Motorsport is generally a harsh environment compared to the normal drive cycle of a passenger car, motorcycle, aeroplane or boat. The loads and stresses are higher, as are the speeds involved and (normally) the duty cycle too. If you subject a normally reliable passenger vehicle to the rigours of a motorsport environment, you can expect it to fail in very short order. Of course, the motorsport environment is a graduated scale of harshness, and close to the top of this scale must be...
For design engineers working on bespoke engines, the job of designing special-purpose fasteners is a familiar task. There is often a need for a very long and thin fastener, for example to pull together the stages in a multi-stage pump, or possibly bolts that run right through the engine from top to bottom (anyone who has designed upgrades for the four-cylinder Rover K-series engine will be familiar with the through-bolt concept). In terms of their tightening, slender bolts and studs behave...
Motor racing is dangerous. This is printed on the back of every motorsport venue entrance ticket and emphasised whenever possible to all involved. The risks of colliding with either track scenery or other competitors on the track is of course well known and accepted, but the next greatest risk to life and limb is surely that of fire. The biggest hazard on board the vehicle is therefore the fuel and its method of storage. And if you realise that the flashpoint (the lowest temperature at...
As a lifelong student of automotive technology I never fail to be amazed by the inventiveness of the human mind, and one of the best places to demonstrate that is to look at patent applications down the years. Many inventions of course never come to anything, for various reasons. In some cases the principle has been patented just in case there is a need for it in the future, and to prevent others from adopting the same idea and patenting it themselves. An example I came across recently was...
The design of oil-air coolers in motorsport has not changed drastically in the past 60 years, with the basic design harking back to World War II. As with so many technological developments, the generally available ‘modular’ style of plate and bar oil cooler owes its existence to aero engine development, in particular the legendary Merlin V12. There are many similarities between race engine and aero engine development, with designers of both striving to find the most efficient and...