Can't racing just be about fun loud cars? Leave the environmentalist somewhere else?
F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
161–170 of 197 posts
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
" due to the small amount of turbocharged vehicles available new"??? Pretty much 99% of diesel cars available now in Europe have turbochargers, I don't remember when was the last time I saw a car without one. And most newly announced cars for 2014(for example - new Nissan Qashqai) got rid of their naturally aspirated petrol engines in favour of smaller but turbocharged petrol engines. Maybe in the US the situation is…
Forced induction is now much more common in the US than it was five or ten years ago, even on gasoline engines. Most new BMWs in the US are turbocharged, Ford is EcoBoosting the venerable F-150, and GM has an interesting mix of turbo- and supercharged engines.
Ford and GM have been selling supercharged vehicles since the 80's. GM doing it in their standard family sedan lines across their many brands. Supercharging is a bit easier to manage and pull off in terms of emissions and packaging. The power gains are not as great (when comparing an Eaton supercharger (what they used commonly) to a turbocharger of relevant size (I think a T3 turbo in .42 trim would compare). They are very reliable, and do not need the same service intervals as turbos. Due to how the engine oil is simply not "cooked" inside a hot turbine when the engine is shut off.
One interesting point is that none of the American manufacturers has paid much attention to centrifugal superchargers. The only centrifugal supercharger equipped auto I remember working on was the VW Corrado G60.
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, there are less gas stations that sell Diesel. Most are located around common routes used by the shipping industry. Also, the requirements for Diesel fuel in the USA is different than in Europe. Plus the price of diesel is actually higher than gasoline. There is another phenomena around diesels in the USA. Which is the perception of the general population towards them. People often think of them as noisy, smelly,…
I think you'll find that it was actually the Rabbit (Golf) Diesel of the time that set the tone. It was (to put it mildly) a bit of a clatterbox, and it was (if I recall correctly) the Diesel one was most likely to see. And there was more than a little bit of trouble in winter as well in northern states (the fuel of the time would become like unto a solid block of paraffin at temperatures above those that normally le…
Yes, you are right. It was the Rabbit diesel that started damaging the public's perception of diesel. But then GM, Volvo, and Ford kept the "flame" alive during the 80s.
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
VAG have a rather nice twin-charged 1.4L engine - with a supercharger and a turbocharger - the former being used at low revs and the latter at high revs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Volkswagen_Group_petrol...
Nice but AFAIK unreliable.
Not due to the twin charging, but due to it being a VAG auto.
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#165The video mentions that the aerodynamics of the car generates so much down-force that it could ride upside-down on the ceiling. Wow.
I'd like to see this attempted, Mythbusters style.
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#166Can't racing just be about fun loud cars? Leave the environmentalist somewhere else?
F1 has always been intended to move tech into production cars. It was never just about fun loud cars. It's definitely true that a few dozen cars running laps for a day isn't going to have much effect on the climate, the point is to improve millions of cars in the future.
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#167I stopped watching F1 about 10 years ago, and these new changes just reaffirm that decision. It's no longer about best car + best driver. It's about mixing it up, making it random, to maximise viewer numbers. Not the kind of racing I go for.
I agree. The silly cost and stil 840 hp @ 1x,000 rpm is just a bunch of window dressing for the Lefties. The entire enterprise of F1 will never be "green", once you take into account the production of the cars, the crash repleacements, fuel used in training and lower Fxx series, and...the fact that these clowns fly all of this junk around the WORLD to drive. They are doing to f1 what they did to the America's cup. Ba…
Have F1 cars been remotely close to something that normal people could relate to since the 60s?
Are you sure its just them trying to make F1 green? The cost standpoint helps keep large companies involved and aids smaller companies so they are competitive. The power limitations I believe have always been tied to price and safety. I doubt they were trying to appear "green" when they banned turbos in 89.
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. The silly cost and stil 840 hp @ 1x,000 rpm is just a bunch of window dressing for the Lefties. The entire enterprise of F1 will never be "green", once you take into account the production of the cars, the crash repleacements, fuel used in training and lower Fxx series, and...the fact that these clowns fly all of this junk around the WORLD to drive. They are doing to f1 what they did to the America's cup. Ba…
Have F1 cars been remotely close to something that normal people could relate to since the 60s? Are you sure its just them trying to make F1 green? The cost standpoint helps keep large companies involved and aids smaller companies so they are competitive. The power limitations I believe have always been tied to price and safety. I doubt they were trying to appear "green" when they banned turbos in 89.
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Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Doing away with the wastegate means that they will be limiting the amount of airflow that goes into the engine in some other way. I doubt that they are using all of the boost that the turbo creates, because it would be a risky proposition to do so. If I understood it correctly that's not what's happening. Basically you're coupling an electric motor to the turbo. When the turbo is spinning slow you feed the electrica…
I'm still a bit confused with the article. It does mention that they are not using wastegates. Excerpt: Instead of a waste-gate, the motor will convert that excess energy into electricity by preventing the turbo from over-speeding. I reason that they are using resistance on the electric motor to reduce the speed of the turbine. It makes more sense now. They can control the electric motor better than any wastegate by…
>The resistance can then be immediately removed and boost would become available instantly because it would be spinning near the full-boost RPM
You don't need to remove the resistance to get boost if you've only used the resistance to avoid overspeed. You've limited the turbine to max RPM and thus max boost. You only need to remove resistance or even reverse it and have the electric motor spin up the turbine when the RPMs drop below the boost value you want.
Re: F1 2014: All aboard the 'power train' - new rules explained
#170I stopped watching F1 about 10 years ago, and these new changes just reaffirm that decision. It's no longer about best car + best driver. It's about mixing it up, making it random, to maximise viewer numbers. Not the kind of racing I go for.
Just about every pro sports league needs to manage its rules to ensure that the playing field gets leveled every season. For example, NFL draft picks are in reverse order of season success. If last year's Super Bowl winner was able to choose their next team on a completely free market, they would simply use their boosted revenue and pay the most for the best players, thus making it much more likely that they'll incre…
Outside of America there are far more sports that don't try to even the playing field artificially. Motor racing (I don't know much about non-F1 racing anyway) is pretty much the limit in the UK, team games generally work on the free market, individual games can generally be dominated by great individuals.