Racecar Engineering – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 http://www.racecar-engineering.com 37

highandlowvoltageneedstobemade.‘That’s

a questiontheteamsandFIAneedtofinda

solutionto,’hesays.‘Safetymitigationscanbe

madetomakeit safe,butI thinkingeneral

thatanswerneedstocomefromgooddata

andresearchandnotjustspeculationabout

what’ssafeandwhatisn’t.Soa realtechnical

andsafetyanalysiswillhavetobedoneto

decidewhethera loworhighvoltagerouteis

safeinonedirectionortheother.

‘Froma packagingandperformancepoint

ofview,generallyspeakingthelowvoltageis

generallya bitmoreofa challenge,’Fowleradds.

‘Froma trueperformancepointofviewinterms

ofthepoweroutputandthepower-to-weight

ratiothehighvoltagehasitsadvantages,but

thatthenneedstobetradedoffagainstthe

safety,soit’snota simpletopic.’

Quietzones

TheFIA’splanis forWRCcarstorunexclusively

onelectricityincities,whilealsohavingan

electricpowerboostwhichcouldbedeployed

onspecialstages.Currentestimatessetthe

hybridkitatproducingaround90bhp.‘I think

that’sintheballpark,butit’smoreaboutthe

dutycyclewe’rediscussing,sothat’show

muchtimecanyouactuallyuseit for,’Fowler

says.‘That’srelatedtothesizeofthebattery

froma capacitypointofviewandalsohow

dowearrangethesoftwareorthecontrol

systems;howdowere-deliverandhowdo

weregenerate?Theanswersdon’tcome

[exclusively]fromthetechnical[side];theycome

fromthesportingsideaswell.Therewillneed

tobechangestothesportingregulationsto

accommodateit becauseif it’sa roadsection-

basedsystem,thenit’sgoingtohavetobe

regulatedastowhenyouuseit andwhat

Toyota is likely to stick with its Yaris model

and not take up the option to build a new

WRC car from another market segment

The marketing-inspired Peugeot 307 CC WRC in 2005. The new regulations should make projects such as this much easier

The FIA’s plan is

for WRC cars to

run exclusively on

electricity in cities