Materials to
know
What comes after
carbon fiber? Nobody is
sure, but racers are
looking at some new
materials such as
graphene, a latticework
of carbon atoms that is
both immensely strong
and also highly electri-
cally conductive,
making it ideal for
battery terminals,
semiconductors, and
possibly structural
elements. Also,
advanced electric
motors are increasingly
dependent on hyper-
exotic steel alloys that
are both strong and
highly magnetic.
Produced in sheets no
thicker than tissue
paper, the steel gets its
required shape by being
stamped from the sheet
and then layered up by
the thousands into
ultra-efficient rotors
and stators that
generate more torque
for a given current. The
costs are high, however;
one Formula E team
says it takes about 100
pounds of such steel–at
$140 per pound–to
make each motor.
—Candid
cameras
NASCAR isn’t known for
tech innovation, but its
new Pit Road Officiating
(PRO) video system
substitutes a crowd of
pit-lane officials with 40
to 50 cameras, depend-
ing on the venue, which
monitor the pits during
a race. The video feeds
to a single trailer where
computers can detect
potential rule violations
and flag them for closer
examination by race
officials. Instead of
dozens of officials
risking their safety in
the pits, eight stewards
in the trailer plus some
sophisticated software
handle the officiating in
a fast-moving sport
where there are no
timeouts for review.- FE ATURE. CAR AND DRIVER. MAR/2017
OUT OF OUR HEADSProdrive head-gasket-less engine
We all know that head gaskets seal the cylinders of an engine block where it meets the head. But once the
gasket is blown, it’s game over. England’s Prodrive, which builds and fields rally cars and built a special
Subaru boxer-four for an Isle of Man TT time-trial car, wondered if it could create a smart head gasket that
recognized imminent failure and was able to tell the computer to dial back the boost and spark advance
accordingly. Its solution is an engine with no head gasket at all. The idea may someday find its way into mass
production as automakers try to extract ever more performance from smaller turbocharged engines.SUPERCOLLIDERPORSCHE 911 RSR
Last year at Le Mans,
Porsche could only stand by
helplessly as Ford invaded
its turf and cleaned up in
the production-based GTE
Pro class with a, ahem,
barely legal purpose-built
racer. Well, Porsche ain’t
taking it lying down. It hasunleashed the 911 RSR,
which at this point it won’t
even talk about. Why are we
talking about it? Because it
looks amazing in pictures,
and it’s almost as if it’s
powered by half a Porsche
917, with its naturally
aspirated mid-mounted
flat-six. Also, it has a radar-
based anti-collision system
that should help the driveravoid nasty interclass
accidents, a common
phenomenon at Le Mans.
The 911 RSR takes advan-
tage of radar, video, and
computer-analysis tech that
is increasingly deployed in
road cars—there as step-
pingstones to future
autonomy, here as a way to
avoid becoming a bug splat
on an LMP’s windshield.(^1) Copper “fire
rings” nestled
into machined
grooves at
the top of the
cylinder seal
the combus-
tion chamber.
(^3) Once the leakage stops, the rings are
able to go on with their job of sealing,
unlike a traditional head gasket that fails
only once. The malleable rings also act as
detonation dampers, helping cushion the
blow of premature fuel ignition.
(^2) Small
channels lead
out to pressure
sensors.
When cylinder
pressure
exceeds the
ring’s sealing
ability, the
engine-control
computer
dials back
turbo boost
and spark
advance.