This year, when the Indy cars line up in the grid at the "greatest spectacle in racing," they'll be using engines with less displacement than that in a Volkswagen Golf or a Toyota Camry.
Don't worry, though. Participants in this year's race won't be circling the track at 55mph. The 2.2-liter V-6 engine limitation set forth by the IndyCar rules committee won't stop the vehicles from generating more than 550HP and reaching speeds in excess of 200mph.
[Learn more about the Indy 500 and Littelfuse's Speed2Design site.]
"We have virtually zero latitude with the engines," Mark Johnson, general manager of KV Racing Technology, told Design News. "We take the engines that the suppliers provide, put them in the car, and remove them when it's time." Still, they're able to squeeze every imaginable ounce of performance out of those little race engines, enabling them to produce more horsepower than a Corvette production car engine with three times the displacement.
KV Racing Technology will use a Chevy engine in its Indy vehicle driven by Tony Kanaan. (Source: Littelfuse)
Indy teams do that by turbocharging their engines and spinning the crankshafts at speeds up to 12,000rpm. The turbocharger boosts the performance by using an exhaust gas turbine to draw more air into the induction system, which, in turn, enables the engine to burn more gasoline.
This year, the IndyCar rules committee will allow three turbocharger sizes, depending on the Indy race course: large oval tracks will be permitted to boost the air induction pressure to 1.3 Bar; smaller ovals will top out 1.4; and road courses will reach 1.55. The 1.3-Bar turbocharger boosts the engine's horsepower to about 550HP, while the 1.55-version stretches the horsepower to about 700HP.
"For every Bar of boost over atmospheric, you're functionally doubling the displacement of the engine," said Russ O'Blenes, manager for racing powertrains at General Motors (GM). "So a 2.2-liter normally aspirated engine with an extra Bar of boost will think it's a 4.4-liter engine."
By boosting engines that already have a relatively short piston stroke, manufacturers can turn the engine's crankshaft faster, which produces more horsepower. This year's engines will operate in a range between 1,000rpm and 12,000rpm.
GM, which produces the Chevy engine employed by KV Racing, is opting this year for twin turbochargers to provide the boost for its engines. The issue of twin- or single-turbocharger design is one of the few areas where engine manufacturers -- including GM, Honda, and Lotus -- are allowed some leeway.
"Each engine manufacturer weighs the pros and cons of twin or single, and then they make their decisions," O'Blenes said.
"The twin weighs a little more and gets packaged on either side of the engine. The single gets packaged behind the engine. Either way, there are packaging and temperature issues that need to be considered. There's also inertia. People will sometimes run twin over single because they're smaller and spool up faster, which reduces turbo lag."
Instead of worrying about drivers getting killed at 300 MPH, why not start using robotic vehicles? Driving a car around a track provides me with as much amusement as watching grass grow, but for those who enjoy it, a robotic car competition might bring back some of the excitement.
Alcohol as fuel, who knew? I'd rather drink than drive.
If you want to make racing apply to production cars, Let them do anything with the cars but limit them to a fixed number of gallons of fuel to make the 500 miles. Thedn you will see them tune the cars like real world cars with performance per gallon burned as the crieteria.
If you want to make racing apply to production cars, Let them do anything with the cars but limit them to a fixed number of gallons of fuel to make the 500 miles. Thedn you will see them tune the cars like real world cars with performance per gallon burned.
Myron raises an interesting point, but it's bit more difficult to compare than expected. Indy cars run on alchohol, not gasoline, so the power/fuel profiles are different. It also affects cooling and lubrication, since alchohol burns cooleer and 'drier' than gas.
I've been fortunate in my hobby (check my label); one of my friends is a former Indy mechanic, so i know a tiny bit more than most. He got out of it because of the changes in engine rules. He builds engines and is independent - not much for him to do at Indy any more. He spends his time building Bonneville engines and helping build the occaisional friend's personal engine - like mine (grin).
At this point, I think the rules are driven by survivability of the driver. NASCAR has the same issue. They keep choking down the horsepower to a level that keeps the speeed at about 200 on the "super" speedways. Today it might be fairly easy to create a car that would exceed 300 mph on the straights at Indy, but every wreck would kill the driver. So, they are relegated to creating rules that keep the speed down to a relatively survivable 200-230 MPH. This tends to make the competition rather boring at times.
Maybe it would be more interesting if they would opt for some kind of governor system that would simply limit the speed, and allow the teams to decide what power profile to use. For example, some teams might go for a lower power, but higher mileage profile, others for brute acceleration, etc. The high mileage teams would try to make up time by skipping pit stops, and the high power teams would try to make it up out of the corners, etc.
700 horsepower seems a lot, but is it?These engines get these numbers by flowing a lot of fuel and air through the engine.The real question is:how efficiently is that fuel used?Let's see a comparison of stock and various race engines with their brake horsepower per pound of fuel per hour to really judge these engines. Most gasoline engines are about 25% efficient, but I wonder how efficient the present-day Indy engine is?
Another comment: the way the Indy Car series is run, car construction and engine design is so tightly mandated that the "spectacle" is reduced to a "spec racer" series with virtually no room for creativity in these design areas. Gone are the exciting days when a chief mechanic could wave his "magic screwdriver" over the engine or chassis to wring out a few more miles per hour in qualifying. Now we have contrived rules to help make a "show."How about setting a max (but reduced from the gumballs used today) tire width and a maximum front/rear wing area, and max engine displacement, and let the boys and girls have at it.Reduced tire size and downforce-generating wings will mean the drivers will have to lift the throttle to round the turns and thus put driver skill back into the equation.The cars of today have enough of that fabled down force to drive upside down (if you had an inverted road), thus drivers can and do drive flat-out around IMS's four turns.So, let's put more of the driver into the show.I truly love the beautiful Miller cars of the 1920s and 1930s, but their tremendous speed combined with running on steeply banked board tracks produced a high speed parade that left fans bored. Today, Indy cars run in a procession with passing mostly done during fuel and tire stops.Is this racing?Let's hear your thoughts....
That's a really good question, Rob. GM told us that that the tie-in between racing engines and production engines is very strong. A lot of the processes and procedures are carried over from the racing side to the production engine development side. Also, because much of the technology is now the same (i.e., overhead cams; four valves per cylinder; direct injection), both sides can benefit. GM also places an engineer on site at Ilmor Engineering, which engineers the race engine. O'Blenes told us: "Everything he learns will be brought back to help us work on our production products."
Nice article, Chuck. With all of the effort and dollars poured into the development of these high performance engines, is there any spillover into commercial and consumer engines? I would think and automaker would like to get more out of this than doing well at Indy.
This is interesting. These engines use lots of "standard" naterials and parts. On the other hand, they are race engines, so they are tuned up to get maximum horsepower. It is interesting that they are using the smaller block engines. I understand that standardizing on engines cuts costs. I would think though, that for a series that originates in the US would be more into the big block V8. I expect that the cost would be lower with that type of engine.
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