to

supplement the general Pacejka model to

improve the teams’ understanding of the way

the car behaves over consecutive laps and

give a more accurate assessment of grip. The

ability to predict the bulk temperature of the

tyre, together with knowledge of the thermal

behaviour of a particular compound, can also

be used to determine if the compound may

be prone to blistering on a particular circuit

and, even if blistering is not a problem,

ensure that a compound with a suitable

working temperature range is chosen.

In the concluding article we will look at

how tyre companies may use this

knowledge to choose the correct tyre

compound for a given set of conditions and

how the competitor may use means at his

disposal to alter the characteristics of the

tyre that has been supplied to him.

Of the two main sources of heatgeneration – friction loss andstrain energy loss – the latter istypically the more significant’



COVER STORY LOTUS RACINGwww.racetechmag.com

28

Technical chief Mike Gascoyne tells William Kimberley that having won its race against timeto make the grid, Lotus Racing faces a tough choice: develop its car or focus on 2011

STICK OR

TWIST?

ABOVE The T127 has acquitted itself well in the early races, notablysurviving the punishing heat in Bahrain

When you are sitting there with 15people and six months to do it, youhave to make value judgements ofhow to get the car to the race on time’

Cover Story-Lotus.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 01:33 Page 1

COVER STORYwww.racetechmag.com


29

THIS YEAR has been a rather special

one for Mike Gascoyne. Not only is he

returning to the thick of the action on

the Formula One circuit after a short spell

away, but he is also heading up the technical

team of Lotus F1 Racing. As a Norfolk man

through and through, he is aware of the

responsibility that goes with the name, the

baggage of its history and heritage and the

level of expectation that goes with it.

Nothing can escape the fact, though, that

in reality it is still a start-up team, one that

technically did not even have any facilities to

its name on September 14, the day before

team principal Tony Fernandes, founder of

the AirAsia airline, learnt that it had been

awarded the 13th entry in the 2010 World

Championship. In other words, Gascoyne,

upon whom the weight of responsibility fell

as the chief technical officer, had just six

months and two days to get a car designed,

constructed, tested and onto the grid for

the first race of the season.

However, he had already taken the precaution

of doing some groundwork before receiving

the official green light from the FIA on the

offchance that the team was selected. Through

MGI Motorsport, his own Cologne-based

design consultancy, he had already initiated

design work and identified some suppliers.

“When we got the entry, the chassis and

primary crash structures such as the nose box,

side impact structures and sidepod inlets were

on critical paths which we had to fix before

we’d undertaken any wind tunnel testing

which only commenced in October,” he says.

“Then final design decisions were being made

after just a month or two of wind tunnel

testing. At the same time the fundamental

architecture had to be fixed without data

from the engine supplier. What this added

up to was that we had to be reasonably

ABOVE The dreams of relocation to Malaysiaare on hold for the short-term, with the teamoperating from a factory in Hingham, Norfolk


local companies carrying out work for us.”

The Malaysian consortium has pledged to

commit 168m ringgits (£30m) to starting

up the team and set an annual racing

budget of 308m ringgits (£56m). “I think

the Malaysian government is also very

keen to sponsor Malaysian graduates in

the UK with internships and things like

that,” says Gascoyne.

LOTUS F1 COMES HOME

That the decision was made to go to

Norfolk in England, home of Lotus Cars and

the original Team Lotus when owned and

run by Colin Chapman, was met with

universal praise. However, it did set its own

challenges, as Gascoyne explains.

“Obviously location was a relevant thing

because we decided to locate the factory in

Norfolk at the former Intersport Racing

location in Hingham on which we have a

three-year lease. It is an asset for us because

it’s well-equipped and was originally designed

as a motorsport facility. We had all the plant

and machinery serviced and calibrated and

with an IT infrastructure, carbon clean rooms

and with all the facilities here, it was very easy

to get up and running. It’s very similar in size

to the old Jordan or Force India factory but in

some ways slightly better equipped – and it’s

on a site where there are other buildings

available for expansion purposes.”

No matter how romantic that the new team

has located in Norfolk, a more logical choice

would have been to move to a more

centralised region and not one on the edge,

but Gascoyne disagrees. “There are quite a

number of people in the industry who work

in Formula One teams that have families in

the county because they come from the

infrastructure that exists around here. So in

the event there have been quite a number of

people who have been willing to move back

to the county as they were originally Norfolk-

based and have family connections here.”

The proof of the pudding was that more

than 1,000 people applied for a job when

recruitment began in earnest last autumn.

The main problem, though, has been

getting people with Formula One

experience in quickly enough.

“The bigger problem has been in terms of

designers because while Formula One

experience is not necessary on the production

side – there are composites facilities in Norfolk

because of the junior formula infrastructure –

the main problem is attracting the design and

technical staff,” says Gascoyne. “Most people

in the industry can be on three or six months

conservative to produce a reliable car.”

Being up against it in terms of time and

with little more than a skeleton staff,

Gascoyne had to turn to help wherever it

was offered. “It wasn’t just about the best

supplier but the one that could do it in the

time available. It was quite different criteria

than usual for selecting suppliers,” he says.

“Our hands were very tied in some areas

because it was a case of who had the

short-term capability as opposed to where

the best place was in getting a job done.

For example, we had to use some suppliers

in Germany for the major composite and

suspension components.”

Apart from work on the car, the other

principal challenge was finding a factory

and then staffing it. At first, the talk was of

establishing a state-of-the-art facility in

Malaysia, home of the investors behind

this Formula One team, but a reality check

quickly established that this was impossible

in the circumstances. The immediate

problem was therefore finding somewhere

suitable in Europe.

“Initially it was odds-on that we would

move to Malaysia but there has been a

realisation from the owners that it’s not really

possible,” says Gascoyne. “For the

foreseeable future, Lotus F1 Racing is going

to be based in the UK, specifically Norfolk,

and we are looking at setting up research

centres and maybe a wind tunnel and calling

upon the expertise of such local companies

as Carbon Fibre Technologies, which works

closely with Airbus, and establishing a

partnership with them. During any car-build

period even the biggest teams look to get

help from high-quality sub-contracting

experts and we are very lucky in Norfolk to

have so many great companies on our

doorstep. We will also be using specialists

from Europe and beyond and, of course,

Malaysia but already we have a number of



30

ABOVE & LEFT The evocative sightof Ayrton Senna at the wheel of theLotus 97T at Monza in 1985 (above).The team’s history has burdened itwith expectation. Left, in case ofvictory: Colin Chapman wouldcelebrate wins by throwing his capinto the air and the team is readyand waiting if a twist of fate offers itthe chance to emulate its founder


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ABOVE Jarno Trulli in the thick of the action.The T127 will get an update package forrace five but resources could be switchedearly to focus on the 2011 challenger

However, we got it right because we ran and

finished at one of the hottest races of the year

in Bahrain at the start of the season without

any problems. This was the result of some

good engineering decisions being made.”

WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION

Asked whether the diminishing fuel might

upset the handling of the car as the 160 kg

payload at the start of the race disappeared,

Gascoyne responds: “In some respects some

of that worry passed us by because we didn’t

have time to think about it. We did some

modelling and were aware of where people

were going with weight distribution. There

were concerns in terms of tyre degradation,

especially at the rear with the extra weight,

but we knew where we wanted to aim at

following the modelling in terms of weight

distribution. We are a little limited compared

to some other cars because they have far

more freedom in terms of weight distribution

and can have far more ballast whereas we are

on the weight limit. We estimate that by race

five in Barcelona, though, we will be on our

optimum weight distribution.

“So we got the basic assumptions right but



32

notice but if you have just half a year to do

the whole project it means they can’t

contribute very much.”

When it came to designing the car,

Gascoyne deliberately chose to follow

conventional lines as time and resource

meant that he could not take risks and look

for the 2010 equivalent of the double diffuser.

“Our aim was to develop a reliable

package that would cool and finish the first

four races because no matter how quick you

are, you still need to finish and then we’d

make it quicker,” says Gascoyne. “For

example, we always knew the amount of

time spent on aero would be very limited

which means that there are some pretty big

steps we can be making. We can take plenty

of weight out of the car because we weren’t

able to instigate some things like FE work

due to the lack of time and people to do it.

We can also lower the car or reduce the

unsprung masses and we don’t have carbon

suspension at the moment because it just

wasn’t possible to do the iterations and tests

and get it on the car in time, so there is a

project we can very quickly switch onto.

“It’s similar in other areas: we don’t have

any mass dampers because when you

struggle to design a car it’s left as a future

project once the decks are cleared. We can

run the car, get Penske to do the

adjustable lightweight dampers, all the

good things, but when you are sitting

there with 15 or so people and six months

to do it then you just have to make value

judgements of how to get the car to the

race on time. Likewise we knew we didn’t

have time to do a 7-post rig test so we had

to leave it and not worry about it.”

The relationship with Cosworth has worked

out very well, says Gascoyne. “The engine has

been very reliable – its fuel consumption is

good, as is its performance in terms of power.

There are some issues we are solving with

them in terms of general mapping and

driveability – things like fuel volumes because

they didn’t know what the fuel consumption

was going to be as they had never run an

engine to 18,000 rpm in a race. However, we

were making basic architecture decisions

before we even had the figures that were

predicting what was going to happen. This

meant that we were taking some pretty

rough guesses with cooling numbers based

on average face velocities and assumed heat

rejection figures without any definite data.


didn’t have the time to do as much work as some

of the other teams. For example, you only get tyre

data from Bridgestone once you are a confirmed

entrant into the F1 championship. With things like

the revised front tyre for 2010 we didn’t have any

data and were doing the basic architecture for the

car without any. It was a challenge but in the end

we don’t have any compromises so I think we did

our job pretty well.”

However, Gascoyne has a conundrum. While he

knows that he can improve this year’s car, there is

only so much he can do to bring the car up the

grid whereas next year, with the change in the aero

regulations, it is much more of a level playing field.

“We are already looking at the 2011 aero

regulations and the banning of the double diffusers

and how we are going to cope with that and have

accordingly set up a separate design group to deal

with it. Against that, though, is the desire to catch

up this year. However, you don’t want to put too

much resource into trying to do so as it may never

happen anyway and consequently you miss out on

the opportunity of starting on a level playing field

next year. So we have to box clever as a new, small

team. I think that for us the priority of putting

people on next year’s car is very important.”

As with every team on the Formula One grid

this year, Lotus F1 Racing is racing under the

Restricted Resource Agreement, the Formula One

Teams Association’s (FOTA) response to the

proposed budget cap that was put forward by

the-then FIA president Max Mosley.

“I think that what Max was trying to do was

exactly right,” says Gascoyne. “Formula One and

the spending competition had become totally

unsustainable in today’s economy. When I was at

Force India spending €40-€50 million a year and

racing not that far off the pace, the argument was

always that if you had 26 Force Indias on the gird

painted in different colours, would the spectator

really notice the difference? And would anyone

notice the difference where the total cost of that

would be €50 million per team? Of course they

wouldn’t, so it can be done for that. The problem

was that there was a cartel of manufacturers that

didn’t want to give up any advantage.

“Formula One had got to the stage like the

Premier League in Britain where only four or five

teams can afford to spend enough money to be at

the top while the smaller teams can never

generate enough revenue from their results to join

the big group, and that was clearly unsustainable.

I still think a budget cap would have been a good

idea. We’ve got the Resource Restriction

Agreement and it’s not bad as a start but I hope it

becomes much tighter so that it really does limit

what people spend because I think that’s the only

way forward for Formula One.”

COVER STORYwww.racetechmag.com


33

ABOVE The T127 noseconeundergoing crash testing. Nevermind race wins, just getting the carto the grid on time was a victory

RIGHT Chief technical officerMike Gascoyne oversaw afrantic dash to get a carready for pre-season testing

The spending had become totally unsustainable but a cartelof manufacturers didn’t want to give up any advantage’

RT



FORMULA ONE LOOSE WHEELSwww.racetechmag.com

34

WHY LOOSE WHEELSDRIVE US NUTS!With all the technology at our disposal in Formula One, it seems crazy that loose wheels are still the cause of retirements.Pat Symonds sheds new light on a familiar problem

A FORMULA ONE car is an incredibly sophisticated piece of

equipment designed by some of the best engineers on the planet and

maintained by technicians chosen for their understanding of

engineering and their attention to detail. How, therefore, can a

fundamental problem like a loose wheel cause a race retirement – a

situation we saw twice in the first three races of the season?

Losing wheels is certainly not a phenomenon exclusive to

motorsport. Reports can even be found in Horse and Hound magazine

about accidents caused by wheel nuts coming off horseboxes.[1] Prior

to EU rules on the subject, many heavy goods vehicles used left-hand

threads on the wheel nuts fitted on the left-hand side of the vehicle.

Recent research carried out in both the UK and Finland [2] showed

that there was a bias toward the problem occurring on the left-

hand side of vehicles. However, the bias was small for loose wheel

nuts but large for wheel detachment, suggesting that the thread

hand influence may be a small factor in the root cause of nut

loosening but may be a large influence in the subsequent

unwinding of an already loose nut. The fact that similar numbers of

wheel loss incidents occurred in countries that drove on the left as

those that drove on the right again suggests that the hand of the

thread is fundamental to this problem.

MULTI-STUD WHEEL FIXINGS

Before we consider centre lock wheels we should examine the

common coned wheel nut or bolt.

If this type of nut were to come loose then the weight of

the vehicle forces the cone to rest in the bottom of the

conical socket in the wheel. This is shown, with exaggerated

clearances, in Figure 2.

The result of this is that the nut has a smaller effective

diameter than the “socket” formed by the wheel and hence rolls

at a speed greater than that of the wheel. Expressed a different

way, it rotates on the stud in the same direction as the rotation

of the wheel. If the thread of the stud is right-handed,

therefore, nuts on a right-hand wheel will tend to tighten while

those on a left-hand wheel will tend to loosen. With tapered

nuts and wheel recesses, the effective gearing of the mechanism

will alter as the nut unwinds and so any loosening occurs at an

ever-increasing rate.

