When the cars take the track at the Indy 500 a few weeks from now, the margin of victory might be directly attributable to the person in the driver's seat. Or it might be related to an engineering detail so miniscule most spectators have never heard of it. "Sometimes the advantage comes from splitting hairs and extracting every last bit of performance out of the car," Eddie Jones, race engineer for KV Racing Technology, told us.
[Five engineers will win a free trip to the Indy 500. Enter by May 9 at Littelfuse's Speed2Design contest. ]
At Indianapolis these days, that's the only way a driver will get take the traditional swig from a bottle of milk after crossing the finish line. At this year's race, on May 27, all the teams will use the same chassis from Dallara Automobili. And they'll all employ an engine from one of three manufacturers: Chevrolet, Honda, or Lotus. Engine displacement, electronics, aerodynamics, batteries, dashboards, and countless other system configurations are spelled out for the teams in the 203-page 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series Rulebook (PDF).
"It's really not the way it used to be many years ago, where you could build your own car, choose your own engine within regulations, and then go out there and run," Jones said. "It's really changed over the last couple of decades."
Tony Kanaan drove KV Racing’s No. 11 car at the Long Beach Grand Prix and will drive it again at the Indianapolis 500.
The unititiated might be shocked to learn that the engine displacement of the 230mph Indy car might be no bigger than that of the engine in their driveway. This year, displacement is limited to 2.2 liters on a V6 design. One of the few areas of technical freedom lies in turbocharging. Honda's engine uses a single turbo, while the Chevy runs with twin turbos. "Within those constraints, the month of May will likely show that those engines are pretty evenly matched," Jones said.
Pure racing car design has been stagnant for the last 20 years. From 1959 to 1979 was perhaps the most revolutionary time of car developement as mid engine cars, wide tires,disc brakes,spoilers, wings,ground effects all appeared in this time. The racing often became a parade of the fastest cars ahead of the rest and lost fans. Best example of this was the unlimited rules Can Am class, dominated first by Mclaren then by the Porsche 917 Can Am Turbo. I believe the 917 still holds the record for fastest closed circuit lap...Talledega at 240+mph. However the series soon died when all knew the Porsche would always win. Nascar meanwhile has just gotten rid of the 1957 Holley carburetor in favor of fuel injection!!
Beth: Jones said that the 200 data channels include some "math channels," which can crunch some of the numbers and help make sense of it all. That said, I think there's still a lot of manual data mining by the engineering team and the driver, too.
At least Formula 1 has more freedom to experiment with technology. Options are limited if someone wanted to introduce their new flux-capacitor powered engine to the world. 8^)
Beth, one effect of the tight rules is that driver skill, and luck on the track, is very important. Another is that the cost of the cars is kept within some limit. I saw a special where a famous driver talked about his cars in three series, Formula 1, Indy and NASCAR. The Formula 1 car cost ten times as much as the Indy car. Formula 1 has strict rules, but no standard for engines and chasis. This results in the high cost.
The engineering challenge in this highly restricted environment are still interesting and fruitful. It is just another twist on getting the most out of your mahcine.
I'm pretty surprised to hear that the Indy rules leave such little room for engine modification. It seems like everyone is competing on pretty much the same ground. That said, it's amazing how simple tweaks can cause the break out. I'm curious how the pit crews sift through all that data collected--is it a manual process, simply deciphering print outs or are they able to employ some modern data mining technology to help unearth the nuggets that will give them a competitive advantage?
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