1.21 Gigawatts?

Buckle in guys, here's the long promised article on LMP1 hybrid subclasses.  Sort of.  All four LMP1-H manufacturers have declared which hybrid subclass they will be running in this year, and official preseason testing is underway at Paul Ricard, meaning for the first time (that I'm aware of), we have some hard data that we  can judge the 2015 LMP1-H cars by.  For 2015 we have the full range of hybrid subclasses covered.  Nissan's car will run in the 2 megajoule class (the lowest hybrid subclass), Audi's car increases from 2MJ in 2014 to 4MJ for 2015, Toyota remains a 6MJ car, and Porsche increases from 6MJ to 8MJ, making it the first 8MJ car entered in WEC competition.

At this point your asking what the heck is all this megajoule stuff and why do I care?  I won't go into a ton of technical detail (this isn't Mulsanne's Corner, and I couldn't explain what a supercapacitor is if my life depended on it), but I do feel that a very basic understanding of the hybrid systems on these cars is important to understanding the strengths and weakness of the various machines.  Like I've said before, I'm not an automotive engineer, and I don't have any insider information, so this article might contain a few (or many) technical errors, but I do the best I can.

Okay, so what is the deal with these hybrid subclasses.  The FIA rulebook for the LMP1-H cars has four hybrid subclasses based on how much electric energy the car is allowed to use per lap to supplement the power produced by the internal combustion engine.  (In case any engineers are reading this, I know I know a Joule is technically a unit of work, not energy, but frankly I can't be bothered to care about unit consistency at the moment, so just deal with it).  The FIA rulebook contains equivalency rules that attempt to balance out the performance of the various subclasses.  Specifically, if your car is in a lower class (like Nissan and Audi), you are allowed a higher fuel flow per lap, meaning you should get more horsepower from the internal combustion engine, while the higher hybrid subclasses (Toyota and Porsche) are allowed to use more electric power, giving them a stronger boost out of the corners from the car's electric motors, but they have a lower fuel flow per lap.  What this means that in theory, each car is given the same amount of potential energy per lap either in the form of gasoline (or diesel if your Audi and insist on using the same basic engine you find in a Caterpillar D7 dozer) or stored electric energy.

In the world of the WEC though, some hybrid subclasses or more equivalent then others.  Just looking at car performance in 2014 for a second, it is easy to see that the 6MJ Porsche and Toyota performed better then the 2MJ Audi.  No one has ever confused me for being a mechanical engineer, but if we look at some general performance numbers for internal combustion engines and electric motors, you can see some basics reasons why a higher hybrid subclass (done properly) is a better design.  According to my technical sources (okay, I went to Wikipedia), internal combustion engines have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 25% to 30%.  This means that of the energy released by the burning fuel, only 25% to 30% of that energy actually moves the car forward.  Electric motors on the other hand have a theoretical efficiency of 100%, with a practical efficiency of around 90%.  Let's put that perspective for a second.  The real world efficiency of an electric motor is three times greater then the theoretical efficiency of an internal combustion engine.  Now let's logically think about how this applies to racecars.  Each car is (basically) allowed to use the same amount of energy per lap, but if more of the energy is electric, a greater percentage of that energy will be used for actually moving the car, instead of making heat and noise.

Thoroughly confused yet?  Yes?  Good.  At this point, you're also probably asking, who let me on the internet?  Good question.  You're also probably asking if the larger megajoule subclass cars are faster, why don't all the manufacturers just run in the 8MJ subclass?  Two reasons.  First, storing energy for an internal combustion engine is as simple as adding fuel to the tank, but to the teams can't add extra electricity to the cars during pit stops.  If they could, Formula E would be a lot more interesting.  Instead, teams have to recover waste energy over the course of the lap and store it as electric energy (think Toyota Prius on steroids).  The higher your subclass the more energy your recovery system needs to able to scavenge per lap.  It's easy to claim that you have an 8MJ car, but that's only true if your energy recovery system can scavenge 8MJ's worth of power.  If you declare your car into a subclass were you can't recover enough energy, not only are you not taking full benefit of the hybrid system, your internal combustion engine will be down on power compared to a car in a lower subclass using the same amount of electric power due to lower fuel flow number for the higher hybrid subclasses.

Assuming your head hasn't completely exploded yet (or you left to watch cat videos on Youtube), there's even more things for teams to think about.  All this equipment to scavenge and store the electric energy, plus drive the wheels, weighs a lot.  So, not only do you need to make sure that your hybrid system is efficient enough to generate the amount of electric energy needed for your subclass, you need to make sure that car isn't too heavy.  Kind of hard to go fast through the Mulsanne chicane when your effectively giving a baby elephant a piggy back ride.

I'm guessing that none of you are still reading at this point, and those that have are yelling at their computer at all the technical mistakes I've made.  To summarize though, performance of the 2014 LMP1-H cars suggest that the higher hybrid subclasses have a speed advantage, but only if the energy recovery system can scavenge enough electric energy, and do so without turning a svelte racecar into a porker.  Team's who can't overcome these two technical challenges are better of entering their car in a lower hybrid subclass.