With this in mind, it was common practice some years ago to fit

left-hand threads on the left-hand side of vehicles. This was

particularly true of heavy goods vehicles but in the USA until

1965 Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile used left-hand threads on

the left-hand wheel nuts and Chrysler used them on some models

until 1975. Perhaps the extreme example will be one known to

many a home mechanic: the rear hub nuts on the Mini. On this

vehicle the left-hand rear hub nut was not only of a left-hand

thread but was also castellated and fitted with a split pin!

1 http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/article.php?aid=55832&cid=3972 TRL Ltd project Report PPR086 “Heavy vehicle wheel detachment: frequency of occurrence,

current best practice, and potential solutions” Knight, Dodd, Grover, Bartlett & Brightman

FIGURE 1 A conventional wheel nut

FIGURE 2

F1-Loose Wheels.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 01:36 Page 1



35

CENTRE LOCK WHEEL FIXINGS

While wheels with a single central nut (or centre lock as

they are commonly known) may be a completely

different design to the multi-stud fixings described

above, the problem is a similar one. Many British and

European sports cars were fitted with centre lock wheels

up until the 1970s. These nearly always had a left-hand

thread on the right-hand side of the car. Interestingly one

notable exception was the Lotus Elan that used left-hand

threads on the left-hand side.

If we examine a typical centre lock wheel as used on

most race cars that are involved in pit stops we see that

they use a coned male nut which locates in a female

coned wheel (Figure 3).

It can be seen that there are topographical

similarities between this design and the simple

coned wheel nut used on many road cars. There is a

difference in that with the road car wheel the drive

torque is transmitted through the wheel stud (or

bolt). In the typical racing design, the torque is

transmitted through drive pegs. On classic British

sports cars, the drive was taken through a spline on

the axle that engaged with a female spline in the

wheel. If these drive mechanisms were a perfect fit

then there could be no relative radial movement

between the wheel and axle or indeed between the

wheel and nut. In reality, there has to be clearance

in order to be able to fit the wheels.

In a typical Formula One wheel the drive peg holes in

the wheel are elongated to allow for the vastly different

ABOVE & BELOW The wheels coming off the wagon is farfrom a new problem. Above, Michael Schumacher retires witha loose wheel on his Mercedes in Malaysia 2010. Below,Nigel Mansell lost the 1987 Hungarian GP when the rightrear wheel nut came off his Williams FW11B

FIGURE 3


torque. Finally, the clearances that we have

shown in a very exaggerated way come into

play as they provide the fundamental

gearing between the components.

In practice the cone angle of the wheel nuts

and the wheel recess are slightly different to

ensure that there is a controlled line contact

between the parts and hence the interface

between the nut and the axle is the dominant

one. This, if a left-hand thread is fitted on the

right-hand side, will ensure that the natural

tendency is one of self-tightening.

It is interesting that of the two occurrences

of loose wheels so far in 2010 both involved

left-hand wheels but in one case the nut

was a right-hand thread and in the other a

left-hand thread. In addition, one occurred

before any pit stop had been made and the

other after a pit stop. There are obviously

more things that can go wrong in a pit stop

just due to the hurried nature of it. On the

grid, the wheels are carefully torqued either

with enormous torque wrenches or with



36

interface but that the nut will rotate

clockwise relative to the wheel due to the

nut/wheel interface. If we consider that

rotationally the wheel is locked to the axle

by means of the drive pegs then the latter

movement amounts to a clockwise

rotation of the nut relative to the axle.

This means that effect of the two

interfaces is contrary.

Thinking of these two interactions on a

system with a left-hand thread fitted to the

right-hand side of the vehicle, then the

interface between the axle and the nut will

tend to tighten the nut while that between

the nut and the wheel will tend to loosen it.

So which is the dominant effect? The

answer will depend on three basic factors.

The first and most obvious is the friction

developed at each interface. This will be a

function of the lubrication and surface

finish. Secondly, the diameters are of

significance as a given frictional force acting

at a larger radius will transmit a greater

expansion rates of the magnesium wheel

and the steel or titanium axle. In some

cases the drive peg may be fitted to the

wheel and engage in a slot in the axle or

disc bell. The effects are the same.

If we now consider this mechanism with

exaggerated clearances by looking at the

section marked A-A on Figure 3, we see

what is shown diagrammatically in Figure 4.

We can now see that there is a subtle

difference to the simple wheel stud

considered originally in that there is a

“geared” mechanism between the wheel

and the nut as well as the nut and the

axle. Considering clockwise rotation, we

can see that the axle will rotate clockwise

relative to the nut due to the axle/nut

ABOVE The refuelling ban has reintroduced lightning-fast pitstops to F1 but mistakes can be made under pressure. HereRenault’s mechanics produce a slick stop to send RobertKubica on his way (Photo: Steven Tee/LAT Photographic)

There is a ‘geared’ mechanismbetween the wheel and the nutas well as the nut and the axle’

FIGURE 4




38

carefully calibrated air guns.

Formula One cars can generate enormous

braking torques. When Sebastian Vettel’s

wheel came loose in Australia it was not into

a turn with very severe braking but

nevertheless the left front wheel drive system

would have been resisting over 2,500 Nm of

torque. The Red Bull car has the drive pegs

in the wheel itself. On the front wheel there

are just three of them, each with a diameter

of around 10 to 12 mm. Even if these are

made of maraging steel the shear stress

under heavy braking would be

uncomfortably close to, or even over, the

yield strength so some additional torque

transfer mechanism is required.

A typical Formula One axle has a thread of

around 60 mm diameter and a pitch of 1 mm.

The nuts are done up to around 700 to 750

Nm. This generates an enormous clamping

force between the wheel and the hub,

normally via the disc bell, and this makes a

significant contribution to the drive system.

The static friction coefficient between dry

magnesium (which the wheel is made of) and

dry aluminium (which the disc bell is made

of) is around 0.6 so this clamping load

contributes a significant amount of the drive. I

suspect that when Vettel’s wheel came loose,

his drive pegs sheared, losing the ability for

that wheel to react the braking torque.

LOCKING SYSTEMS

A search of patents finds an enormous number

of locking devices for threaded fasteners, with

several specifically dedicated to the problem of

wheel nuts. Among the interesting ones are

those of Lees [3] and Vanderdrift [4] as well as a

patent by Wolfgang Weiss [5] that has been

presented to Formula One teams in the past.

Perhaps, though, the most intriguing in its

simplicity is a patent filed by J.V. Pugh in

1911 entitled “Improvements in and relating

to detachable wheels” in which he simply

inverts the gender of the nut and wheel such

that the wheel has a male register and the

nut a female one as shown in Figure 5. This

rather old patent was brought to light more

recently by Thorpe [6] whose discussion is

summarised here.

If we now consider the cross section

shown as A-A in Figure 5 (with

exaggerated clearances) we see an

arrangement as shown in Figure 6.

Once again, this figure shows the

clearances taken up by the weight of the

vehicle on the wheel. While the axle to nut

interface is still at the bottom of the

assembly, the wheel to nut interface is now

at the top. If we consider the wheel

rotating clockwise and the vehicle moving

forward, the whole system rotates but the

interface lines remain vertically aligned.

The axle to nut relative rotation is similar to

the standard coned wheel nut to wheel

rotation shown in Figure 2. The nut

therefore rotates anti-clockwise relative to

the axle. If we consider the wheel to nut

interface, it can be seen that the wheel will

rotate faster than the nut due to the

“gearing” and the nut therefore is subject

to an anti-clockwise rotation relative to the

wheel. As the wheel and axle is constrained

rotationally by the drive pegs, this implies

an anti-clockwise rotation of the nut

relative to the axle. The axle-nut interface

and the wheel-nut interface therefore both

cause the nut to rotate in the same

direction relative to the axle.

With this arrangement, the relative

rotations are more clearly defined and less

reliant on local conditions. As shown, the

vehicle would require left-hand threads on

the right-hand side and vice-versa and

would inhibit the loss of a loose wheel nut.

SOLUTIONS

So what, if any, is the solution to this

aggravating and yet potentially serious

problem? With a conventional internal,

centre lock, wheel nut (that is a male nut

that engages a female wheel), it is probable

that the physics are such that a left-hand

thread on the right-hand side of the vehicle

and a right-hand thread on the left-hand

side of the vehicle are best. With multi-stud

fixings the opposite is true and left-hand

threads should be used on the left-hand side

of the vehicle. However, to eliminate the

worries brought about by inconsistencies,

the external nut proposed all those years

ago by Pugh is worthy of adoption.

Having said that, there is one vital point to

get across: if a wheel nut is tightened

properly, it will not come loose irrespective

of the design of the axle thread and the nut.

Equally and even more importantly, if a

wheel nut is loose then using threads of the

correct hand for the particular side of the car

will inhibit the departure of the wheel nut

but no more than that.

ABOVE Sebastian Vettelstreaks clear of the field inAustralia, only to surrendera potential 25-point haulwhen his Red Bull’s wheelnut worked loose RT

3 US patent 6,916,144B2 July 2005 Wheel Nut Assembly4 International patent WO 97/14892 October 1996 Self locking Ratchet Nut5 US patent 7,445,413B2 May 2003 Screw nut assembly including an integrated securing arrangement6 T.E. Thorpe “Self Locking Wheel Nuts” Proc IMechE Vol. 209

FIGURE 5

FIGURE 6



FORMULA ONE HISPANIA RACING F1 TEAMwww.racetechmag.com

40

THE PAININ SPAIN

BELOW The key action hastaken place in the garage,rather than on the racetrack

The infancy of Hispania Racing has been uncomfortable, but gradually order is emerging from chaos. De facto technical director Geoff Willis gives Matt Youson a frank account of a tempestuous beginning

F1-Hispania.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 01:40 Page 1



41

ABOVE Bruno Senna claimed it was a “miracle” justto have the cars running at the first grand prix

WHICH IS the most impressive

team in Formula One at the

moment? Would anyone

accept it is Hispania Racing?

Red Bull clearly has a quick car; Force India

is arguably the most improved. Renault is

better than anyone expected and Lotus

seems to have a pragmatic and tidy base on

which to build – but Hispania is something

different. Its car has no testing, its crew no

experience. Many of the parts are quick-fixes

and last resort bodges – and yet it made it to

the grid in Bahrain, crawled to the chequered

flag in Australia, enjoyed a comparatively

spritely double finish at Sepang and repeated

the feat in the rain in China. Compared to

where it was 24 hours before the racing year

began in earnest, that must surely go down

as the achievement of the season.

After a stalled development programme,

financial difficulties, poor supplier

relationships and an 11th-hour transfer of

ownership, Hispania arrived for the first race

of the year with no testing and its cars still as

yet unassembled. Working 24-hour days, it

managed to get one bolted together and on

track for second practice on Friday and the

second for qualifying on Saturday. The gap to

the leaders was around 11 seconds. Given

that the interval between front and back had

by the end of 2009 fallen to as little as 0.7

seconds, Hispania’s debut was reminiscent of

the disastrous MasterCard Lola of 1997.

Lola’s problems were caused by a pushy

sponsor demanding the team enter a year

ahead of time. Hispania’s issues came about

through a lack of sponsors (pushy or

otherwise) but its problems were broadly

similar – the car simply wasn’t ready. But

while the Spanish team was a long way out

of its depth, it was at least racing. It also

gained recognised management. In February

the experienced Colin Kolles had arrived as

team principal and Geoff Willis as a technical

consultant; the hired guns were there to

stabilise things and get the team moving in

the right direction. Gradually they have done

precisely that, while acknowledging there is

a great deal wrong with the team, and a lot

of work to do before it will be able to

compete with Virgin and Lotus.

The other new teams (save the ill-fated

USF1 project) had their cars built up by mid-

February, a few weeks behind the

established outfits. With the HRT F110 being

first fired up on March 12 it suggests the

team was nominally a month behind in its

development programme. Willis, in a brief

respite from fire-fighting, argues the

situation was actually far, far worse.

“Because the car build started so late,

corners were cut in many areas. Bodywork

had to be trimmed manually, various

brackets weren’t completed, some systems

were being drawn and made on the fly, so

it really wasn’t a normal car build,

regardless of when it took place.

“Also, Dallara had not built an F1 car in

many, many years, and I think they simply

underestimated the level Formula One has

now reached. With an F1 car we try to

minimise the amount of customisation that

goes on at the build stage; we try to

design everything so that the car can only

be built one way. The reasons for that are

at least partially based on the packaging

demands: we need to know exactly where

everything is because things won’t fit if

they don’t go in exactly.

“Finally, the astounding reliability now

experienced in F1 is based upon taking

nothing for granted: every part of the

electrical loom is properly supported;

hydraulic lines are anti-vibration mounted

and are the correct lengths and not under

strain. All the services in the car are

properly laid out – and that level of detail is

just missing from this car, which puts a

huge load on the car build itself.”

"GP1" RATHER THAN F1

Willis is obviously critical of the way in which

Dallara has managed the project. Having

been in Italy for the initial build, he expresses

surprise that the manufacturer did not hire a

greater number of experienced F1 personnel.

With reference to the company’s successes in

GP2, he suggests what it has produced is

more akin to an advanced GP2 chassis than

a fully-fledged F1 car. “It’s GP1 rather than

F1 and I’m sure the integration, the detail

and the quality of components in the

garages next to ours [ie those of the other

new teams] will be significantly better.”

The problem, says Willis, is that the project

falls between two stools. If not intending to

enter with a competitive car it would, he

argues, be perfectly feasible to begin life in

F1 as a ‘Super-GP2 team’, gain experience,

build up a technical group, ramp up quality

and slowly advance to the higher level, “but

what we have is neither cheap enough and

sufficiently easy to work on to take that

route, nor is it of a high enough quality to

follow the conventional approach.”

