Since 2022, cars in the UK’s top touring car series have been running with an electric motor that contributes to a 60bhp power boost when deployed by the driver. The technology was introduced to replace success ballast, as part of the series’ push to become more sustainable.

However, the BTCC will switch its sustainability focus to using fossil-free fuels to run the non-hybrid internal combustion engines. A statement from the series said dropping the hybrid system would make the cars ‘lighter and more dynamic’ with around 55kg taken out.

Haltermann Carless will provide its Hiperflo ECO102 R100 to all cars on the grid. The product is 100 per cent fossil fuel free and is derived from non-crude biological and synthetic sources. Carless is already providing a 20 per cent sustainable fuel to the BTCC, as part of an agreement running from 2022 to 2026.

As explored in the June issue of Racecar Engineering, the BTCC has been evaluating an upgrade to 100 per cent sustainable fuel for several months, providing blends for the engine builders to test.

Cosworth, which supplied the spec hybrid system, will remain involved in the championship through its provision of electronics and control systems equipment.

‘The introduction of 100 per cent fossil free sustainable fuel for 2025 shows that the BTCC remains committed to innovation in motorsport,’ said BTCC chief executive Alan Gow. ‘As the highest profile championship in the UK, this introduction is a significant and essential step in maintaining the competitiveness and excitement synonymous with the BTCC, but in a more sustainable and forward-thinking way.

‘The hybrid era was a great one for the BTCC. Six years ago, when we first announced hybrid, it was a technology still in its relative infancy within motorsport. We’ve successfully completed that programme – and really have no more to prove in that respect – whilst others have yet to catch up.

‘But, as we’ve now ticked that box we can move further forward with the introduction of the fossil-free sustainable fuel, whilst very importantly delivering the same performance parameters that made this year’s BTCC such a memorable one.

‘We don’t just sit still with the BTCC – we evolve, and we advance, as today’s announcement firmly underlines.’

The BTCC hybrid system provided a 15-second power boost to cars. Based on prior results, some drivers would have more laps of boost available than others, adding a strategic element to races. This year, the BTCC doubled the amount of boost available, from 30bhp to 60bhp. The increase came in the form of updates to the turbocharger, whilst the power output of the electric motor was kept the same because the low voltage, 48V battery could not be pushed any further.

The abandonment of hybrid power will come as a relief to teams that had been worried about the rising cost of leasing the system each season.

The BTCC has confirmed that the amount of power generated by the boost will remain the same next year, but it will all come from the turbo now the electric motor has been dropped. Additionally, teams will no longer be able to see when their competitors are using the turbo boost, to help promote less predictable racing.

The post BTCC Drops Hybrid Systems for 100 per cent Sustainable Fuel appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

TC Lite will consist of two tiers – TCL4 and TCL5 – whose cars will be built to the same parameters as existing Rally4 and Rally5 machinery. This could open the door for manufacturers to build one car that that is easily adaptable for both circuit and rallying applications, saving on the need for separate development programmes. Current Rally4 cars include the Peugeot 208, Ford Fiesta, Opel Corsa and Renault Clio.

The main Rally4 and Rally5 regulations will remain unchanged, but an appendix will detail the modifications that can make a car eligible for each stage of TC Lite. The new two-part touring car platform will sit beneath TCR in the global touring car hierarchy.

The FIA has stated that adaptations for TC Lite will be ‘kept to a minimum’ for cost control reasons, while competitors will be provided a ‘level playing field’ that has not yet been fully defined. The minimum weight of cars will be adjusted to factor in the removal of specialist rally equipment such as spare wheels, handheld fire extinguishers and other tools.

TC Lite cars will require the use of safety netting around the driver. The co-driver’s seat may be retained or replaced with equivalent ballast. Cars will use slick racing tyres, rather than the treaded tyres required for rallying.

‘Introducing a pyramid structure to touring car racing is something that has been our aim for quite a while,’ said FIA Touring Car Commission president Alan Gow. ‘TCR is a proven customer racing platform that works well both in national-level series and in world-level touring car racing. However, we have been missing an accessible entry-level platform. The introduction of the TC Lite ruleset fills that gap.

