NEWS
8 APRIL 2 020 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 13
ASTON MARTIN’S NEW ‘hot vee’, dry-
sump ‘TM01’ V6 engine, so named because
the turbos lie in the vee of the engine, looks
as exciting on paper as it probably will be in
the fl esh. Although Aston isn’t disclosing
a hu ge a mou nt of de t a i l at t h i s s t a ge , t he
picture of it shown above reveals a lot.Starting at the bottom, there’s that sump.
‘Dry’ sump is a bit of a contradiction in
terms, because sumps on engines store
oil and dry sumps are designed to do the
opposite. Instead of a large, deep sump full
of engine oil, the dry sump is reduced to a
shallow pan and gives two advantages.
The main one is that oil is pumped around
the engine from a separate tank, so there’s
no chance of the oil pick-up collecting
air instead of oil during hard cornering,
braking and acceleration. The second is
that a shallow pan in place of a deep sump
means the engine can sit low in the chassis,
lowering the car’s centre of gravity.
Bottom left looks like the dry sump
pump. The difference between this and a
standard oil pump is that it scavenges oil
as well as pumping it, and it scavenges
faster than it pumps, so the pan remains
quite dry – hence the name. If it didn’t,
the engine would drown in its own oil.
The Y-shaped casing on the front of the
engine is likely to cover chains, rather than
belts, taking drive from the crankshaft
up to the four camshafts.The pair of black circular covers at the
top of each Y form part of the variable cam
timing mechanism and give away the
position of each camshaft. Above that are
the air compressors of the twin BorgWarner
turbos. On top of each one, a black electronic
control unit opens and closes the turbo’s
wastegate on the ‘hot side’ of the turbo,
towards the rear of the engine, via a rod.
The two large ports at the top are the
turbo air intakes and the lower pair are the
exits for the pressurised air. Hoses will take
the intake air from the lower two ports via
intercoolers to the two throttle bodies on the
BATTERY TESTING GETS REAL
front of each plenum chamber
tucked under each cylinder
bank. On this prototype, they’re
made by the Italian fi rm Dellorto, which was
famous for its carburettors back in the day.
The three black blocks on top of the right-
hand side of the engine are coil packs, onefor each spark plug. In this confi guration at
le a s t , t he T M01 app e a r s t o h av e b ot h d i r e c t
and port fuel injection – an idea pioneered
by Toyota. To the right is a fuel rail (pipe)
for delivering petrol to three port injectors,
their black electrical connectors peeking out
above the rail. Three more direct injector
connectors are visible just below each coil
pa c k for de l i v e r i n g at om i s e d f ue l d i r e c t l y
into the combustion chamber.
The combination of the two gives more
scope for blending the torque of the engine
at different revs and loads with the hybrid
electric drive, while minimising emissions.
The testing of EV batteries and being able
to simulate real-life drive cycles in the
laboratory is an important part of improving
the breed, and Mahle Powertrain has just
opened a new facility to do exactly that.T h e fi r m i s fa m o u s a m o n g o th e r th i n g s
for making components such as forged
pistons for high-performance engines.
WHAT THIS PIC REVEALS ABOUT
ASTON’S NEW TWIN-TURBO V 6
UNDER
THE SKIN
JESSE CROSSE
Aston’s TM
is no revolution,
but the devil is in
the detail.
WHY HONDA IS BRINGING BACK DIALS
Not every car maker is
removing physical controls
from dashboards: Honda
has returned to some
analogue controls in thenew Jazz as a result of
customer feedback.
The Japanese company
has decided to reintroduce
heating and air-conditioning
controls via a dial rather
th a n a to u c h s c r e e n , a s i n th e
previous-generation Jazz.
Takeki Tanaka , the car’s
project leader, said: “We
wanted to minimise driverdisruption for operation,
in particular for the heater
and air conditioning.
“We changed it from
touchscreen to dial
o p e ra ti o n , a s we r e ce i ve d
customer feedback that
it was difficult to operate
intuitively. You had
to look at the screen
to change the heater
setting. Therefore we
changed it so one can
operate it without
looking, giving
more confidence
while driving.”
behind the development curve
of [Apple] Siri or [Amazon]
Alexa. Where the voice
control fails to recognise
what the driver is saying,
the safety benefits are lost.”
Andersson said that having
access to Google Assistant
voice control is “a key thing
we’re very excited about”
with the partnership.
The Google system is being
continually developed based
on real-world feedback from
its use in other smartphone
and electronics functions and
works with multiple languages
and accents. Andersson
claimed that “it’s well above
anything that’s in any car right
now”. She added: “It enables
you to speak in a much more
natural way, which is a safety
feature from our perspective.”
The hope is that suchimprovements might win over
people yet to be convinced
by voice control. But it’s also
about choice: giving drivers
multiple ways to control a car
so they can use whichever is
the most comfortable to them –
which will likely be the safest.
It’s clear from looking inside
any concept car that, like them
or not, touchscreens are
increasingly going to dominate
car controls. It reflects
demand. The key is ensuring
technology developments
make them ever safer.
JAMES ATTWOOD
Voice control is becoming increasingly receptive to natural speech
Audi’s new A3 has fewer buttons and more touchscreen reliance