The big question being wrestled with at the

time of writing is whether HRT will continue

Hispania arrived for the firstrace with no testing and itscars still to be assembled’


Willis’ shopping list includes the usual

teething problems that afflict most new

builds but also some fairly fundamental issues

in need of remedy. “We certainly need some

more cooling options on the brakes and

we’re going to redesign the steering wheels,”

he says. “We want to give the hydraulics a

facelift to improve the packaging and the

reliability; we’ve got to do something about

the driver installation because the cockpit

isn’t tidy enough, which means we don’t

have enough freedom to move the drivers

where we want them to go. Added to that

are a whole series of serviceability issues

that need to be addressed: it takes too long

to make a suspension change; too long to

put a floor on; there are too many fasteners

in the bodywork and it’s too dependent on

individual hand-building. The car is just too

difficult to work on so we have to simplify

all of that.”

With the future ownership of design

responsibility uncertain, the question of

who will address these issues is also

ambiguous. “There is a discussion about

the level of fault resolution that comes with

the new car design – but when does fault

resolution become car development?” asks

Willis rhetorically.

Hispania’s problems do not begin and end

with design and manufacturing, it also faces

the experience deficit with which any new

team must cope. Of the small crew, only three

of those working on the mechanical side of



42

You have to make sure every problem is properlyreported, not just dealt with quietly at the scene’

ABOVE Senna’s F110 runs wheel-to-wheel with the Lotus ofHeikki Kovalainen but the team knows it will be a long hardfight to drag itself up to the level of its fellow newcomers

from more effort at the design stage, and

which are the product of the choice between

doing it the way it has been done or not

having a car. In some instances it’s easy to

judge what has been rushed through,

jumping [manufacturing] stages all the way –

the quality of composite components

depends an awful lot on the pattern, mould

and paint preparation, the time taken to

laminate and de-mould and cure and trim.

Work at the proper rate and you get a

quality product; rush it and what you get

doesn’t look very nice…”

the partnership with Dallara, or obtain the

geometry for the F110 and set up its own

development programme. “Those are the

two options available to us. The latter will

take a few weeks to sort out and realistically

any standalone programme would be 10 or

15 weeks away from producing anything for

the car,” Willis says.

Rare for a Formula One team, development

isn’t top of the priorities list at Hispania.

Understanding what it has, and then

optimising it, is viewed as the more urgent

matter. With a non-negotiable deadline of

Bahrain qualifying on March 13, neither car

was built to its design specification. For

example, steel suspension makes its return to

F1 because there was not sufficient time to

manufacture composites, and both cars are

running with a minimal racing loom, limiting

data channels to the bare necessities.

Of the parts the team does have, Willis says

some are well-concepted and manufactured,

while others are rather crude. “In terms of

refinement, the design is certainly some way

behind where a mid-grid F1 car would be.

How far behind is difficult to say; certainly the

BARs of the early 2000s would be much

better integrated and easier to work on.

“How much that reflects the target of

Dallara and how much it reflects the lack of

time at the end of the programme is difficult

to judge. I will need to go through on a

component by component basis and

determine which parts could have benefited

ABOVE Out of the darkness:the Hispania Racing F1 Teamwas born only after an 11th-hour change of ownership


carbon main case “a no-brainer”. Seamless

shift is likewise desirable, “but there is

sufficient experience in the pit lane to do it

yourself if somebody else’s geometry didn’t

precisely suit your needs.”

Despite the problems of its birth, the more

the technical director is able to discuss the

long-term future, the more the problems of

the moment appear to be transient.

Over the last decade there has been a

tendency to think of F1 development in

terms of the things that are most readily

apparent. Horsepower and aerodynamic

efficiency are at the top of the list, followed

by suspension and handling for the more

enquiring. Anything that isn’t a

performance differentiator falls off the radar

because it simply isn’t relevant. Hispania’s

issues shine a light into a dark corner long

forgotten. Issues such as manufacturing

methodology, process control, packaging

practices and fault reporting aren’t ever

discussed because they’ve become second

nature; the attention to detail may be

extraordinary but the application of the

extraordinary has become mundane.

The difficult beginnings of Hispania serve

to bring those underlying foundations back

into view. Doubtless as the team improves

over the coming months they will once

again be covered and forgotten, until the

next new teams appear.



44

the operation have prior F1 experience. The

rest, while experienced in motorsport, are

learning on the job. “And without being

snobbish, there is a fundamental difference,”

says Willis. “This is the only formula with an

engine that revs to 18,000 rpm: the

vibration from that does a lot of damage to

sensors, actuators, looms etc; the intensity of

braking and kerbing events causes higher

acceleration levels; and the packaging is

much tighter than anywhere else. Le Mans,

for example, is equally high-speed, but those

are much bigger cars, much heavier and can

absorb more weight to protect systems,

while also having more room to play with.

F1 has all sorts of unusual quirks which make

it a very difficult environment to work in and

if you haven’t got the experience, you have

issues with the car because of problems you

haven’t seen before.

“Reliability comes predominantly from

design and then quality control through

manufacture and then procedure and

attention to detail in the car build stage…

but certainly not least through the fault

reporting mechanism in the garage. You have

to make sure every problem is properly

reported and not just dealt with quietly at the

scene: it should be reported, it should be

fixed, and the fact it’s been fixed should be

reported, so that somebody is required to

come up with a proper solution, whether it

requires a process or a design change. We’re

just not in a position to do that yet.”

The ‘yet’ in that sentence is important. In

stark terms Hispania seems chaotic, but the

work going on in the garage is calm and

methodical; the team got one car home in

Australia and both in Malaysia and China,

albeit several laps off the pace. Willis

acknowledges that he is putting together a

design group with experienced F1 personnel

that will – subject to a budget being agreed –

begin to look at topics covering a wide

spectrum of performance and non-

performance related issues.

TECHNICAL COLLABORATION

In the longer term he doesn’t rule out the

possibility of a technical collaboration with an

established team (similar to the Force India-

McLaren arrangement), but he is encouraged

by the performance of Hispania’s current

engine package: “It [technical collaboration]

is certainly a possibility but at the moment

the Cosworth looks like a pretty good

engine. It has a glitch mid-range but in

terms of fuel consumption and top-end

power, I’m pretty happy with it.”

Willis does, however, also say that the

current Xtrac gearbox is too heavy and that

the proposed regulations regarding greater

gearbox longevity make the need to source a RT

INSET Paper trail: many of thesystems that F1 teams take forgranted are only just being put inplace at Hispania Racing

BELOW Having run 11 seconds offthe pace initially, the team has madesteady progress. In Malaysia and China it got both cars to the finish



ENGINE TECHNOLOGY TEAM AON LPG FOCUSwww.racetechmag.com

46

LPG BECOMESFOCUS OFATTENTION

BELOW Although tyre troubles at Thruxton masked thetrue pace of the LPG-fuelled Team Aon Focus, poleposition at Rockingham left nobody in any doubt

Engine Tech-LPG Focus.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 01:43 Page 1

ENGINE TECHNOLOGYwww.racetechmag.com


47

Chris Pickering investigates the LPG engine project that is ruffling feathers with its pace in the British Touring Car Championship

THE BRITISH Touring Car

Championship is a rather interesting

place to be at the moment. You’ve

got front-wheel-drive cars racing against rear-

wheel-drive cars, saloons against hatchbacks,

turbocharged engines against naturally

aspirated units, and the impending upheaval

of next year’s rule changes. And now, as if

that wasn’t enough for the scrutineers to deal

with, a new fuel has just been thrown into the

mix. What’s more, the powerplant doesn’t

strictly fall into any of the existing categories.

While the familiar naturally aspirated Super

2000 engines continue to dominate – at least

in numbers – the only official regulations for

turbocharged units are those which fall under

the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC)

rules for direct-injection petrol engines. The

new unit, developed by Essex-based

Mountune Racing and campaigned in the

Ford Focuses of Team Aon, is neither. It uses a

turbocharger, like the forthcoming NGTC

engines, but it’s actually based on a Super

2000 unit, with conventional manifold fuel

injection. There’s also the small matter of the

LPG system, of course. All this puts it quite

literally in a class of its own at the moment,

with a one-off homologation agreed with

series organisers TOCA.

DOUBLE WHAMMY

The project came about last year while the

team was considering its engine options for

2010. It was assumed at the time that the

TOCA NGTC ‘package engine’ would be the

way to go performance-wise, but the team

was uneasy about fitting a non-Ford engine.

Although officially unbranded, its origins –

from one of the blue oval’s closest

competitors – are fairly widely known. At the

time the team was also on the lookout for a

new sponsor and a solution was about to be

found to both problems. Paul Onslow-Cole,

father of Team Aon driver Tom Onslow-Cole,

has an LPG fitting business and it was he who

introduced the team to LPG specialist Calor.

When the possibility of a significant

sponsorship deal was mooted the switch to

LPG was all but agreed.

The next call was to BTCC technical chief

Peter Riches, who agreed he liked the idea

of LPG and offered to work with the team

on the regulations. With the NGTC rules

still far from finalised at the time,

Mountune was given a basic set of

guidelines and left to carry on. “There was

an acknowledgement that time was short

and the team were basically told ‘get on

with it, just don’t push your luck’,” recalls

Mountune founder David Mountain. The

key restraints were a capacity of two litres,

in line with both the NGTC and Super 2000

cars, and a turbo boost pressure of no more

than 1.8 bar absolute and a maximum

7,000 rpm (again, as per the NGTC rules).

Perhaps not surprisingly, the fuel system has

provided the main challenge. While

Mountune is no stranger to forced induction,

or indeed the Ford Duratec, LPG in a race

application was new territory. “LPG was

something of an unknown – when we ran

the budget numbers for the team that was

the only bit we couldn’t predict,” recalls

general manager Roger Allen. “We knew how

much it was going to be from the injector

down, but before that we needed help.

ABOVE The turbocharged powerplant on the dyno. Note the thermocouples at the back ofthe engine used to monitor exhaust gas temperatures and infer combustion conditions


combustion chamber without things like

quartz lenses and high-speed photography,

and we didn’t have access to that sort of

thing, so we just went back to basics with

tests on the dyno,” explains Mountain. “We

discovered that moving the injectors back

provided a definite improvement and we

believe the fuel is now fully gaseous once it

enters the combustion chamber.”

The fuel injectors themselves made for

something of a challenge, mainly because

the pressure the system runs at would slow

the internals right down on a normal

gasoline unit. To get the necessary speed

Mountune uses Prins side-fed injectors.

Based on a Bosch design, these feed from

the side, unlike conventional end-fed



48

LPG’s lower calorific value meansyou need 20 per cent more fuelmass for the same power output’

tendency to ice up. “On the dyno you can

sometimes see ice forming on the outside,”

Allen casually admits. “If it’s a bit on the

cold side and the system is idling, when

fuel flow is lower, it can get close to

freezing up, but as soon as you pick up the

revs and the fuel starts to flow this ceases

to be a problem.”

Unlike most road-going LPG conversions

the engine doesn’t use an evaporator to

vaporise the fuel, instead it’s injected into

the manifold as a liquid. This removes

weight from the system, simplifies the

That’s where Calor stepped in.” Most of the

LPG hardware comes straight from Calor’s

Dutch sister company Prins. Mountune took

a lot of advice from the company on things

like the correct pipes and pumps: “It’s

important to have the correct seals, flow rates

and pressures. It’s not something we’ve

delved too deeply into here, but Calor and

Prins have done a lot of work in this area.”

In reality the LPG fuel system isn’t quite as

alien as you might first assume. “It sounds

exotic, but it’s essentially just like the contents

of a barbeque gas bottle,” notes Allen.

ABOVE Tom Chilton smashed the Rockinghamlap record to earn LPG its first pole position start

installation and also provides additional

charge cooling as the liquid vaporises. It

wasn’t without its problems, however. In

theory the LPG is supposed to evaporate as

soon as it leaves the injector, but the

development team soon discovered there

was a noticeable time delay. Running at

fairly high air speeds and injecting close to

the inlet valves, the first engines didn’t

always have time to fully vaporise the fuel

before it entered the cylinder. The result was

several piston failures on early engines,

which are thought to have been caused by

thermal fatigue as the cold LPG hit the

warm surface of the piston. It wasn’t long

before a simple solution was found,

however. “It’s difficult to monitor the

Treated with a few basic precautions LPG isn’t

a difficult substance to handle, but there are

a few issues. Firstly, it readily evaporates

under normal atmospheric conditions and

can cause severe ‘cold burns’ if it comes into

contact with skin. It’s also heavier than air so

it will tend to run down hill and accumulate

in dips if spilt. In most respects, however,

the technology in the fuel system isn’t that

different to a normal petrol or diesel setup.

A turbine pump, located inside the tank,

works with a pressure regulator to supply

fuel direct to the injectors. It does need to

be kept at a somewhat higher pressure

than a petrol system (6 to 8 bar plays 3 to

5 bar), but it’s still broadly the same order

of magnitude. The only other issue is a


ABOVE The rapid cast alloy manifold can beseen in this dyno shot, as can the two fuellines heading to each set of twin injectors

injectors which feed the fuel straight onto

the pintle and have a tendency to slow it

down at high pressure. The other benefit of

this architecture is that it moves the solenoid

further away from the fuel, reducing heat

transfer that might otherwise evaporate the

fuel. Similarly, plastic fuel lines are used for

their insulating properties.

TWIN INJECTORS

The other major problem posed by the fuel

system was simply achieving adequate flow.

One injector per cylinder wasn’t quite

adequate to provide the fuel supply the

engineers wanted, so they resorted to an

eight injector setup. This is normally

prohibited in the BTCC rules, but the team

was granted dispensation to do so, and

Mountain is quick to point out that it’s not a

performance enhancing feature: “We agreed

to run them side-by-side, rather than

locating them separately. This means it’s

effectively the same as running a single large

injector and it doesn’t offer us any benefit.