‘Having the very same cars in rallying and touring car racing has plenty of benefits – it is cost-effective, sustainable, provides the competitors with a level playing field and creates opportunities for more available seat time. At the same time, the manufacturers and their customer racing programmes will be able to grow their business as the market of these cars will naturally broaden.’

TCL4 will sit above TCL5 in the touring car pyramid. The quicker cars will have a power-to-weight ratio of approximately 5.1kg/bhp while the TCL5s will produce around 6kg/bhp. Both categories permit both naturally aspirated and turbocharged engines. TCL4 will allow up to 2-litre NA and 1.3-litre turbos, while TCL5 cars will be 1.6-litre NA and 1.3-litre turbo. Both types of car will shift through a sequential gearbox.

‘The bottom tiers of the FIA Rally Pyramid have proven to be excellent entry-level classes in rallying, therefore broadening the use of these cars and making them compatible with circuit racing makes a lot of sense,’ said FIA Road Sport president Andrew Wheatley. ‘This is a bit like in the group N days when you would sometimes see the same front-wheel-drive cars taking part in different disciplines.

‘This is also good news for drivers at the early stages of their careers who, to develop their skills, look for as much time behind the wheel as possible. Having one car eligible for different types of events offers exactly that. A universal technical platform like this one also has the potential to draw new people to motor sport and – long term – should contribute to increased motor sport participation globally.’

In addition to sharing regulations with Rally5, the TCL5 touring car platform will be open to Rally5-kit cars. This enables National Sporting Authorities to approve cars that have been developed by local tuners. According to the FIA, this will ‘broaden the market’ by allowing local importers to promote certain car models in their domestic market.

The post New Touring Car Platform to Share Regulations with Rallying appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

BTCC series organiser TOCA introduced the spec 48V hybrid-electric system in 2022. The Cosworth spec unit replaced success ballast, which saw the most successful drivers get handed additional weight to slow them down in races and balance out the field. A similar sliding scale approach has been used after the switch to hybrids, whereby more successful drivers are given fewer laps on which they can deploy power from the motor generator unit (MGU).

BTCC teams and viewers soon got accustomed to the new technology, which was a world-first in touring cars. However, they soon recognised that it tended to produce long trains of cars without much overtaking. In response, the BTCC has increased turbo boost pressure by 200mb and factored that into the hybrid system boost. This is designed to increase the difference (or delta) between a car that is using hybrid boost and one that isn’t. The change, which does not add to the MGU’s output, equates to a doubling of the power that a driver has when they push the boost button, from 30bhp to 60bhp.

The BTCC has been continually reviewing its hybrid deployment rules since the technology was introduced. Last year, it added a minimum speed at which drivers could use the boost, with those who were higher in the championship standings (applicable to Race 1) or coming off the back of a strong preceding race (Races 2 and 3) both getting a higher threshold. Lower-ranked drivers received a lower threshold, meaning they could attack sooner out of corners.

But now, drivers will have double the amount of boost available. How will it affect the racing? Alliance Racing Ford engineer Tony Carrozza, who won the 2023 BTCC title working with driver Ashley Sutton, reckons it will have a noticeable impact.

‘Part of the rules that changed for last year was, cars outside the top 10 didn’t have it for every lap,’ he tells Racecar Engineering. ‘The previous year, there was this hybrid train where all of the cars were pushing hybrid at the same point. It didn’t make a delta to the racing.

‘The biggest difference this year is the overlap that you can get between someone not deploying versus someone deploying. Down the start-finish straight at Donington, there is a 16-metre delta. Cars are typically 4.4 to 5 metres long. That’s four car lengths. If you come off the chicane on the bumper of the car in front, you’ve got enough deployment to get alongside, pull in front and have a car length in the braking zone, which is significant.

‘The sheer overlap is the powerful bit. We also ran [simulations] for Silverstone which is the most powerful circuit for the hybrid. It was 28 metres down the back straight where you’re pushing [the hybrid boost button] for 8-9 seconds. The 28-metre overlap is enough to do two or three cars.’

Alliance sampled the increased turbo boost during a Goodyear tyre test at Donington last year, making it one of the first teams to try out the update. By contrast, the West Surrey Racing BMW squad, for example, only used the 2024 levels of boost for the first time at the second of three pre-season tests in April.