I'm leaving out some of the fine details of the hybrid systems on these cars, but this article is too long as is, and I think I've hit the high points.  Tune in tomorrow for a trade mark Racing Nerd uninformed analysis of the 2015 WEC LMP1-H competitors.

Dear Nissan, Different Doesn't Always Mean Better

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge Nissan fan, but I might be a GTR LMP1 fan.  I'm kind of a sucker for weird, slow, race cars.  While few people would disagree with me that no one is going to confuse the Nissan with any other car in the paddock, some people might be claiming that it is too early to say that the GTR LMP1 is going to get it's lunch money stolen by Audi, Porsche and Toyota.  Those people don't read racing news.

Thing's haven't been going well for Nissan lately.  The exceptional Mulsanne's Corner has been following and speculating on the development of the GTR LMP1 since the beginning of the project.  The latest news from the guys over at Mulsanne's is that Nissan will not be racing either at the WEC season opener at Silverstone, or the following race at Spa.  The reason for this is that Nissan failed their FIA crash test.  Specifically, they need to have the car homologated 30 days before they can race it.  This puts Silverstone completely out of the question, and Spa (if Nissan had chosen to run Spa), extremely difficult.  That means that the car will make it's debut at Le Mans.  In addition to the Nissan's shake down run being the most important race on the calendar, Nissan has limited testing miles under their belt.  According to the cover story in the March issue of Racecar Engineering, Nissan has only 2,000 kilometers of testing on the car, compared to 40,000 kilometers of testing that Toyota had when they debuted their car.  Unconventional car, limited testing, and late debut to the race season, I don't possibly see anything that could go wrong here.

Of course, if the Nissan could live up to the car's original billing, then they still might be a force to be reckoned with.  According to RACER's March cover story however, Nissan has slowly been adjusting everyone's expectations downward.  Originally, Nissan was shooting for 2,000 horse power with all wheel drive (internal combustion engine driving the front wheels and hybrid drive system driving the back wheels).  This has been adjusted downwards to 1,250 horsepower.  Also troubling is that originally the car was supposed to run in the 8MJ hybrid subclass, but Nissan is now anticipating running in the 4MJ or even 2MJ subclass.  The speed comparison of the 2MJ Audi to the 6MJ Toyota and Porsche last year showed that when it comes to hybrid LMP1 cars, you want all the megajoules you can get.  But wait, it gets worse.  Nissan designed the original concept of the car assuming an 8MJ hybrid system driving the rear wheels.  With the smaller hybrid system, Nissan has decided to lighten the car by getting rid of the heavy drivelines that send power to the back wheels and send all of the power to the front wheels.  You read that right.  The GTR LMP1, Nissan's flagship racing car, is front wheel drive.  Just like an Altima.  Nissan claims that they feel they can make this concept work with a combination of high downforce (which is Nissan is to be believed is the car's true strength), and advanced traction control.  Personally I'm still not buying it.  Nissan is asking the front tires to do all of the work, and no matter how advanced the engineering, there are certain laws of physics that Nissan can't change.  

Racecar Engineering reported that the GTR is running sub-two minute lap times at Circuit of the Americas.  Pole time at COTA last year was 1:49.  Depending on what is mean't by "sub 2 minutes" Nissan could either be a few seconds of the pace (still significant), to almost ten seconds off the pace. Either way, they have work to do.

To be fair, lots of cars have significant issues their first year, but with Nissan it seams like the hits just keep on coming. If Nissan can build a car that matches the GTR LMP1's original specifications, they will have a car that is the class of the field.  The real question is can they sort out the car's problems before Nissan decides to cut their losses. 

Remember when Cadillac Built LMP1 Cars?

Both RACER and Racecar Engineer have cover stories this month about Nissan's LMP1 car.  I'm working on an article giving a bit of a status update on the GTR LMP1, and some of the teething problems that Nissan is having with the car, and unlike my article on WEC hybrid subclasses that is still suffering in writers block hell, this one will actually see the light of day.

Anyway, as I was reading about Nissan, I remembered another odd manufacturer adventure into LMP1 racing, the Cadillac Northstar LMP1.


The Cadillac Northstar LMP01, which Cadillac campaigned for the 2001 racing season

Truth be told, the Cadillac wasn't weird in the way that the Nissan is weird.  The Cadillac was a fairly conventional prototype racer.  As the old saying goes, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then by the end of the Northstar LMP's development life, Audi must have been blushing, because the car looked a lot like an Audi R8 in Cadillac clothes.  What was so odd is that Cadillac, the company that for years was famous for building low performance land yachts that were slightly larger then a Nimitz class aircraft carrier, decided to go sportscar racing.  Also, the "Northstar" name wasn't just a subtle nod to Cadillac marketing, the car was powered by a highly modified, race prepped, twin turbo version of the Cadillac Northstar V8 engine.  You know, the same engine that was in your grandfather's Cadillac Deville.