Using twin injectors also means we’re

carrying a bit of extra weight and some

additional complexity. We would like to get

back to a single injector (per cylinder) and

we are experimenting with some currently,

but if they do go into the car it won’t be

until halfway through the season.”

At the business end, the injectors are

encased in a cast alloy inlet plenum

manufactured using an innovative lost wax

casting process developed by WCM Rapid.

The benefits of this rapid casting technique

were essential in the short time available

and it’s also said to work out somewhat

cheaper than sand casting for very small

batches. It begins by creating a wax model,

which is rapid printed straight from the CAD

files. Next the master model has a wax

running system developed around it. It’s

then coated in plaster and baked in an

oven, which dries the plaster and melts the

wax out. This leaves the cavity form to

which aluminium is poured in under

vacuum to produce the metal casting. The

whole process is tool-less and can be

completed in a matter of days.



49


THE MOUNTUNE project wouldn’t have

been possible without a small army of

suppliers providing parts and services.

Foremost among these are Calor and sister

company Prins, who were vital in speccing

and supplying the LPG system. Perhaps

the next most significant change to

Mountune’s former S2000 unit was the

addition of a turbocharger. It’s a fairly

standard Garrett GT28 roller bearing turbo,

mated to a Tial wastegate and a quick-

release exhaust housing designed to

enable fast changes. The exhaust system

itself, meanwhile, comes from Berkshire-

based Simpson Race Exhausts.

Inside the engine we find many of the

usual suspects at work: Carrillo conrods,

CP Pistons, Supertech valves and an Arrow

Precision crankshaft. NGK spark plugs and

Cosworth Electronics’ Pectel ECU

complete the powertrain shopping list.

SUPPORTING CASTalso takes its Pectel SQ6M engine control

unit from the NGTC specification. Unlike the

TOCA engine, it also features an additional

boost pressure monitoring system that feeds

straight into a sealed TOCA data logger –

presumably just in case Mountune ever feels

tempted to turn the wick up.

Despite raiding the BTCC parts bin, the

build hasn’t been a straight swap. The fuel

tank, for example, still provides all the usual

challenges associated with fuel surge and

low running quantities, but it’s also added

to the LPG car’s weight issues. The tank

alone weighs 30 kg and you need to fill it

with a greater quantity of liquid than you

would a conventional system. If you really

want to get David Mountain talking,

however, it’s worth mentioning the subject

of the lubrication system. Although this isn’t

an LPG-specific issue, it’s clearly a point of

contention in touring car circles.

“We’ve said for a long time that a dry

sump system would be cheaper, more

reliable and easier for everyone,” he

comments. “Big parts of the budgets are

routinely spent trying to make a wet sump

system with the standard production sump

pan work in a racing environment [as

mandated by most touring car series]. It’s

been nothing but a nightmare for every

project we’ve been involved with, right back

to the Sierra Cosworth days.”



50

Once the mixture is fully vaporised and

safely inside the cylinder the combustion

process is broadly the same as a spark

ignition petrol engine, but there are some

differences. LPG burns somewhat richer

than petrol and its calorific value is lower,

meaning you need around 20 per cent

more fuel mass for the same power output.

It also burns cooler, with exhaust gas

temperatures typically 70 to 100 degrees C

down (which bodes well for exhaust valve

and turbo durability), but it’s not without

its problems. LPG doesn’t have the same

lubricating properties as petrol does and

it’s not unknown for LPG engines to suffer

valve seat recession. Some road car systems

use an additional lubrication system to

supply oil, but Mountune has elected not

to do this because it lowers the octane

rating and the mileages in question aren’t

really high enough to cause problems. “We

did consult our oil supplier and the

response was that normal lubrication

would be fine for LPG in a racing context,”

confirms Mountain. Indeed, barring a

problem with the oil breather system on an

early test run, the engines appear to have

fared very well in-car.

When the concept first emerged there had

been talk of running the car in a naturally

aspirated configuration. In order to make it

competitive on LPG the engineers

hypothesised that they would need to raise

the compression ratio to something like 14

or 15:1 as well as re-engineering the head

to provide considerably larger valve lift.

Fortunately the idea of turbocharging

eliminated this problem, and enabled them

to run what is in many respects a fairly

standard Super 2000 engine.

PICK AND MIX

As the concept took shape Mountune’s

engineers, along with the scrutineers, pieced

together a kind of pick and mix of touring

car regulations. The fundamentals, such as

compression ratio and component weights,

were taken straight from Super 2000, while

the lower 7,000 rpm rev limit and the boost

pressure settings were taken from NGTC.

Internally it remains fairly conventional; the

head is said to be pretty much identical to

the old unit from the plenum downstream,

with the only real changes to the

reciprocating assembly.

“We’ve gone up a spec on the pistons and

rod,” explains Allen. “The torque is

somewhat higher, so we’ve gone for a

turbo-style rod and pistons. They’re just

slightly beefier designs optimised for low

speed, high cylinder pressure, high torque

applications.” The team hasn’t had a chance

to carry out a cylinder pressure study, but

it’s thought to be relatively close to the

equivalent turbocharged petrol unit. The car

ABOVE & RIGHT The fuel tank in the ‘back seat’ is fromPropane Performance Industries and draws on thecompany’s expertise with alternative fuels. “It involves alot more than just bolting a gas tank in the back of thecar,” said Arena boss Mike Earle after Rockingham. “Untilyou’ve tried it, nobody will understand what a technicalchallenge this programme presented us with.”


Last year Mountune, along with several

other engine builders, had persistent

problems with oil surge in the standard

sump, which forced it to homologate an

Accusump system. This is effectively an

additional pressurised oil reservoir which is

used to supplement the standard wet sump

lubrication system when the pressure drops.

It solved the lubrication issues, but meant

adding extra weight to the car and finding

space for the reservoir, so Mountune began

developing a new wet sump system. The car

retains the standard Ford sump pan – as per

the BTCC regulations – but extensive

internal changes to the baffles and pick up

pipes have improved delivery to the point

that the Accusump could be removed. “We

had some interesting ideas from the aircraft

world and we’ve done some testing with

prototype sumps that have given a very

good oil trace,” Mountain notes.

Due to the rapid timescale no simulation

work was carried out during the LPG project

and Mountune’s first chance of gauging the

engine’s progress was when it hit the dyno. It

was back to basics stuff, but the development

team did have a few tricks up their sleeve.

Thermocouples were tapped into the exhaust

system to measure exhaust temperature

distribution, which allowed them to infer the

mixture and any cylinder-to-cylinder

distribution created by the intake system. “It’s

a good way to get an idea of the distribution

quickly,” explains Allen. “All you need is a few

bosses in the manifold and then all other

things being equal you get a basic idea of the

mixture strength coming out.”

GOOD RELIABILITY

The engine first found its way into a car at

the beginning of this year. The first

shakedown was on February 13 and the

engine stayed in the car for the next four

tests, only coming out just before the season-

opener at Thruxton. When the engine was

removed it was, says Allen, “absolutely

pristine”, pinning high hopes on reliability.

Sadly the tyre woes which caught out several

of the teams made it a rather mixed

weekend for Aon too. It’s no secret that the

Focus is running considerably over the

weight limit; not that it’s anything unusual,

as even the lightest of the turbo cars are

thought to be something like 20 kg over the

minimum. Thruxton is also notoriously hard

on tyres and the additional weight of the

LPG car, combined with what’s thought to

be the highest torque levels in the BTCC,

didn’t bode well. Both cars succumbed to

tyre issues in race one – quite spectacularly in

Tom Chilton’s case – and they continued to

experience troubles throughout the day. The

final race did, however, see them finish

seventh and eighth, recording the first ever

BTCC points for LPG cars.

The powerplant itself performed well.

Indeed perhaps too well: the cars’ speed

trap times raised a few eyebrows amongst

rival teams, even though their lap times

were midfield. The pace of the Focus at

Rockingham, where Tom Chilton broke the

lap record to secure the first pole position

for an LPG car, further underlined the

package’s potential. Mountain predicts the

team will be regulars up at the front in the

near future. He better hope the

powerplant’s not too good, of course.

Otherwise you can be sure chief scrutineer

Peter Riches will be knocking on his door

with a nice new air restrictor.



51

BELOW The LPG powerplant has performed well, withthe pace of the Focus through the speed traps in pre-season testing causing rumblings amongst rivals

The Focuses’ speed trap times raiseda few eyebrows amongst rival teams’

RT



INDY 500 THE RACE’S IMPACT www.racetechmag.com

52

THE GREATESTSPECTACLEIN RACING

WHAT IS the first thing you think

of when I say “Indianapolis”?

No matter where in the world

you are, if you say Indianapolis most people

respond “Indy 500”. The Indianapolis 500 is

still the largest, single-day spectator sporting

event in the world and is known as the

“Greatest Spectacle in Racing” – and if you

have ever attended Indy you would agree, it

is an awesome event! However, interest and

coverage of the Indianapolis 500 reaches

way beyond just the state of Indiana. This

year’s event will be televised in 213 countries

with an audience reach of 292 million

households, while the IMS Radio Network

will be on thousands of stations worldwide

including the US Armed Forces Network.

The racing industry in Indiana, though, is

much more than just the 500. The Indiana

Motorsports Association has a directory of over

1,200 companies in the state of Indiana that

are directly involved in the motorsports

industry. It shows that 80 per cent of the

IndyCar teams have shops in Indianapolis

while other motorsport-related businesses

include manufacturers, suppliers and 49 other

race tracks. In fact, half of them host an event

in the week of the 500 to cater to the race

fans visiting Indianapolis who are looking for

something to do in the evening.

Mark Rosentraub, former professor and

associate dean at the School of Public and

Environmental Affairs at Indiana University at

Indianapolis, authored an annual economic

impact study of the racing events at the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the 500 a

few years ago. It showed that the event

itself has nearly a $350 million impact each

year, which is more or less doubled when

the whole year is taken into account. The

study, though, only focused on the

spending of out-of-town guests and does

not include the spending of the local

residents, who make up approximately one

third of the event’s spectators.

Building on the city and state’s love affair

with motorsport is the new International

Motorsports Industry Show (www.imis-

indy.com), the inaugural event taking place

last December. This year it has been

expanded from two days to three (December

1-3) and it will double in size. Over 500

hardcore motorsports parts companies from

around the world will be exhibiting their

latest technology and designs.

With so many of the IndyCar teams based

in Indy you can count on them attending

the show to see what they might be able to

find that will help them get to Victory Lane

at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hope

to see you there with a couple of hundred

thousand of your closest friends!

ABOVE Classic Indy 500 action at the startof the 2009 race (Photo: Dan Helrigel/IMS)

LEFT The pre-raceatmosphere is electric(Photo: Chris Jones/IMS)

RT

Tom Weisenbach, executive director of the Indiana Motorsports Association, explains why the Indy 500 is so special to the US racing industry

Indy 500.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 01:47 Page 1

suppliers racing teams

crews drivers

IMIS-INDY.com

FASTERINTERNATIONAL

SHOW



INDY 500 WINNING THE BIG RACEwww.racetechmag.com

54

THE SECRETS OFINDY SUCCESS

OVER THE last few years the Indy

500 has lost some of its glamour

due in part to the IRL becoming a

closed series. While there is much to be said

for standardisation as it reduces the costs of

competing, it comes at the expense of

variety, innovation and thinking up outside

of the box solutions.

Looking back over the 98 years that the

race has been run, those events that stand

out tend to be the ones that either had a

close finish or featured cars that redefined the

racing car. The advancement of technology,

sometimes successful and other times not, is

the advantage of having an open formula.

The argument for having a closed formula is

that it ensures a level playing field so that the

driver for an underfunded team has as much

of a chance of winning as one from a wealthy

one, which means that it comes down to

driver skill – or does it?

Over the last 10 years, from when the race

was more open with a variety of engine and

chassis suppliers through to the present time

with the closed series, records show that

Penske has won its five times, Andretti

Green and Chip Ganassi twice each and

Rahal Letterman once. It goes without

saying that they all had great drivers but is

there more to it than meets the eye?

The answer, says Mike Hull, a key member of

Chip Ganassi Racing as its managing director,

is process, people, resource and refinement,

to which can be added experience and focus

according to Tom Anderson, senior vice

president of Andretti Autosport.

“It’s very much a daily process that is

driven by priority and that is how we

approach everything that we do,” says Hull.

“On the first day back to work after the

Indy 500 we sit down and talk as a group

about how to improve ourselves for the

next race. We look at what was good for us

and what could be improved in all areas.

We look at ourselves with open eyes and try

to make ourselves better so that we can be

ready for the next event.”

People, though, and not just the drivers, are

key says Hull who is charged with organising

the process and keeping the large team

focused. “I think that in order to be successful

at Indy what you need is an integrated group

of people who are dedicated to the process

of being ready to race the race with the

goal of winning. Anything less than that is

truly disappointing.”

“You also need the correct amount of time

to prepare, the proper amount of funding or

sponsorship, enough experience or talent in

all departments from the drivers, crew chief,

engineering right on down to the pit crew,”

says Anderson who joined the team last

December bringing with him 40 years of

experience. This includes being co-owner and

managing director of Fernandez Racing from

2001 to 2009 and before that the managing

director of Chip Ganassi Racing from 1990 to

2000 when he helped lead the team to four

consecutive CART championships between

1996 and 1999. The team also claimed a win

in the 2000 Indianapolis 500.

“The next thing is that you have got to have

the chemistry with everyone getting along

When everybody has the same technical package, what gives teams the extra edge it takes to win the Indy 500? William Kimberley finds out

ABOVE Helio Castroneves leads the pack. The fitand finish of the car is crucial as teams seek togain an edge by the reduction of friction whereverpossible (Photos: Indianapolis Motor Speedway)


INDY 500www.racetechmag.com


55

and pulling on the rope together. If you have

all of that and a bit of racing luck, you are

going to have a really good month of May.”