‘We know that 200mb is about 30bhp,’ says Carrozza. ‘I ran a load of lap time simulations to work out the optimal deployment zones. It’s very easy to dump it all down one straight, but over the course of the lap you’ve got to trigger it slowly. Last year, at Donington, we were 0.45s [quicker] per lap. This year, it’s just over 0.7s per lap. It’s quite a substantial delta. Brands Hatch Indy was only 0.55s [quicker].’

Given that he won last year’s BTCC title, Sutton often received the short end of the stick when it came to hybrid deployment allocations. Adding to the challenge was the introduction of minimum hybrid deployment speeds, and fewer laps available to deploy. For example, points leader Sutton had five laps on which he could boost in Race 1 at Silverstone last year, compared with nine boost laps for points leader Colin Turkington at the same round in 2022. Nonetheless, Alliance thought of a way to offset that difference.

‘Ash wouldn’t push hybrid on the lap when the person in front was pushing hybrid,’ Carrozza explains. ‘He would just wait until I’d given him the go-ahead that whoever he was fighting against wasn’t pushing. There was his chance to get the overlap.

‘You almost waste the hybrid if you’re using it when the person in front is using it, because you just negate the delta. If you’re in a faster car, you can make up some of that lap time in another way. You don’t need to be pushing the hybrid button.’

The number of hybrid boost laps that each driver gets is unchanged for this year, but the power will be higher. Therefore, expect to see more drivers making overtakes when they are boosting against a driver who isn’t. The scenario shouldn’t be any different to last year when two drivers are on the boost, although Carrozza and other engineers are constantly on the radio informing their drivers about when rivals are pushing the button to get that all-important delta down a straight.

The uprated boost is not only set to have an impact on acceleration out of corners: Carrozza anticipates that it will increase braking distances by between five and 10 metres.

‘The person who is on the hybrid is braking slightly earlier,’ he says. ‘I think there will be some interesting racing. There will probably be some massive closing speeds.’

The BTCC’s move to hybrids in 2022 resulted in a fixed minimum weight being introduced in 2022. This is 1355kg for rear-wheel-drive cars and 1325kg for front-wheel-drive. Having got used to adapting to success ballast for several years, BTCC engineers can now get a clearer picture of car set up.

‘Every session the car balance was changing, because almost every time you went out, you had to change the ballast,’ Carrozza recalls. ‘We would go into a meeting leading the championship, so we would have 75kg in qualifying for Race 1. We’d almost never win Race 1 because we’d qualify sixth or seventh. Then you take ballast out for Race 2 and you’d win a lot. Then you’d have ballast on for Race 3 with reverse grid, so you’re in the middle of the pack with all the ballast on.

‘Typically, you were changing the car constantly over the weekend. Now, we have a fixed base weight. You can really home in on a set up that is really crisp for that weekend and know that the only changes are going to be track conditions, which is quite nice.’

This weekend’s Donington season-opener will be the first time the increased hybrid boost is deployed in anger, although it may take a few rounds for its effectiveness to become clear. For instance, will a car that has fewer 60bhp hybrid system power deployments be as hamstrung as a car that carried the maximum 75kg extra weight during the success ballast era? They will, at least, be more pegged back compared to last year. The early signs are that the increased boost should provide more overtakes and less predictable racing which has been a hallmark of the BTCC for so long.

‘The year that stands out for me is 2018, when you had 17 different winners,’ says Carrozza. ‘Colin [Turkington] won the championship and won only one race. That’s what you’re going to get this year, I think.’

Check out the next issue of Racecar Engineering for an interview with BTCC technical director Sam Riches about the 2024 boost increase and more. Available 3 May!

The post How BTCC’s New Hybrid Boost Rules Will Affect the Racing appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The post How BTCC Completed Its First Hybrid Season appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The long-awaited hybrid era of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) debuts in 2022, and with it comes a brand-new formula for the series. The season launch was held on April 12th, ahead of the third and final test before the season gets underway at Donnington on April 23rd.

