Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
These are the main messages in a keynote speech to be delivered by Peter Digby, chairman of the Motorsport Industry Association and managing director of Xtrac, at an inaugural Energy Efficient Motorsport Conference held on the eve of the American Le Mans Series 12-hour endurance race at Sebring in Florida this weekend. The MIA event (Thursday 15 March) is being supported by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Shell, UK Trade & Investment and Xtrac.
ìWith depleting oil reserves and climate change top of the political agenda, energy efficiency is hugely important,î says Digby. ìIf we donít do anything about these issues our society will change significantly.
ìNew technical solutions being proposed have to be accepted by the consumer and this is where motorsport has a key role to play. Motorsport is a highly popular form of entertainment with huge following worldwide and ideally placed to promote energy efficient technology. Motorsport engineers are also used to rapid product development and can apply their skills to help speed up the introduction of new energy efficient technologies to normal road vehicles.
ìIn other words motorsport can make energy efficiency sexy. A good example of this is how vehicle manufacturers have already used the famous Le Mans race to enthuse the marketplace about advanced diesel engine technology and to stimulate interest in new gasoline engine technologies.î
Turning to Xtracís own area of expertise ñ transmission technology ñ Digby says motor racing had rapidly accelerated gear design, manufacture and materials development with more efficient, compact and lightweight transmissions able to handle much higher levels of power and torque.
ìIn the 1980s an F1 gearbox typically weighed 50kg (110lbs), required gears 18mm (0.71in) wide and were limited to engine outputs of 370kW (500bhp) at 11,000rpm. Today, an F1 transmission weighs 30kg (66lbs), employs ultra thin gears only 8mm (0.32in) wide and can handle prodigious engine outputs of 660kW (900bhp) at 19,000rpm. In other words, the latest gearboxes are smaller and almost half the mass, yet handle virtually twice the power.
ìMinimising weight and frictional losses throughout the vehicle has a direct impact on carbon emissions and fuel efficiency and gaining extra mileage is as important to motor racing as it is to normal road cars.î
Xtrac provides a good example of a motorsport company directly applying its talents to improving road going vehicles. Working closely with Zytek – another company with a strong motorsport pedigree and a world leading expert in automotive control systems ñ the two companies have recently packaged a diesel engine, gearbox and two electric motors into the same space as the Smart donor vehicle uses for the diesel engine and conventional 6-speed manual transmission, resulting in the worldís first commercially viable diesel-electric hybrid drivetrain developed for a small family car.
The low cost system has been prepared for assessment by car manufacturers in a prototype vehicle that fully meets the requirements of the UK governmentís Ultra Low Carbon Car Challenge. This initiative is aimed at producing a vehicle with exceptionally low CO2 emissions of under 100g/km, equivalent to a fuel consumption of at least 75mpg (3.8l/100km). Moreover, it does so without compromising the driveability, performance, comfort, features and safety expected from a car in this segment.
ìXtrac is similarly working on combining mechanical flywheel systems ñ which are ideal for energy efficient power density management ñ with the engine and transmission,î added Digby, referring to recent regulation changes in F1, which permit the use of brake regeneration systems from 2009.
ìThe key point to remember is that a racing driver and average motorist have much in common; they both want to get from A to B as quickly and as safely as possible using the least amount of fuel. And thatís why energy efficient technologies are so important to both the motorsport industry and mainstream automotive sector. We have already seen environmentally conscious manufacturers and series organisers using motorsport to showcase their technology Ö and Iím certain weíll see a lot more of this in the future.î
The MIA Energy Efficient Motorsport (EEMS) conference precedes the season-opening stage of the American Le Mans Series ë55th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebringí motor race. The inaugural event is being held at Ch‚teau …lan Four Points by Sheraton at Floridaís world-famous Sebring International Raceway.
The conference will showcase, for the first time to a US and international senior executive audience, continuing motorsport industry development activity in energy efficiency within the competitive world of motorsport.
The MIA, prompted initially by its members located in the UKís Motorsport Valley, has already pioneered a compelling strategy for EEMS and hosted the worldís first ìClean Racing Conferenceî in the UK in 2002 to raise the profile of this exciting new opportunity for motorsport. This initiative has been known as ìEEMSî, with funding from Motorsport Development UK, embracing alternative energy applications in race series ranging from the Le Mans 24-Hour in 2004 through to the British Touring Car Championship & Rallying.
The USA Energy Efficient Motorsport conference will be moderated by Chris Aylett chief executive of the MIA and will feature leading OEM and industry guest speakers with unique experience and knowledge of this rapidly expanding and influential global concept.