“What we have done as a team over the

years at Chip Ganassi Racing,” says Hull, “is

tried to provide equal entries, equal resource,

equal manpower, equal engineering and

equal everything to two equally talented race

drivers. If you look at our driver pairings over

the years that’s how we’ve approached it

whether it’s the current partnership of Scott

Dixon and Dario Franchitti, Jimmy Vasser and

Tony Stewart or Vasser and Juan-Pablo

Montoya. We absolutely run the two cars as

one and we share the information that we

gather from both cars on a practice or

qualifying day or even in the race itself. We

also train religiously with the guys who go

over the wall to have really good pit stops –

it’s a combination of all those things. It comes

down to a team effort from start to finish.”

“Managing this is also one of the key points,

one of the attributes of which is being a full-

time juggler,” says Anderson. “This is because

you don’t have the luxury to think about

everything with decisions needing to be made

quickly, so this is where the experience comes

ABOVE Vitor Meira’s car catches fire at a pit stopin last year’s race. The quick reactions of the pitstop crews play a crucial role in the outcome of arace that is often littered with caution periods

in – the more you have been to a place like

Indy, the more you understand the pressure

that it creates and the more you can cope

with that environment, the more likely you

are to make better decisions.

“In Indy, unlike some other races, a huge

amount is put into the preparation before the

race rather than in the race itself. Once upon

a time it used to be three weeks of

preparation at Indy, then it was down to two

weeks and now it’s down to one, so it’s going

to be a real interesting month of May this

year. Understanding the race track and

understanding how the car relates to it and

the weather conditions, which can be variable

at this time of year, is extremely important.”

Both Hull and Anderson agree that the

closed formula has altered the way they work

and prepare for the race compared to earlier

times when the race was more open.

“I think that any open formula was down to

‘big bites’,” says Hull, “and typically in a big

bite situation when the box was a great deal

larger, it wasn’t necessary to refine the small

details of the racecar. You could rely on the

ability of the guy driving the car and the guys

going over the wall that looked after it for the

pit stops. Other factors included things like

Cosworth possibly giving you 50 more

horsepower or maybe your tyres were more

durable than your competitors’ tyres, or it

could be that the Eagle chassis was better

than the March one. At Indianapolis over the

years you created an edge with the

technology from various supporting vendor

groups and then on top of that were the

engine companies that would help with

testing and additional engineering support.

“These days we do the same thing but we

zero in microscopically with our product –

it’s a totally different way to race in terms of

that today. We examine the fit and finish of

the car with the bodywork where every little

fastener is in the airstream, how the

suspension is oriented to the airstream, how

the driver sits in the cockpit and so on – it’s

all about nailing everything down in minute

detail these days. We refer to it as the

creation of frictionless racing, which is what

we are trying to achieve from an engineering

point of view. If you reduce friction, in a way

you create horsepower.”

To reinforce how the game has changed

since 2003, Hull refers to the time when

Ganassi Racing switched from CART to the

Indy Racing League. The year was, he says, a

The creation of frictionless racingis what we are trying to achievefrom an engineering point of view’


jolt for the team. “When we left the CART

championship at the end of 2002 to join IRL

on a full-time basis we had our eyes opened.

We got beat up pretty good and although

we won the championship with Scott Dixon

that year, the people we were racing against

were just so much better than we were in

terms of the details on the racecar – and

we’d won championships.

“There was a steep learning curve in what it

took to be really good on ovals. It was a great

educational experience for all of us and made

us all try to be better in terms of refinement

with our product and over time I think that’s

where we’ve been. If you walk up and down

the grid at any IndyCar race now, you are

going to see some well turned out racecars

from end to end on the grid.”

“There was a time when a boxed stock

car from the manufacturer could win the

race,” says Anderson, “but those days are

gone. There are things on the car that

were not even thought of when it was

designed in 2003.

“There’s now a tremendous amount of

variation in suspension geometry, gearbox

design and fitting and many other things

that in most racing circles would be

considered trivial and therefore not worth

bothering about. Unfortunately, though,

trivial has become reality in the series and

you will get beat by it every week unless

you catch on to it, but that is what it takes

to win the Indy 500.

“The race has become a situation where I

would bet a considerable amount of money

that no new team and driver could come in

and cherry pick this race. There was a time

when that could be done, such as when

Montoya won in 2000, but that’s not going

to happen any more.

“If you are changing chassis every year you

are going for larger pieces but because the

rulebook has contained us in certain areas

it’s opened doors on others – if there’s no

gas on the stove, you’ve got to find another

way to fry the egg.”

THE ‘BIG BITES’

So what were the “big bites” to which Hull

was referring? The arrival in 1963 of the

Lotus-Ford type 29, the lightweight rear-

engined car that revolutionised racing at the

Brickyard, is often rightfully highlighted as an

example. Although it finished second due to

yellow flag conditions negating its advantage

of not having to stop so frequently for fuel as

the front-engined Offenhauser-powered cars,

everyone that day could see that the writing

was on the wall for the Indy roadster. Within

two years, when a rear-engined Lotus did win

with Graham Hill at the wheel, the rear-

engine revolution was complete.

However, while this is the most popular

example of innovation at Indy, the event has

always been the breeding ground for pushing

the boundaries since the very beginning. For

example, the fourth running of the race in

1914, just before the outbreak of World War I,

saw some ground-breaking technology that

was to revolutionise the race engine in the US.

Again, the influence was European, but this

time it was from France. An historical moment

was the 1912 French Grand Prix which was

won by Georges Boillot in a 7600 cc Peugeot,

a small engine in comparison with the 14-litre

cars it was racing against. However, the real

point of interest was that it was the first

engine to have twin cams plus four valves per

cylinder in a hemispherical combustion

chamber, a revolutionary concept at the time.

As Griffith Borgeson remarks in his book The

Classic Twin-Cam Engine, it marked the

“manifest obsolescence of the ponderous



56

ABOVE Juan-Pablo Montoya (centre) brokeranks with the CART series to race and win theIndy 500 for Ganassi in 2000. Such is themicroscopic attention to detail demanded by thetight regulations today that a new team wouldbe unable to come in and win the big race

BELOW Al Unser Jr edges out Scott Goodyearby 0.043 seconds at the finish of the 1992Indy 500. With such small margins separatingthe cars of the modern era, painstakingattention to detail in race preparation can makethe difference between victory and defeat


approach to racing car design”.

The following year this engine came to

Indianapolis. Following some persuasion by

a representative of Carl Fisher, the

Speedway creator, co-owner and financial

genius, who had sent an emissary to Europe

in a quest to recruit men and machines to

race in the Indy 500, Peugeot sent Jules

Goux and Paul Zuccarelli, the Jenson

Buttons and Lewis Hamiltons of their day,

to race the L76 Peugeots. The result was a

victory for the Frenchman who finished

over 13 minutes ahead of his nearest rival.

While his average speed of 75.93 mph was

not a new record, he was the first winner of

the 500 to go the entire distance without

the aid of a relief driver.

The following year, Peugeot again sent a

two-car works team with a pair of 1913 GP

Delages being their biggest threat. However,

there was also a private entry for another

Peugeot, another twin-cam engine car but of

only 3.0-litre capacity. This greatly worried

the French car company as it was concerned

that it would damage its image and would

look absurd in a race for cars up to 450

cubic inches (7347 cc). It therefore

completely turned its back on the entry,

denying Arthur Duray, who had borrowed

the car from chocolate-fortune heir Jacques

Meunier who had purchased it from Peugeot

for his daily transport, any support. When

the car arrived at the Speedway all it had

was a set of plugs and a few hand tools to

serve as equipment and spares. In the event

the race was won by René Thomas in a

Delage at an average speed of 82.47 mph.

In contrast, the speed of the “Baby

Peugeot”, the darling of the huge crowd,

with half the displacement, was 80.99 mph.

As for the works Peugeots, Boillot crashed on

the 141st lap and Goux finished fourth.

While the teams returned home, they left

the cars behind so that they were examined

in great detail by the engine builders of their

day. While not exactly copied, the design

influences lived on for more than 60 years,

the influence on the Miller/Offenhauser era in

particular being very apparent.

The regulations governing the Indy 500 did

a great deal to inspire the rapid development

of American racing equipment in the 1920s.

As displacement was cut from 300 ci (4916

cc) to 183 ci (2999 cc) and then to 91.5 ci

(1499 cc) it saw the advent of high-

compression engines, superchargers, four-

wheel hydraulic brakes, hydraulic shock

absorbers, low-pressure tyres and exotic fuels.

However, in something that resonates today,

the principal manufacturers one by one

withdrew from racing because of their

inability to compete successfully against the

engine specialists, particularly Harry Miller, the

Duesenberg brothers and Louis Chevrolet’s

Frontenac specials. Then there was the four-

cylinder Offenhauser developed from a

marine unit that came second in the 1930

race that was the basis of this company’s

racing engine for the next 35 years.

INGENUITY

There were also the one-off attempts to break

the mould during this period. Miller, whose

engines won every Indianapolis race from

1930-1938 – although he had sold the

business that bore his name in 1930 in

disgust at the rule change that allowed

production engines of up to 366 ci (6 litres) –

produced a V16 and two four-wheel drive V8s

in this period, but they were not a success.

Inspired by the Auto Unions, another

revolutionary jump was in 1938 with the

rear-mounted Miller Gulf special whose 2950

cc six-cylinder engine inclined at 45 degrees

drove all four wheels via a four-speed

gearbox. Four cars were built, running at

Indy in 1939, 1940 and 1941, but they

never completed a race.

A few years later the Novi V8 featured four

overhead cams, a centrifugal blower and

was credited with 600 bhp. Then there was

the six-wheeled Pat Clancy special and the

front and rear-powered Twin Coach in

which the driver sat astride the

superchargers between two Miller 90 ci

four-cylinder Offenhauser midget engines

that were shoehorned into the chassis.

However, none of these were winners but it

was not for want of trying and the

opportunity to have a go due to the open

nature of the regulations.

Perhaps the greatest technology leap,

though, was the turbine car. While it is the

Pratt & Whitney-powered STP car that almost

won the race in 1967 but for a five cent



58

Over the years you created an edgewith the technology from varioussupporting vendor groups’

ABOVE & BELOW The turbine cars representedone of the greatest technology leaps in the race’shistory. Parnelli Jones came so close to winningthe 1967 event with the STP-Granatelli car


gearbox failing with only 10 miles left to run,

it was not the first such car at the Speedway.

In 1955 an ancient Kurtis roadster sported a

Boeing 502 turbine for tyre tests although it

never raced and in 1962 Dan Gurney was

behind the wheel of the “Trackburner”,

another Boeing turbine car. Unfortunately his

qualifying speed of 145 mph was 1 mph too

slow to meet the required speed to qualify.

Undaunted by the failure at the last hurdle

in the 1967 race, STP boss Andy Granatelli

reached an agreement with Colin Chapman

of Lotus to fund the development of the

Lotus-Pratt & Whitney type 56. However, the

project was blighted for a number of

reasons. Firstly, in order to meet the new

regulations concerning turbines at Indy, two

of the three axial compressor stages

preceding the main centrifugal compressor

were removed, similar in effect to reducing a

piston engine’s compression from around

6.3:1 to only 4.9:1 so the power output fell

back to a 430 bhp baseline.

TURBINES LOSE OUT

Secondly, the Drake-Offenhauser engines

were now developing between 600-700 bhp.

However, the killer blow for the project was

the death of Mike Spence testing the car at

the Speedway just a few weeks before the

race. Following the death of Jimmy Clark the

month before in a Formula Two race in

Germany, it rocked Chapman to his very core.

He was quoted as saying at the time: “I am

filled with grief at the loss of my long-time

friend and associate Jimmy Clark, and the

additional loss, just one month later to the

day, of Mike Spence. As an understandable

result I want nothing more to do with the

1968 Indianapolis race.”

In the event all three cars failed to finish but

once again defeat was snatched from the jaws

of victory when the turbine on Leonard’s car

shut itself down while in the lead with just

nine laps left to run.

Technological advantage or not, perhaps

the most stylish way to win the Indy 500

was demonstrated by a Frenchman (of

course) in 1913. Works Peugeot driver Jules

Goux informed the pits during a pit stop

that there was to be a bottle of chilled white

wine waiting for him the next time he

pitted. After some protestation by the team

manager, Goux’s will prevailed. At the next

pit stop he was greeted with a bucket filled

with ice and six pints of champagne. He

went on to win the race.



60

ABOVE & RIGHT Therace has a history ofinnovation. Billy DeVoredrove the six-wheel PatClancy Special to sixthplace in 1948 (above).The rear-engined Lotus29, driven by DanGurney (pictured right,car 93) and Jim Clark,didn’t win in 1963 but itdid signal the beginningof the end for thetraditional Indy roadster

BELOW Winning in style:Jules Goux at speed in1913. The champagnemust have done wondersfor his bravery!

RT

The more you have been to a placelike Indy, the more you understandthe pressure that it creates’


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BINDERS



INDY 500 THE FUTUREwww.racetechmag.com

62

FRESH STARTWILL STOKE“MAY FEVER”

IT’S SPRINGTIME in Indianapolis and

that always sparks the “May fever” in all

of us who love the Indy 500. After all,

Indy is still the biggest race in the world

and the largest single-day sporting event in

terms of attendance. Although it’s seen

many changes over the last 15 years, this

iconic event soldiers on because of its rich

history over the past 100 years. It thrives on

the good decisions and survives the not-so-

good ones. There is truly a very mystical

presence at this grand old race track.

Indianapolis is the undisputed “Capitol of

Auto Racing” and several statistics prove

this statement. The Indianapolis Motor

Speedway is the sole reason why this claim

can be made. The economic impact to the

local economy approaches one billion

dollars from the three events held at IMS:

the Indy 500; the Brickyard 400; and the

MotoGP race. It’s the economic equivalent

of three NFL Superbowls each year.