Despite some relief throughout the paddock in getting the new hybrid formula up and running and all teams starting to get to grips with the new hybrid powertrains, the journey to this point wasn’t all plain sailing, as Chief Executive of the BTCC, Alan Gow, explains, ‘Back in 2019 when we announced we’d go hybrid, we didn’t know what the headwinds would be when we set out. Cosworth started the project in the middle of 2019, and then we ran into a global pandemic. All the supply chain issues, cost escalations – plus now the war in Ukraine, which stopped some other parts coming through, it’s been a real struggle, and my hats go off to the teams who put their shoulders to the wheel to get it done. It was f**king hard.’

The BTCC moving to hybridisation makes it the first touring car championship in the world to do so, putting it under the spotlight and making it somewhat of a crash test dummy for this technology in this formula.

‘I didn’t want us to be pioneers,’ said Gow. ‘I would rather someone else did it first, and we could take their learnings, but we can’t just sit there and wait, we had to take the initiative, and I’m very proud that the BTCC is the first touring car championship in the world to go hybrid. We had to [move to hybrid] because of what is going on in the world around us. Touring cars are developments of road cars, and they are going either fully electric or hybrid. It is to stay relevant to the market.’

Of the pre-season tests, Gow said, ‘All the cars that have been running have been problem-free, but there will always be things that need to be done. We are a little bit behind; we should have been testing six weeks ago [late February 2022], we didn’t, but that’s the world we live in. Now we will make the best use of it [in the last test].

‘As with any new technology, there will be times in the year when things don’t necessarily go wrong, but something will annoy you (the drivers/teams). That’s what happens when you introduce new technology, but it is the same as when you bring a new engine or chassis component.

‘Hopefully, I’m wrong, and everyone will run 100% problem-free for the year. The good thing about the hybrid is that [if there is a problem], it won’t stop the car from running. You just have a car that doesn’t have hybrid deployment, the same as the one leading the championship.’

Furthering on Gow’s final point, management of the hybrid power deployment replaces the use of success ballast in the series for 2022 with a scale of deployment throughout a race for drivers in the top ten championship positions. This replaces the success ballast (weight handicap) from the previous generation, which was 75 kilograms for P1 in the championship reducing in 9kg increments down to the tenth place.

A maximum of 15 seconds deployment of 40kW (~54bhp) electric drive deployment via a 60V axial flux permanent magnet motor integrated into the transmission is permitted per lap for all drivers P11 onwards. The deployment duration and number of laps it can be used decreased incrementally for positions 10 to 1. In any race under 17 laps, the championship leader has zero hybrid power deployment for the duration.

The post BTCC’s Hybrid Era Begins appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Toyota Motor Corporation has been very outspoken about its efforts in producing, transporting, and using hydrogen and carbon-neutral fuel. For this year’s ENEOS Super Taikyu Series, Toyota is racing three vehicles equipped with powertrains that use different fuels. The 2022 Super Taikyu Series team setup includes a hydrogen engine-equipped Corolla, a carbon-neutral fuelled GR86 and a race gasoline GR86.

The hydrogen engine-equipped Corolla competed in four rounds in 2021’s Super Taikyu Series, promoting the development motorsport brings to technology. Between the first round in May of last year and the final round in November, engine performance was improved to levels comparable to gasoline engines, with a 24% increase in power output and 33% increase in torque, along with successful control over abnormal combustion. However, improved cruising range and reduced hydrogen filling time for practical use are still significant issues to address throughout this year.

Also starting this year is a new GR86-based race car that uses carbon-neutral fuel as an attempt to expand internal combustion engine fuel options. The vehicle is powered by a turbocharged 1.4-litre engine developed from the GR Yaris engine and the hydrogen engine-equipped Corolla. The development will be done using contemporary technology rather than new innovations.

While carbon dioxide is emitted during combustion in the carbon-neutral GR86, the fuel itself uses carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere, which results in plus/minus zero emissions and can use existing infrastructure and vehicle technology. Though competing this year with Subaru Corporation, another ST-Q class competitor, Toyota hopes to discover any issues, make improvements, and explore the possibility of future practical applications of this fuel. In addition, Toyota will apply the knowledge gained through refining the vehicle during races to the evolution of the Subaru BRZ and GR86 road cars.

