Pro Mod and Pro Stock drag racing classes still see manual transmissions used in competition, and they range from two-speed units on short, eighth-of-a-mile courses to five speeds on quarter-miles. In Pro Mod the use of manuals is optional; in Pro Stock they are mandatory. Given these cars’ prodigious power outputs, the transmissions they use are rather different from those found in other, less potent race machinery. One of the most popular set-ups is a transmission using a planetary...
Valvetrains are often the key to improving engine performance. Given a free hand, most engine development engineers will strive for ever higher engine speeds as a route to increased power output, if friction can be prevented from overcoming the extra power released by the increase in speed. Before the FIA reined in the Formula One engine suppliers, the engine speeds of the V8s were more than 20,000 rpm and heading for 21,000, which would have put the 2.4 litre engines into the territory...
It sounds too good to be true doesn’t it – more power and a lower-drag car, simply by using a bit of titanium. It won’t make you more attractive to the opposite sex, but titanium can do something for your success. Titanium alloys are most often used for their combination of strength and low density, or for their temperature resistance. As a material for cyclically loaded fasteners, their combination of high strength and low stiffness is useful. The property that makes...
The Formula One powertrain regulations have allowed the use of hybrid systems since 2009 (although in 2010 the teams chose not to use them). These systems were not considered when the engines to which they would be attached were conceived, however; the engines had been basically the same since 2006, and the adaptations to them in order to fit the KERS motors were very varied. Both Mercedes and Renault powertrains have been photographed numerous times (the photos can be found easily on the...
It’s amazing what you find out some days. While chatting to a colleague recently just before dinner he happened to mention that for 2014 the latest set of revised Formula 1 regulations allow – shock horror – rolling element bearings not only made from iron-based alloy (steel to you and me) but also from ceramic materials. And he’s right – regulation 5.16, subsection 7, paragraph (b) clearly states that despite being included in a long list of materials for other...