Indiana is a state built on manufacturing

and with the IMS as the nucleus, both city

and state enjoy a very strong racing

industry with more than 1,700 racing-

related businesses. The state capital, which

boasts state-of-the-art composite, machine

and metal fabrication facilities and the ARC

wind tunnel and shaker rig, is home to

NHRA, ALMS, Grand-Am and the majority

of the IndyCar Racing League teams while

Sprint cars, Late Model and midgets

number in their thousands in the state.

The Indy 500 and IndyCar racing has a

huge effect on the local racing industry

and economy with many businesses relying

on the series for their primary source of

income. The race itself is like a magnet,

attracting racing colleagues and fans from

around the world, giving all of us in the

business an extended time to work with

teams and other vendors. As the series

grows with the excitement of a new chassis

and engine formula, as proposed for 2012,

the industry will grow and thrive with it.

While IRL’s original decision to become a

spec series was made for sensible financial

reasons it led to an erosion of its fan base

over time due to the fact that by spurning

innovation, it was denying an element that

was very much part of its DNA. However,

there are signs that things are about to

change. In Randy Bernard, the new CEO, it

has a very dynamic person who may not

necessarily have a racing background but

who does have both a tremendous work

ethic and a willingness to consult with

experienced racers, listen, and then act.

Only time will tell whether he will be

successful but most of us have a good

feeling about his leadership.

The desire to introduce new regulations

for both the chassis and engine for 2012 is

very positive, to which various

manufacturers have responded. Existing

chassis supplier Dallara has already

submitted proposals, as have Lola from the

UK and Californian company Swift

Engineering. It has also attracted two new

entrants into the ring – DeltaWing, as

reported in the March issue of Race Tech,

and BAT Engineering.

Seeing all the various chassis builders

Chris Paulsen argues that the future of the Indy 500 relies on technological innovation

ABOVE If the race’s aura is to be maintained,technical innovation needs to be reintroduced. Thisis DeltaWing’s proposed blueprint for the future


INDY 500www.racetechmag.com


63

ABOVE & BELOW The rich history of the Speedway is thekey to the Indy 500’s near-mythical status. Contrast thestart of the 2009 race (above, photo: Jim Haines) with thedrivers’ preparation for one of the first races at Indianapolis,in 1909 (Photos: Indianapolis Motor Speedway)

A serious change needs to takeplace in terms of rejuvenatinginnovation and becoming relevantto today’s automotive world’

submit new designs is very exciting. We

also need competition among engines

from the automotive manufacturers. This

will bring money into the sport and create

excitement for the fans.

Looking at what may happen in regards

to the new rules package for 2012 has all

of us in the industry on the edge of our

seat. The one common agreement is that a

serious change needs to take place in terms

of rejuvenating innovation and becoming

relevant to the trends in today’s

automotive world. The DeltaWing concept

certainly addresses these points. Its low

drag concept equates to high speeds being

achieved with a very low horsepower

requirement, which in turn leads to much

better fuel economy. Imagine a 500-mile

race being run at 230 mph and completed

using 50 gallons of fuel.

DeltaWing has also started a move to

build the entire chassis in Indiana, reaching

out to the state government and creating a

plan where funding will be in place for

companies that will build their chassis in

Indiana. After all, the resources are plentiful

in Indy to do this. Dallara, Lola and BAT

have all jumped on this bandwagon and

committed to manufacture their chassis in

the state while Swift is currently

manufacturing in California which still

keeps the revenue in the US. However,

there will be plenty of money spent

internationally with companies like Xtrac

and Alcon still likely to play a major role as

suppliers. Along with Dallara, they also

have facilities in the US.

BACK ON TOP

The excitement building around 2012

and the new car and engine package is

long overdue and very welcome but we

all are anxiously awaiting the direction

from the new leadership. The industry is

very supportive of Bernard and giving

him the backing he needs to be the new

leader but he must perform and make the

right decisions that put this series back

on top to the same level of success it saw

in the early to mid-‘90s. It is time to

bring innovation back into IndyCar and

put it on top. Something new and

exciting like the DeltaWing concept

would certainly do just that.

With the prospects of IndyCar racing

returning back to the cutting edge again,

it has to be said that this year’s race is

looking very strong and healthy, perhaps

the best it has been since the IRL/CART

split 15 years ago. Qualifying has been

revitalised with pole position being

decided by a new ‘shoot-out’ format for

the top fastest cars while several cars will

be bumped during qualifying. There are a

number of drivers who have to be

considered potential winners, including

three times Indy 500 winner Helio

Castroneves, Penske team-mate Will Power

who has had two wins from three starts

this season, Chip Ganassi Racing drivers

Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, both of

whom have won the race, and Justin

Wilson. The race also has a reputation for

throwing up surprise winners and this year

looks no exception. RT


BELOW Sulzer Metco’s SUMEBoreprocess, which can be applied to cast iron,has found popularity in the NASCAR ranks


SPECIAL REPORT COATINGSwww.racetechmag.com

64

FOR A COUPLE of thousand years

before modern science mankind

became rather obsessed with the

subject of alchemy. Some of the greatest

thinkers of the day became bogged down

in the ultimately fruitless task of trying to

turn base metals into gold (although

some genuinely useful discoveries did also

come out of it). The actual task of turning

one elemental material into another,

though, turned out to be impossible –

unless of course you happen to have a

nuclear reactor to hand, but even Formula

One budgets may struggle to

accommodate this at the moment. So, it

seems we need another way of making

the surface of one material behave like

another. Fortunately just such a technique

exists, and you won’t need to don a

pointy hat or a wizard’s cloak.

The answer, of course, is to coat the

relevant surface with a material of the

desired property, be it thermal insulation,

wear-resistance or low-friction. There really

is little more to the principle of coating, but

the array of different materials and methods

is both bewildering and often extremely

sophisticated. New applications are being

found all the time, particularly now there is

an increasing emphasis on efficiency, and

the field’s importance in motorsport is

constantly growing. This month in Special

Report we catch up with some of the

companies leading the charge.

CALICO

Our rundown of the industry begins with

Calico Technologies, based in Denver, North

Carolina. The company supplies extensively to

the motorsport industry with applications

ranging from dry lubricants and thermal

barriers to ultra-hard diamond-like carbon

(DLC) coatings. Vice president of R&D Bala

Kailasshankar gives us the lowdown: “Friction

and thermal management continue to drive

coating and surface morphology

developments, but these days people are also

An ever-increasing number of applications are being found for sophisticated surface coatings in motorsport. Chris Pickering reports

MOTORSPORT’S‘GOLD RUSH’

Special Report.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 01:51 Page 1

ABOVE A stream of powder is fed into a jet ofplasma during the SUMEBore coating process

SPECIAL REPORTwww.racetechmag.com


65

putting an increasing emphasis on reducing

contact pitting fatigue and longevity of parts

is also being looked at with greater attention.”

Kailasshankar and his colleagues are

seeing an increasing number of applications

for thin vacuum coatings like diamond-like

carbon, which combine greatly reduced

friction properties with high wear

resistance. “The thicker DLC coatings

designed for longer life (those greater than

5 µm) have the inherent problem of a

higher quantum of residual stresses (in the

order of 2 to 3 GPa), which leads to

reduced adhesion,” he explains. The various

solutions looked at to overcome this

problem include deposition of thin metal

interlayers to produce a continuous change

in thermal expansion coefficient, which

helps to reduce the stress in the films.

Other techniques include surface

implantation, chemical interlayer gradients,

variation of self bias voltage and use of

surface thermal treatments. Meanwhile,

different deposition parameters and

machinery configurations are also being

investigated in the search for faster

deposition rates.

That’s not the only change.

“Atmospheric coatings of higher

thicknesses using chalcogenic solid

lubricant layered compounds are

increasingly used in combination,” says

Kailasshankar. The compositions use finer

particle sizes (in the order of 1 µm or less)

and bonding compositions with higher

operating temperatures are being looked

at for close-toleranced parts exhibiting

high localised heat.

Thermal management coatings are

considered as part of a material-coating

pair. More refractory materials like nickel

alloys, precipitation hardenable stainless

steels and ceramic matrix composites

(CMCs) will be candidate materials for

thermal management systems. “CMCs have

a distinct advantage on the basis of

strength to weight ratio,” comments

Kailasshankar. “Air entrapped porous

coating with matching thermal expansion

coefficient to the substrate is the biggest

challenge for thermal barrier coatings.”

It’s not simply a question of applying a

coating, either. “Surface morphology and

coatings go hand-in-hand for reduced

frictional losses,” he says. “Micro finishing

methods producing finishes better than

0.025 µm Ra have been used for critical

parts like valves. More such processes can

be used for other high contact stress parts

to reduce contact pitting.”

SULZER METCO

Swiss surface finishing specialist Sulzer

Metco is perhaps best known for its

SUMEBore process. The process, which is

used widely in motorsport and suitable for

any type of engine, is used to treat cylinder

bores in several distinct stages.

Firstly, the machined bores (supplied with

ca. 250 μm oversize in diameter to allow for

the thickness of the coating) are cleaned to

remove any oil or grease. Next they are

subjected to a rotary grit blaster – in a

stage known as activating the surface –

which creates a rough finish that the

coating can adhere to. This is necessary

because there is no metallurgical bond

between the substrate and the coating; it is

purely a mechanical adhesion that therefore

requires a large surface area. The activation

can also be achieved with a high-pressure

water jet or a special spindling process.

Next a cleaning process is used to remove

any residue before the coating is finally

applied. This is done by feeding a stream of

powder (typically a mixture of around 70%

low alloyed carbon steel and 30%

molybdenum) into a jet of plasma, which is

fired by a rotating torch. The block remains

stationary while the torch rotates within it,

coating the inside of the bore, where the

mixture promptly flattens, cools and solidifies.

The process can be applied sequentially to

bores at opposite ends of the cylinder block

to prevent thermal distortion (for example,

cylinder one followed by cylinder eight and

so on), which is particularly useful for

aluminium engines. “On some Formula

One blocks, which are very thin-walled, the

material heats up very quickly so we also

use forced cooling during the coating

application,” explains Dr Ernst, the

company’s head of automotive venture.

“This is obviously more critical with

aluminium blocks than it is with cast iron,

which allows higher block temperatures to

occur without the risk of deteriorating the

mechanical properties.” Once the full

coating thickness is applied to all cylinders

the surface is then honed to a mirror finish

using diamond stones, before finally being

checked with non-destructive testing.

One of the benefits of using powder as a

feedstock is that it opens up a huge number

of material options. Many plasma spray

processes work by feeding a wire stream into

the plasma, Dr Ernst explains. Ultimately, this

limits the coating materials to those which

can be built into the structure of a wire and

it can also impose handling restrictions

(some, for example, can’t be wound onto a

spool). The SUMEBore approach, however,

works with practically anything that’s

supplied as a powder and capable of being

melted, from pure metal, to metal matrix

composites right through to full ceramics,

such as TiO2 or Cr2O3, to name only a few.

“Anything you want to use, we can do it,”

quips Dr Ernst.

Any combination of powders can be

introduced to achieve the desired effects.

One example is the addition of

molybdenum, which is added in 30 to 50

per cent concentrations to reduce scuffing

and friction, and is applied to both iron and

Friction and thermal managementcontinue to drive coating andsurface morphology developments’


aluminium blocks. In order to increase bore

hardness and reduce wear, non-abrasive

ceramic particles are added, typically up to

35 per cent by mass. Meanwhile as much

as 30 per cent chrome can be added to

reduce corrosion problems, something

which has proved particularly popular with

manufacturers using alternative fuels.

Whatever the coating material, the

process itself is also claimed to have an

inherent advantage. The spray process

inevitably leads to a degree of porosity in

the finished coating, with around two to

three per cent of the volume taken up by

microscopic voids. When the bore is honed

some of these pores (typically 10 to 20

micrometers in diameter) are exposed,

leaving pockets on the surface for the oil to

enter. “We believe this structure leads to

inherently low friction and reduced oil

consumption,” notes Dr Ernst.

The overall process is extremely adaptable

and can also be handled in various

locations. Sulzer Metco offers the service at

both its Swiss and US facilities and it can be

tailored to just about any material type or

block configuration. It also has an

arrangement with Capricorn Automotive (as

featured in this article), which can provide

specialist honing facilities as well as shipping

from treatment in Switzerland. Meanwhile,

the company’s preferred partner for honing

services in the US is SUNNEN.

CAPRICORN

Capricorn Automotive’s UK division built its

name around cylinder bore honing and

finishing. As a result its engineers know a

thing or two about the use of coating

techniques on cylinder bores.

One of the services offered by the company

is nickel ceramic coating. It’s an electrolytic

process that has been widely used as a

cylinder bore coating since the 1970s.

Initially it was developed to allow rotary

engine rotors to work directly against the

aluminium housing, but these days the

applications are far more universal.

The coatings are applied using an electrolytic

nickel solution which has silicon carbide

suspended within it. The composition is

typically around 10 per cent silicon carbide

and the particle size is sub 10 microns.

According to Capricorn the use of an

electrolytic process (as opposed to electroless

coating, performed without an electric

current) means the parts can be processed

to the same standard much more quickly.

The thickness of the coating depends on

the length of time the part is treated and

the current applied, but both can be

tailored to the customer’s requirements.

“The process typically takes approximately

one to two hours from start to finish with

various pre-treatments being required

depending on the material being coated,”

explains Capricorn Automotive’s managing

director Martin Keswick. “Once parts have

been coated we diamond hone the hard

nickel ceramic surface to give a typical

finished coating thickness of between

0.070-0.090 mm.”