The third vehicle, another GR86, will enter from Round 2, the FUJI SUPER TEC 24-Hour Race, under the banner of TOM’S SPIRIT. Closer to a production car than the carbon-neutral fuelled GR86 competing in the ST-Q class, it will be refined through races and apply the findings to develop production models and parts, promoting the making of ever-better motorsports-bred cars.

The bigger picture for Toyota in pursuing these race cars is generating partners in producing, transporting, and using hydrogen and carbon-neutral fuel. In addition to solar power-derived hydrogen from Namie Town (FH2R) in Fukushima Prefecture, the hydrogen engine-powered Corolla uses a supply of hydrogen derived from solar power generation produced in cooperation between Yamanashi Prefecture, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., and Toray Industries, Inc.

The Yamanashi Prefecture, Tokyo Electric HD, and Toray produced hydrogen currently used in Yamanashi Prefecture factories. Here, up to 370 Nm3 of hydrogen is produced per hour by electrolysing water with electricity derived from solar power through a P2G (power-to-gas) system at the Komekurayama Electric Power Storage Technology Research Site in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture. Yamanashi Prefecture established the Yamanashi Hydrogen Company, Inc., the first in Japan to specialise in P2G systems, in February 2022, together with Tokyo Electric HD and Toray to promote the development of this P2G system in Japan and abroad and to promote the creation of a hydrogen energy society.

Bio-fuel trailers of Toyota Transportation Co., Ltd, and the electric fuel cell trucks of Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies transport the hydrogen for the hydrogen engine-equipped Corolla to the circuits. From now on, CJPT’s fuel cell electric trucks will use racks tanks mounted with lightweight resin liners produced in the manufacture of Toyota’s FCEV MIRAI, enabling high-pressure hydrogen transport. By changing the tanks to those with resin liners, tank pressure can be increased from 20 MPa to 45 MPa, and the amount of hydrogen that can be transported has increased by approximately four times. In addition, Toyota will continue to make improvements to meet the demands of those who need hydrogen in various fields. An aim is to bring tank pressure to 70 MPa and take on the challenge of transporting hydrogen even more efficiently.

Onboard the hydrogen-fuelled Corolla race car, Toyota can control abnormal in-cylinder combustion by precisely controlling fuel injection and efficiently using hydrogen in the tank. As a result, the possible driving distance on a single hydrogen fill-up has been improved by 20% since the last races in 2021. Toyota has started developing a new technology that can convert currently used gaseous hydrogen into liquid hydrogen to improve cruising range even further. If this is eventually achieved, the improved energy density per volume will make it possible to greatly extend cruising distance and expand the options for the state of hydrogen that can be used.

The post How Toyota is using motorsport to develop a carbon-neutral society appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Cosworth Electronics Head of Support, Neal Bateman, says, ‘We have been working tirelessly to prepare the all-new BTCC Hybrid car ahead of its competitive debut in 2022, and the Silverstone weekend was an important milestone in its development.’ Cosworth’s hybrid package has completed multiple private test days onboard the Toyota Corolla test car, accumulating the equivalent of more than an entire season’s worth of mileage. However, it still needed to collect essential data from an actual race weekend, hence the hybrid car taking part at Silverstone.

• Why is BTCC going hybrid?

The entire hybrid system is in one unit. The battery management, motor control strategies, cooling, and control surrounding the internal combustion engine are managed by Cosworth’s Antares 8 ECU. This arrangement allowed Cosworth to cut crucial weight and free up additional space for the packaging of other components.

The battery pack sits in a unique safety cell located where the existing success ballast box sits, enabling easy accessibility and keeping the weight within an already defined area. Another apt solution was incorporating the electric motor into the gearbox. Considering that the gearboxes are a spec part across the grid, it made sense to integrate the motor in this way. Cosworth went down this route to satisfy the requirement of the cars needing to run on electric power only while in the pits.

The hybrid drive unit is a very susceptible component that delivers high loads and suffers from gearbox heat-soak. Cosworth overcame some of the packaging challenges by utilising a remote cooling system, separating the cooling into two small radiators, one for the battery whilst the other supports the motor and its control unit. Thus, Cosworth mounted the coolers below the headlights and behind the front bumper. This move provided the scope to maximise the limited space left in areas of freestream airflow, a priority when it comes to efficient cooling of any component. The combination of the cooling package and control capabilities allow precise and accurate management of the motor’s temperature.