Capricorn uses nickel ceramic as a bore

surface coating on its range of aluminium

and steel liners. What’s more, it also uses

the material as a direct bore coating on

aluminium engine blocks. “We’ve

developed our own specially formulated

pre-treatment process and apply the

coating under very strict controls,” says

Keswick. “This ensures that plating solutions

are maintained to optimum standards.” The

nickel ceramic coating has a minimum

hardness value of 500 Hv, he explains,

which gives good wear resistance and low



66

We diamond hone the hard nickelceramic surface to give a typical finishedcoating thickness of 0.070-0.090 mm’

ABOVE & BELOW Capricorn’s nickelceramic cylinder bore coating is appliedthrough an electrolytic process


friction characteristics. It remains an

aluminium-only process, however: nickel

ceramic is not applied to cast iron engine

blocks as the impurities in iron can result in

poor adhesion of the coating to the surface.

“Being able to deliver high-quality parts to

strict tolerances with a relatively short lead

time is a crucial benefit when working in an

industry like motorsport,” Keswick

concludes. “Using electrolytic nickel

ceramic coatings can be a major advantage

because of this.”

PRECOTE

The idea of coatings in motorsport may

tend to conjure up images of hard

substances like DLCs, but look a little

further and you’ll notice a whole field of

coating technology that’s been going for

decades. The idea of applying coatings to

threaded fasteners is by no means a new

one – indeed our next company has been

doing it for decades – but it is an area of

huge potential.

Munich-based omniTECHNIK

Mikroverkapselungs GmbH is perhaps

better known by its Precote brand name.

The company designs and produces pre-

applicable reactive and non-reactive

coatings for fasteners, designed to improve

functions such as sealing, bonding,

chemical locking and anti-galling.

First up is Precote 85, a high-strength pre-

applied thread locking coating. Its reactive

ingredients use the company’s patented

micro encapsulation technology and are

integrated into a binder-like resin for

application to screw threads. It dries to a

solvent-free non-tacky coating, explains

Axel Hertneck, the company’s head of sales

and application technology.

Upon assembly into a mating thread there

is an immediate sealing effect. The screwing

action causes the micro capsules in the

coating to shear, thus releasing the reactive

components and initiating the

polymerisation.

“Because of its excellent and constant

thread friction values Precote 85 is

especially useful in high tensile applications

where torque/tension control is an essential

part of the assembly process,” Hertneck

claims. “It also has excellent temperature

resistance, retaining substantial disassembly

torque values at up to 170°C and it’s fully

compliant with all major standards and

automotive specifications.”

High-temperature applications

can prove a particular challenge

to thread coating companies.

The materials traditionally used

in high-temperature

threaded applications are

often associated with

problems such as galling,

seizing and high friction. These

features are difficult enough to overcome

during the initial assembly, but after heat

the ageing phenomenon is accentuated yet

further. “It can become a real problem for

servicing, often culminating in thread-

stripping fastener rupture,” notes Hertneck.

The company’s response was Precote 709,

a pre-applied anti-seize film for threaded

assemblies used in high-temperature

applications. It’s said to have excellent

friction values (0.09/0.13) as well as an

inherent lubricant effect, while also

operating at temperatures of up to 850°C.

It can be applied either to a specific portion

of a thread using automatic equipment

such as the firm’s patented CS unit, or it

can be applied as a dip–spin coating. “This

method is particularly useful for nuts or

hollow parts,” explains Hertneck, “and it

also allows for easy application under the

heads or flanges of fasteners.”

ZIRCOTEC

2010 has had a busy start for coatings

specialist Zircotec. The Oxfordshire, UK-

based firm is in the process of moving to a

new, larger facility in Abingdon, in part to

cope with an expanding range of coatings.

The new centre will house three spray

booths including a robotised sprayer for

higher volume applications.

“We are now supplying half of the F1

grid,” says sales director Peter Whyman.

Regulation changes have seen demand

increase for thermal management

solutions in 2010 and not just for

exhausts. Whyman cites the refuelling ban

as a key reason. “We understand there is

10 per cent more energy going through

the braking system this year, yet brake disc

thickness remains at 28 mm,” he explains.

“The teams use coatings to manage the

higher temperatures in the ducting and

brake components and we have been able

to assist them in optimising packaging

which helps weight distribution.” The

refuelling ban has led to the larger tanks,

and Zircotec claims to have a solution here

too. “With around 235 litres, tank sizes

have grown, making packaging more



68

BELOW The Precote range isdesigned to improve functionssuch as sealing, bonding,chemical locking and anti-galling

ABOVE An illustration of the

applications of Zircoteccoatings in a GT1 car


THE 2008/2009 Formula One season has been

one of the hardest fought of recent years. The

author looks closely at the various phases of

development carried out by all the teams during the

season. This book has now become a literary classic

devoted to the fascinating world of Formula One.

The book is available from This book is available

from Racecaar Graphic Ltd at £25.00 + P&P,

€33.00+ P&P, US$39.00 + P&P. Send your order to:

Racecar Graphic Ltd, 841 High Road, London N12

8PT, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 8446 2100, Fax +44 (0)20

8446 2191, or email [email protected] We take

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Switch and Delta.

FORMULA 1 2008/2009BY GIORGIO PIOLA

www.racetechmag.com

NEW!




70

challenging,” says Whyman. “Our

ZircoFlex foil, just 0.25 mm thick, is easily

applied to fuel bladders, protecting them

from heat sources.”

Away from thermal management, Zircotec

is also actively developing its anti-abrasion

and anti-wear coatings. The company

previewed some samples at the Autosport

Show earlier this year, including stainless

steel, tungsten and molybdenum coating.

The latter provides a thin hard-wearing

surface that can be applied to composites to

reduce abrasion and increase service life.

Whyman is coy on where the F1 teams are

using Zircotec’s technology but confirms

that a GT team is assessing it for front

splitters. “The GT application is driven by an

opportunity to reduce costs,” he explains.

Meanwhile, other metallic coatings from the

company include a reflective aluminium

surface that can be applied to composites

where radiant heat is a problem. Its surface

can be highly polished after spraying and

offers a durable finish that can be applied to

intricate surfaces.

REM SURFACE ENGINEERING

Although not strictly a coating company,

REM Surface Engineering is the inventor of

what it calls isotropic super finishing,

otherwise known as ISF. This physical

process is claimed to greatly reduce the

surface wear on treated components, with

similar end results to some coatings.

It works by removing the microscopic

peaks and troughs that might otherwise

lead to stress concentrations on the

surface of a component. The part is

placed in a vibrating bowl, containing a

chemical solution and high density

ceramic particles which are used to

control its exposure. The solution softens

the top layer until the rubbing action of

the particles removes it. This process is

then repeated to create an extremely

smooth finish, before a second fluid is

added to neutralise the initial solution and

polish the surface of the part.

“Applying REM’s revolutionary ISF

Process to motorsport components results

in faster, more efficient vehicles that win

races as well as parts that last considerably

longer than standard OEM components,”

claims Justin Michaud, REM’s director of

operations. “It produces a smooth, micro-

textured surface that can be applied to a

variety of motorsports components from

transmission gears and camshafts to

clutch hardware and tappets.” The

claimed benefits include extended

component life, reduced friction and

lower operating temperatures.

BEKAERT

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings have

become a familiar ingredient in racing

drivetrains. These extremely hard, low-friction

materials typically have a polished black

appearance and can be found in applications

such as camshaft running surfaces and piston

rings. One company that’s become known

for its range of DLC coatings is Belgian

materials specialist Bekaert.

The company delivers what it refers to as

a ‘one-stop service’ from surface

preparation (in-house superfinishing and

tribofinishing) to coating application and

traceability. The coating itself is applied in

several stages using a plasma-assisted

chemical vapour deposition (PACVD)

procedure in an evacuated chamber.

Typically an adhesion layer – something

designed to bond well to the substrate

material – is applied first, before a middle

‘transition’ layer, and then finally the

functional carbon layer. The atomic

structure of this carbon top layer could

best be described as halfway between

diamond and graphite, hence the tag

‘diamond-like carbon’.

Late last year Bekaert launched the

Cavidur HT and the Cavidur D DLC

coatings for the American market. Cavidur

HT is designed as an alternative to

chromium nitride coatings for high

temperature applications, such as exhaust

valves. Cavidur D, meanwhile, is pitched as

a more affordable version of the firm’s

existing Cavidur N coating, and uses the

same three-layer structure. Remaining

Stateside, the company is also planning the

installation of a microfinishing machine in

its North American facility, which will allow

it to offer pre-coating treatments for

components such as camshafts.

ABOVE A differential gear cluster treated inREM’s isotropic super finishing process

RIGHT A valvecoated by materialsspecialist Bekaert

RT


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Racetech MEDIA 2010 (definitive).qxd:SECTION 1(2-82) RET 010.qxd 30/4/10 21:31 Page 6


PRACTICAL RACER 750FORMULA BUILD PROJECTwww.racetechmag.com

74

Front wishbones are on the agenda as Graham Templemanand Rod Hill embark on their T5 750Formula build programme

LIGHTS,CAMERA,ACTION!THIS WAS all supposed to be quite straightforward. After

the big ‘we’re building another racing car’ announcement,

it seemed like a good idea to do something that involved

cutting metal and sticking it back together again. Nothing too

demanding in terms of research or design, just quality time spent

in the workshop.

That was until we realised that we would need to buy some tube

and that all the suppliers seem to insist on a minimum order

charge. So it made sense to place an order for the material for the

whole chassis while we were at it and that involved some

measuring up so that we knew how much and what sizes to buy.

It took a few hours to commit the front part of the frame to

CAD. Now we know that there are 45 individual tubes in the front

with a total length of about 25 metres (82 feet) and if we make it

out of mainly 22 mm square, electrical resistance welded (ERW)

mild steel tube with a wall thickness of 1.22 mm, the front part

will weigh 19.6 kg (43 lbs).

SQUARE TUBE vs ROUND TUBE

SIZE ROUND TUBE SQUARE TUBEWeight Index Weight Index

20 mm x 1.22 mm 13.2 kg 100 17.4 kg 131

20 mm x 1.5 mm 16.9 kg 128 21.5 kg 162

20 mm x 2 mm 21.9 kg 166 27.9 kg 211

22 mm x 1.22 mm 15.2 kg 100 19.6 kg 148

22 mm x 1.5 mm 18.7 kg 123 24.2 kg 183

22 mm x 2 mm 24.4 kg 160 31.6 kg 239

The table shows the effect of different sizes and sections of tube. It is

self-evident that the round tube will weigh less than square, but it is

interesting to see the weight penalty quantified. The heaviest option,

2 mm wall, 22 mm square tube would weigh 2.4 times as much as

the lightest 20 mm round tube with 1.22 mm wall thickness. Opting

for square over round brings a weight penalty of around 30% size for

size. On the other hand, square sections are stiffer since more of the

material is further from the centre line.

It would take a detailed analysis to work out the strengths of a

frame constructed from the various options and to evaluate the

strength to weight payoffs, but since our objective is to get it built

we will be influenced by the following factors. One is that the

existing chassis is adequately stiff and not significantly heavier than

its competitors. The other factor is that the current chassis was built

under the old regulations that demanded the use of two two-inch

square tube chassis rails and so the frame is based on two car-

length pieces of this size. The rules have now changed so these

need not be included. That leads us to changing the lower chassis

rails which gets in the way of our initial aspiration of copying the

old chassis tube for tube. So since the tube lengths are changing,

so could the section and thickness.

The original was constructed from mainly 19 mm (3/4-inch) square

with 1.6 mm (the old British 16 gauge) wall thickness. The intention

with the new frame is to increase the size to 22 mm and reduce the

wall thickness to 1.22 mm (18 gauge in real money). But, since

experience shows that, in order to avoid cracks, tubes that have loads

fed in to them need to be of thicker gauge than those that don’t,

these will be 22 mm by 1.5 mm. Going back to our 45-tube list and

using 1.22 and 1.5 mm wall thickness where appropriate, gives us a

predicted weight of 22 kg. Round tube was never a serious option

because the extra complication in cutting and shaping even the

simplest joint would compromise the build time.

This was an interesting diversion that was necessary in order to be

able to order the steel for the wishbones. But, as always, there was a

problem arising from our intention to use some form of aerodynamic

tube. The options were:

• Proper aero tube from an aircraft component supplier such as

Aircraft Spruce.

• Elliptical oval tube offered by most UK steel stock holders.

• Flat oval tube which is readily available from most suppliers.

Practical Racer-F750.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 01:55 Page 1

PRACTICAL RACERwww.racetechmag.com


75

BELOW The finishedcomponents –representing about four man-days of work

Aircraft tubing fell out of the running

when one website mentioned a price of

‘34 per foot’. Whether that was dollars or

pounds was not even considered.

Elliptical oval would have been great –

according to my airfoil analysis program

it offered an almost identical level of drag

to the proper aero stuff. The drawback

was that more companies listed the stuff

than sold it. A suitable bulk order would

have got us what we wanted and an

awful lot left over to sell on to anyone

interested. That left flat oval which is

readily available and used on a wide

range of professionally built cars.

Before the decision could be made, Rod

had taken matters into his own hands

and had decided to make his own aero

tubing. This was not a total surprise since

the T4 featured flat oval tube that had

been converted from round tube by the

simple expedient of flattening it over a

die in a small hydraulic press. Before you

complain about the crudeness of the

process and the risks involved in

overstressing the material, bear in mind

that these wishbones have done 12 races

per season for 12 years and enjoyed their

fair share of contact and grass cutting

without a single failure.

Now he wanted to try a more

sophisticated technique – this time the

round tube was to be drawn over a

mandrel. The scheme went something

like this: take a short length of steel, give

it an elliptical cross section and pull it

LEFT The tool used toconvert round tube toelliptical showing the die(top left) and the endstop and thrust bearingthat allow the nut to pullit through the round tube

through the tube using a length of

threaded bar and a nut. The results were

spectacular. After a bit of experimentation

which showed up the need for a thrust

bearing under the draw nut and the need

for lashings of grease on the die and the

thread, we managed to create a very fair

imitation of the elliptical oval that the

suppliers would not supply and in a size

that we wanted and that was not listed.