Cosworth’s hybrid element performed encouragingly during the shakedown, two practice sessions, qualifying and the three races over the weekend. Working in combination with the M-Sport engine through a spec Xtrac gearbox, the hybrid system gives the drivers up to 15 seconds of additional electric energy per lap in a push-to-attack-or-defend configuration. The system also solely powers the car in the pitlane for the start of each session and regenerates electrical energy during braking.

Cosworth managed to run through all the programmes that typically occur during a race event during the weekend. It also got the chance to run the car in traffic, following other vehicles close, providing an understanding of the temperatures on hybrid components, including the motor and battery in traffic. It was also essential to get a sense of how the coolers of these components coped in hot turbulent air.

‘We are very pleased to have been able to run the Hybrid car in proper race conditions,’ says Bateman. We’ve been able to manage the battery and systems in between sessions too. It was great to have the car running in traffic during race two, to get proper temperature into the hybrid element in the draft of other cars. Despite the focus not being on performance, we built up some speed throughout the weekend and showed some real pace. It’s been a positive step for us; we’ve learnt a lot from this race weekend, and we are looking forward to the remainder of our testing programme.’

TOCA Hybrid Test Driver, Andrew Jordan, added ‘We found pace throughout the weekend getting up to the top two or three in terms of lap time. We got some good fast laps in during race one and the fastest lap during race two. We’re very close to the front now regarding pace, so it’s been a good test. Everything has run smoothly this weekend, which is good. It’s a big change for the teams next year, so to be able to show strong reliability stands the system in good stead for next year.’

The post BTCC Hybrid debuts at Silverstone appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

How will it work?

The current plan is to allow drivers to have up to 15 seconds of hybrid boost available per lap. This extra 40bhp (approximately) can either be used as a ‘push to pass’ button or to help defend an overtake. However, the 15 seconds can only be used under full traction, and there is no limit on how many times this ‘boost’ button can be utilised per lap. The one restriction (so far) is that hybrid power can only be deployed under full traction.

‘It is not just a button which makes the driver infront a sitting duck, which is what I don’t like about DRS in F1. Whether or not the driver can respond quickly enough to a driver coming up behind them with their button pressed will depend on how much energy they have saved on that lap. It brings in a new element of race strategy,’ says Gow. ‘These are mild hybrids, the sort of thing that is running every day on our roads. This is not rocket science so there’s no reason why it should be difficult, it’s just a matter of making all the components work together. I’m looking forward to it and most of the drivers are too, particularly the younger ones as they are the playstation generation.’

The original plan was to introduce hybrids into BTCC in 2022 as this is when the current contract cycle with most of the suppliers comes to an end. Then Gow set the challenge of aiming for 2021 which, with a few early contractual renewals, was possible. This was then presented to the teams, who voted for a hybrid future in 2022.

What’s the cost?

To minimise the cost and complexity for the teams, Gow set some challenging targets:

• The maximum cost of the package couldn’t exceed £20,000 per car, per year
• The hybrid system had to weigh less than the 2018 maximum success ballast, 75kg. (This was dropped to 54kg for 2019).
• The hybrid had to achieve a set bhp figure
• The hybrid package would result in minimal changes to the car

‘When I first came up with the idea I set a challenge to our technical department with figures that I had invented. I wanted it to cost £20,000 a year, I wanted it to deliver, I think I started with 100bhp and I didn’t want it to be any heavier than our success ballast. Those were the three parameters I came up with and if they could complete that triangle then we would go hybrid, so we went out to tender on that basis,’ highlights Gow. ‘The teams will have to do minimal changes to the car and a lot of those changes they would have to incorporate every year anyway. So it is a fixed fee with Cosworth per year that roughly works out at £2,000 per car per race meeting which in the world of motorsport is cheap.’

Who are the 2022 suppliers?

There were about 25 companies initially interested in the 2022 tender, but only two companies were considered viable. These then pitched to the team owners who voted for Cosworth to secure the contract.

‘Cosworth are responsible for the whole hybrid package. There is a technical partners group which includes Delta Motorsport for the batteries, PWR for the cooling and Xtrac for the gearbox but its all Cosworth’s responsibility,’ explains Peter Riches, BTCC Technical Director.

What will the teams have to change?

Very little according to TOCA. ‘The engineering challenge was to fit the hybrid package into a current NGTC car without altering the car. A clean sheet of paper would have made it much easier,’ says Riches. ‘We had all sorts of challenges because we didn’t want to alter the RML frame and we didn’t want to have to redevelop the tyres and the suspension, which is why we declared that the weight of the system had to be less than the success ballast. Xtrac have done an excellent job with both the FWD and RWD gearboxes to integrate the motor within the current frame without the need to modify anything.’

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The post The future is coming! appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The series was launched in 1979, and over the years, it evolved from road car-based vehicles to spaceframe specials. Every car competing in the championship wore a Chevrolet name plate until 2005, when Mitsubishi joined the series, followed two years later by Volkswagen and Peugeot. Only Peugeot and Chevrolet remain for the 2009 season. As well as the main series, known as the Copa Caixa, there is a ‘First Division’ championship, using similar specification cars, known as the Copa Vicar, as well as a pick-up series. 

Over the years, the cars morphed into spaceframe silhouettes, vaguely aping the body styles of various manufacturers’ models. Performance increased, as did the professionalism. ‘We got live television coverage on one of the biggest channels in Brazil, and after that, the sponsors came,’ Giaffone says. ‘Right now, the drivers can make money that in the past was not possible in this country. Ten years ago, it was all gentleman racers, now it’s all professionals.’ 

For nine years, though, the same cars had been used; the design was becoming an issue and there were questions about its safety. ‘We had a fatal accident,’ explains Giaffone. ‘Two cars were battling for position and jostling each other, one spun, ending up in the path of the field and was hit in the driver’s door.’

Accident De Stock Car Light Rafael Sperafico

‘It was then that we knew that the car had to be made safer.’ Explains Giaffone. A new chassis, and a whole new car concept were required. ‘We started to look at what we were going to do with the car and we contacted Dallara,’ says Giaffone. ‘But they said that to do a tubular car you have to speak to the experts, and recommended Nicola Scimeca and the Ycom consultancy in Italy. We talked with him a little bit and then made a deal.’ 

Scimeca is a former project leader at Dallara, who was involved in the design and development of the World Series by Nissan car, the Infinity Pro Series chassis and the Maserati MC12. Critically for the Brazilian project, he had worked on a number of Audi DTM projects. In short, his experience was perfect. 

JL’s chief engineer, Gustavo Lehto, then spent three months working in Italy with Scimeca. ‘They defined the overall design concept of the new car,’ says Giaffone. ‘Because we are here in Brazil, the car needed to last forever. It takes too long to ship parts from Europe all the time and costs too much. We don’t care if the car is 50kg overweight or not, and if the parts are bigger and tougher, they should last – we don’t have to replace wishbones or similar things every three or four races. 

‘At the beginning, Nicola was always a bit unhappy,’ adds Lehto. ‘He wanted to make every part of the car perfect, to make it the best he could do it, but to keep costs down, we had to make things bigger and stronger.’ 

A final chassis design was done and construction started in Brazil, using five jigs. ‘There was a big evolution in process to make this chassis, because the old chassis had some curved tubing, but on this car it is all straight tube, which is much better in terms of stiffness,’

reveals Lehto. ‘Also, with the old chassis, it took us around 10 days to make one up. Now we can do it in about four hours.’ The 4130 steel tubing is laser-cut and TIG-welded together on site. The resulting chassis has been designated the JL G09 

To provide enhanced safety for the driver, a number of measures were integrated with the design. Side impact protection has been improved with the addition of Impaxx foam inside the doors and the inclusion of NASCAR-style ‘wraparound’ seats. The chassis does not feature stout door bars, as is sometimes the case on North American stockcars. ‘We don’t need them, as we do not run on ovals and our car is a lot lighter,’ says Lehto.

A new-spec ATL fuel cell is also fitted centrally in the car. 

The initial test hack was fitted with JRZ dampers, but the final specification race cars were fitted with units from official series supplier, Koni. Spring choice, by comparison, is free. While many of the car’s components are imported, some home-grown parts are also to be found, including the locally made on-board air jacks and brake discs. The callipers, however, are imported AP Racing parts. 