It is a sign of a successful experiment


by gently reheating to about 300 degrees

C. This is best done in a tray of sand on

the kitchen cooker when your significant

other is significantly otherwise engaged.

Put enough sand to cover the part on to

a small tin tray and put it on the heat.

The sand is to ensure the heat is applied

slowly and evenly but it obscures your

view of what is going on. You rely on the

oxidisation phenomenon that sends

motor cycle exhaust pipes blue so you

will need to uncover a part of the die to

let the air in and allow you to judge

when the colour has reached a nice rich

blue. Then remove the heat and wait for

it to cool.

This will have tempered the metal so

that when used, it will not shatter. The

various colours that appear indicate the

temperature and the temper. The metal

goes through various shades from light

straw through browns and deep purple to

blue. At the light straw (low temperature)

end of the scale the process results in a

very sharp but brittle tool (use it for

scribers); brown will make cutting tools

and by the time the deeper colours have

been reached, you have softened the tool

enough to be used as a metal cutting

chisel or a spring. As things turned out,

high carbon steel was not needed and the

mild steel tooling did the job.

More sensible people would go out and

buy tube that suits their aspirations and

budget. In fact this whole do-it-yourself

aero tube should probably carry the now

traditional warning of ‘Don’t try this at

home, children’. Also by now you should

be beginning to realise the primary

objective of ‘getting the thing built’ is

modified somewhat whenever there is

the chance to spend an afternoon playing

with the toys!

Once we have the tube, we need some

that the initial test rig is used to complete

the process without the need to build

proper production equipment. Rod

started with a mild steel die cobbled up

from some strips of scrap steel welded

together and if this worked had intended

to make the proper die from a piece of

carbon steel. The results were so good

that in the end the proper steel tooling

was never made.

The plan had been to use an old file to

provide cheap, high carbon steel. This

process involves finding a suitable file,

softening it by heating it to a bright

cherry red and leaving it to cool very

slowly. Oxy acetylene provides the heat

and the cooling should be done away

from any draughts. Grandfather used to

do this by putting the file in the kitchen

fire after dinner so that it got red hot and

leaving it to cool in the ashes overnight.

Once softened it can be filed to shape to

create the die and adapted to allow the

threaded bar to be welded on.

Re-hardening involves reheating to a

bright red and cooling rapidly in a

bucket of water or used engine oil. If you

use the oil-cooling method, do it outside

and be prepared to deal with a small

flash fire. The tool is now dead hard and

would chip as soon as it was put to work.

So the next step is to temper the metal



76

ABOVE & BELOW The wishbone jig with the bushesalready bolted in (above). The markings for the upperwishbone can also be seen. Below, the tubes aremarked out and cut and filed carefully to shape

ABOVE Fitting the tube to thethreaded bush. A good fit isessential for a successful weld

Tempering the metal is best done ina tray of sand on the kitchen cookerwhen your significant other issignificantly otherwise engaged’


Bernoulli is a quarterly journal that explores in unprecedented depththe theory and practice of road and race car aerodynamics. Its incisivecontent includes road and race car aero design and developmentstudies and insights into wind tunnel design and operation, the use ofCFD and on-track aero testing techniques.

Clearly, Bernoulli is essential reading for all involved in the operation ofwind tunnels, wind tunnel developers and suppliers of rolling roads,instrumentation and flow visualisation technology. It is equally vital formodel makers and testing service providers and for suppliers of CFDsoftware and design and manufacturing software.

Above all, this unique publication is essential reading for everyoneinvolved in optimising the performance of road and race cars, fromdesign right through to the actual competitive events.






RACE TECHRACE TECH

Subscribe online at www.racetechmag.com

Thescienceof flyingon thegroundBernoulli 4 Issues (1 Year) 8 Issues (2 Years)

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Bernoulli ad ISSUE 08.qxd:SECTION 1(2-82) RET 010.qxd 31/1/10 21:18 Page 1

UNF thread. As with all the components

used on the front suspension, this

ensures interchangeability of parts. A

new build would probably be well

advised to use 10 mm bearings. The

sizing is generous, evidenced by the fact

that the original bearings have served

their 12 years and are still perfectly OK.

It is likely that 5/16-inch (8 mm) joints

could have been used, but this is a case

where a decent margin of safety costs

very little extra cash or weight.

At the outer end, things are more

complex, although they do not need to

be. For the top outboard joint (7/16 bore

and 7/16 UNF shank) there is a threaded

bush but with a concentric plain hole.

The rod-end joint is screwed into the

bush and a sleeve nut slides into the plain

hole to act as a locknut for the rod-end

joint. This limits the adjustment to a half-

turn of the rod-end at a time but this is

OK since the bottom variant provides for

the fine adjustment. The bottom

arrangement is similar. The rod-end joint

is bigger (1/2 bore, 1/2 UNF thread) to

reflect the extra loads seen by the lower

wishbone in general and the outer end in



78

hardware to enable it to carry our choice

of bearings. We are using rod-end

bearings all round because they are a

simple, effective way of articulating the

suspension. The alternative would be to

use nylon bushes at the inboard end, but

this would mean that the bores of these

bushes would need to be absolutely in

line with each other or they would bind

up and add unwanted stiction into the

movement. At the outer end, a spherical

joint is a much more satisfactory method

but needs a specially machined housing.

The photo shows the hardware that we

made. It is firmly rooted in 1980s

Formula Ford technology but an easy

afternoon’s work on the lathe. Simple

threaded bushes (eight of them) provide

the location for the rod ends at the

inboard end of the wishbones. The

chosen size has a 3/8 bore with a 3/8

LEFT The aero tubehad to be reshaped toaccept the cylindricalbush. This was donewith a series oftapered drifts

ABOVE The finished components arefitted to the jig and tack welded. Note thepacking to raise them to the right heightand the weights to keep them in place

Opting for square tube overround brings a weight penaltyof around 30% size for size’


particular but the main bush has no thread in it. The rod-end is

held and adjusted by an outer lock nut and the threaded sleeve-

nut. These enable fine adjustment of the joint and the camber.

Not quite in the modern mode of a stack of machined shims,

but more appropriate to the accuracy with which we will are

able to fabricate.

If you don’t have access to a lathe, some suppliers will provide

threaded bushes sized for the rod-end and to fit into nominal

tubing sizes. So you can buy for instance a bush that takes an

M10 thread and fits into 25 mm (1 inch) tube. A friend in the

UK uses an ebay trader (McGill Motorsport) who also sells round

housings complete with a circlip housing for spherical bearings.

A more upmarket solution is to buy ready-machined housings

with tabs designed to fit into aero tubing. Amongst the UK

hillclimbing fraternity, Nick Skidmore’s name gets mentioned

frequently as a suitable supplier.

The actual construction takes place using a simple jig made up

of a solid base (a thick piece of kitchen worktop in our case)

and three pieces of angle iron. These are fitted to the base to

provide mounting points for the wishbone fittings. A jig is not

essential but it makes life easier and speeds up the process of

making replacements should they ever be needed. The diagram

should enable you to make your own jig if you decide to do so.

The distances shown in the table are between the centres of the

locating holes in the pieces of angle iron. The line BX is

perpendicular to AC.

Dimension Top Wishbone Bottom WishboneAB 420 mm 430 mm

AC 446 mm 496 mm

BC 342 mm 454 mm

AX 158 mm 231 mm

A careful look at the photographs should explain more than

my words can. The jig will need to be modified if you decide to

use something other than rod-end bearings so if you do decide

to plough your own furrow, you would be well advised to wait

until the next instalment in case you need to reconsider in the

light of the upright design.

Next time we will look in more detail at the kinematics of the

suspension and the manufacture of the uprights.

PRACTICAL RACERwww.racetechmag.com


79

ABOVE The wishbone is then returned tothe jig so that the pushrod tabs can befitted. The square bar is bolted betweenthe tabs to locate them in the right position

ABOVE After tacking, thewishbone is removed from thejig and the welding completed

RT


80 www.racetechmag.com May 2010

www.racetechmag.com

80 RED RACE EQUIPMENT DIGEST

Edited by Chris Pickering

MoTeC HAS unveiled a new evolution of its

Sport Dash Logger. The SDL3 is a fully

programmable display, controller and data

logger aimed at serious amateur racers as

well as the more affordable end of the

professional market. It features a flexible

architecture that allows users to configure it

to their requirements. Those with

considerable data requirements can opt for

maximum memory from the outset, while

teams with no immediate need for data

logging can purchase the dash as a display-

only unit then enable logging later if desired.

The screen layout is configurable via

MoTeC’s SDL3 Dash Manager software,

which offers separate pages for practice,

warm-up and race sessions so drivers can

choose the most relevant parameters to

display during each instance. Data analysis,

meanwhile, is provided by MoTeC’s i2

Standard analysis software.

The SDL3 features no less than two

independent CAN buses. These not only

allow the integral logger to pick up CAN data

signals, but also let the SDL3 communicate

with other MoTeC accessories such as ECUs,

beacons and power distribution modules.

The two buses feature independently

selectable baud rates, catering for installations

where devices communicate at different

speeds. This means that if data needs to be

exchanged between MoTeC devices at one

speed and third party systems at another, for

example, the SDL3 can act as a central hub.

It also helps to spread the load when the

CAN bus demands exceed the available

bandwidth of a single bus. Over 300

channels can be derived from a mixture of

analogue and digital inputs at up to 500Hz,

as well as RS232 and CAN data channels. The

unit also has the provision for up to 48 user-

defined warning alarms and features an

Ethernet connection for rapid downloads.

EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES

EVER WONDERED how drag racers get such traction for the

incredible sprint times they record? The answer lies partly

with the traction compounds used to coat the road surface,

and one such product is VP Racing Fuels’ Lane Choice 7

(LC7). The latest compound in the LC line is intended to

provide a universal traction compound for all conditions. As

well as maintaining performance in hot conditions LC7 has

been formulated specifically to improve upon the existing

compound’s cold weather performance.

“I found that a couple of tracks were mixing our LC6

product with another compound to get the required adhesion

– they liked how LC6 worked in the heat but they were

worried about it in the cold,” explains Jason Rueckert,

director of motorsport, VP Racing Fuels. After consulting with

the company’s chemists the decision was taken to remove

some of the resin and add some more adhesive. The result is

what has become known as LC7. It replaces LC6 Cold and is

expected to take over from LC6 in due course.

LC7 PROMISES IMPROVED COLD WEATHER PERFORMANCE

RT

RT

RED 115.qxd:Racetech.qxd 30/4/10 13:50 Page 1

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The days when a rider did not need tounderstand the workings of his bike are longgone – nowadays the control and theengineering of the machine are inextricablylinked. Blending technology and techniquesensures that Moto Tech will therefore beessential reading for everyone who wantsmore out of their biking experience.

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Two-wheel techniques and technology

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MOTOTECH MEDIA.qxd:SECTION 1(2-82) RET 010.qxd 29/1/10 10:57 Page 1

82 www.racetechmag.com May 2010

www.racetechmag.com

82 RED RACE EQUIPMENT DIGEST

AUTO-BLIP ON THE RADAR

NOT SO long ago we featured a sneak

preview of Penny+Giles’ new NRH280DP

contactless rotary position sensor. Well it

seems the finished product is now upon us.

As per the prototypes it uses Hall Effect

technology (like many position sensors) but

removes the magnet from the sensor

altogether and places it externally. This

means there can be an air gap of up to

7mm between the two and they can be up

to 2mm off-centre with no contacting parts

to wear out. In practical terms it means you

could, for example, embed the magnet in a

gearbox shaft and position the sensor on

the outside of a (non-magnetic) casing.

Designed for use in extreme conditions,

the NRH280DP is sealed to IP69K and

boasts an operational temperature range

extending from -40 to +140°C. It’s already

found use in Formula One, as well as

applications as diverse as the tip control on

dumper trucks and the 4-wheel steering

system on road sweeping vehicles.

The design allows engineers to configure a

wide selection of parameters including

measurement range and direction. This also

allows the two channels to be configured

individually so, for example, the sensor can

be configured so that one signal can be

used in a control function while the other is

used for position monitoring or display

purposes. Similarly, its two outputs can be

used for error checking.

To ease configuration, NRH280DP is

available with analogue (0.5 to 4.5Vdc) or

digital (PWM) signal outputs as standard,

but it can also be factory programmed to

offer 0.1 to 4.9Vdc output range, matching

the equivalent signals from a potentiometer.

It also features electromagnetic immunity to

100V/m and has a maximum output signal

noise of less than 1mV. This, claims the

company, means that no additional signal

filtering is required on the output signal.

NEW SENSOR BREAKS COVER

RT

ELECTRONIC GEAR shift specialist Pro-

Shift has recently unveiled an accelerator

pedal mounted auto-blip system. The unit

physically activates the car’s accelerator

pedal with a solenoid to replicate

traditional heel’n’toeing. And, while this

may sound like an unconventional

approach in the era of fly-by-wire throttles,

it’s not alone; there are a variety of auto-

blip systems out there already.

The existing auto-blip systems tend to

work on a vacuum system however; using a

diaphragm powered by the depression

generated in the inlet manifold to activate

the throttle valve directly. Pro-Shift argues

that these systems only offer a limited

throttle opening and aren’t suitable for

engines with high idle speeds or those

using turbocharging. The company also

claims that the need to mount vacuum

systems in the harsh environment of the

engine bay also creates packaging issues

and makes them prone to failure. Instead

Pro-Shift’s system mounts in front of the

pedal box and its solenoid activation allows

for 16mm of travel even before it goes

through the leverage of the pedal assembly.

The company’s PS3 paddleshift system

does support conventional fly-by-wire

throttle blipping, but the auto-blip

system is pitched as an alternative that

doesn’t rely on a compatible engine

management system. It’s thought to be

the first time an auto-blip system has

been designed to operate directly onto

the throttle pedal and Pro-Shift has high

hopes for the design, which it is currently

in the process of patenting.

RT

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RACE TECH Issue 115

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