The completed spaceframe is clad in bodywork designed in-house by Lehto. Initial work on this was carried out using the 25 per cent scale wind tunnel at USP de São Carlos, and this was followed by full-scale development carried out on track.

‘We did a lot of straight-line work and wool tuft testing on the development car at the Londrina circuit, 50km from our facility in Sao Paolo,’ recounts Lehto. ‘It was a cheap way to get the results we wanted and to check if the cooling ducts all worked – we found a lot of things.’ 

Two distinct body styles were developed, one for Chevrolet and the other for Peugeot. A third style could be added if another manufacturer joins the championship next year. Despite the very different looks of the two designs, the aerodynamic performance is almost identical. 

‘The cars are not a direct copy of the road cars, because if they were you could not make them equal,’ explains Lehto. On both designs, the main body is identical, but the key branding areas are made to look like those of the competing manufacturers.

While the Peugeot may appear sleeker and smoother around the nose than the aggressive-looking Chevy, both have near identical aerodynamic performance and the same frontal area. 

Powering all the stockcars is a Dodge-based, 350cu in V8, prepared by JL Motorsport and inherited from the previous car. ‘On the old cars, it was initially an in-line six, but then we went to the USA and bought 40 V8 engines,’ explains Giaffone. ‘Now we have to build 140 engines, because every car has one spare engine in the Copa Nextel series, and we use essentially the same units in the Copa Vicar and pickup series.’

In Copa Caixa trim, the engine produces 480bhp, but the series could get a power hike soon. ‘We built this car to take 600bhp,’ says Giaffone. ‘On the old car, 480bhp was too much, the transmission could not take it and they were always breaking. Now we have the Xtrac ‘box, we can give the cars much more (power), so we may use the GM LS3 next year. We plan to have more power than the DTM, and that should make it really exciting to watch.’ 

The longitudinal gearbox used in the stockcar was originally developed for Daytona Prototypes, with drive fed from ratios mounted behind the axle centre line through a final drive, hypoid spiral bevel gear set. 

Despite being effectively a spec series, competing teams are still under considerable pressure to perform, with more teams vying for slots on the Copa Nextel grid than there are available. ‘At one point, we had 52 cars on the grid,’ says Giaffone. ‘It was just too many, so we had to limit it to 32. Now if you want to get into the top series as a team, we have a second division championship (you must enter first), Copa Vicar. If you win that, then you can move into the top series. Every season, two teams go down and two go up, like promotion and relegation in football.

That was introduced last year, and now the only other way to jump to the top (championship) is to buy an existing team.’ 

In an effort to ensure equality between the cars and prevent teams trying to circumvent the series testing ban, the organisers fit each vehicle with a GPS tracker. It also allows the series to restrict access to other R&D avenues. ‘In the past, one team took its car to England to run on the Multimatic seven-post rig in Thetford,’ says Giaffone. ‘Of course, then they won everything, so we have stopped that because the cost would be too much.’ 

Another move that promotes equality and cuts costs is that all teams build their cars at JL’s facility. ‘Everything is done on site,’ Giaffone explains. ‘We made all the parts for the cars, but this is the first time we have done the whole car under one roof. With the old car, we did the chassis, other people the bodywork; in the past, teams bought the parts all over the place then went to their own shops and built the cars – it took them around 20 days to put everything together – but with this car, everything is done here. They come here and build the cars, and it only takes two or three days.’ With no barriers between the teams in the build shop, there are few secrets, but that does not stop the teams trying different things.
Each team is given a build assembly and operation manual, which includes the rules as to what can and cannot be done. 

Interestingly, one thing that is definitely outside the regulations is employing a non-Brazilian engineer. Once again, in an effort to reduce costs, teams can only employ Brazilian engineering staff. This does not mean that the cars will only to continue to race regionally and will not be seen outside of South America; in fact, quite the opposite. JL Motorsport is keen to look at marketing and selling its latest product globally as a cost-effective, high-performance race car. At $220,000 for a complete, running car, the company would appear to have the basis for a strong sales pitch when talking to prospective customers.

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