Cadillac campaigned these cars for three years between 2000 and 2002 with one goal, win at Le Mans.  As most of you know (or at least can guess) they were less then successful at this.  Cadillac had two basic problems.  First, during the three years of the Northstar LMP program, Cadillac only ran a limited race schedule.  In 2001, Cadillac debuted the Northstar LMP01 (the 2001 redesign of the car, pictured above) at Le Mans.  The story wasn't much different in 2000 (where they ran at Daytona and Sebring prior to going to France) or 2002 (where they only ran at Sebring prior to going to Le Mans).  I'm convinced that had Cadillac actually raced the cars prior to the biggest race of the year, instead of trying to figure it out as they went, the cars would have been more successful.

A limited schedule was only half of Cadillac's problem however.  Although the Northstar prototype was only in existence for three years, there were three different versions of the car, the Northstar LMP (2000), the Northstar LMP01 (2001) and the Northstar LMP02 (2002, pictured below).  The 2001 car was essentially the 2000 machine with updated body work for improved aerodynamics.  The 2002 car was a completely different car however, with a new chassis, new aerodynamics and modified and improved engine and transmission.  The reason Cadillac kept trying to reinvent the wheel every year is that they entered sportscar racing at roughly the same time Audi was starting to grind the competition into dust and Cadillac was doing everything they could think of to build a car that could catch the Germans.  Again, if you ask me (and no one is, but that doesn't stop me from talking), the team had to deal with the issue of trying to come to grips with a new car every year and had limited race time prior to Le Means to work out the bugs.

The Cadillac LMP02, which was campaigned in 2002, and was the last of the Northstar prototypes.



Race car historians judge the Cadillac program as a failure, with the car never finishing better then third at any race, and never better then ninth at Le Mans.  By the end of the car's life however, there were moments were you could see potential in the car.  Had GM decided to continue developing the car, committed to running full seasons, and handed the program to a top notch race team like Pratt & Miller, we may have seen Cadillac been able to go toe-to-toe with Audi in the years after 2002.  Or maybe I should stop taking nips from the cooking Sherrie.

Mario Kart or Mario Andretti?

This weekend's Daytona 500 means that the worst of the racing duldrums are over, and we can expect to watch fast cars from now until November (except for IndyCar and their six month schedule, but we've covered that ground before).  Still, most of the major racing series, at least that we watch in North America, are still getting up to full speed, meaning there isn't a lot to talk about yet.  So, I was looking over some back stories I missed the first time around when I reread an article that at least one of Nissan's LMP1 drivers at Le Mans will be a GT Academy graduate.  For those of you who aren't aware, GT Academy is a program where Nissan cherry picks the best Grand Turismo players (yes, the PlayStation game) and tries to turn them into race car drivers, and I think this is a much bigger deal then most people give it credit for.

Before we get too far along, I want to talk about the development of my own interest in racing, because I think it applies here.  When I was about 14 years old, I had two interests, cars and video games, but not racing.  I couldn't drive the Corvettes, Porsches and Ferraris I read about in Motortrend, but I could pretend to drive them in games like Need for Speed.  So I did.  While I had a lot of fun pretending to be Sunny Crocket in my virtual Ferrari 355, it ultimately left me wanting.  I knew this wasn't really how these cars drove.  I wanted an experience that was more authentic, so slowly my interest started to drift to the more realistic racing simulations by Papyrus, famous for their hyper realistic NASCAR simulations and their brutally challenging Grand Prix Legends.  These games got me interested in real world racing, so I started watching NASCAR, and then things spiraled out of control.  I started watching other forms of racing, like F1 and the now defunct American Le Mans series.  This got me interested in different kinds of racing sims, which got me interested in even more racing series.  Next thing you knew, I was watching DTM racing and the Isle of Man TT coverage on Speed Vision.

Since I was thoroughly obsessed with racing, I obviously wanted to be a race car driver.  I started trying to learn about how one becomes a race car driver, and was crest fallen when I learned that it all comes down to money.  Which I didn't have.  I was watching Formula 1 drivers, the youngest of whom were only a few years older then me, who had been racing carts for years.  A season of serious carting may cost $10,000 or more,  and I didn't have $10.  It didn't take a genius to figure out that pursuing a career in racing wasn't the best use of my time.

And here in lies the problem with traditional driver development.  To get your foot in the door, you need the money to buy yourself a ride, because no one's going to give you a car to wrap around the Armco.  So, unless you come from a family that can financially support your early racing efforts, with no guarantee of success, you'll never be a professional driver.  Now enter GT Academy.  Suddenly, the highest barrier to entry for trying to be a race car driver, the financial barrier, has been removed.

I'm convinced that professional drivers getting their start in simulation racing (as us enthusiasts like to call it, because these aren't games, their "sims") are going to be the exception rather then the rule for at least the foreseeable future.  Until we start seeing GT Academy graduates win races at the highest levels, the pro teams are going to be skeptical of drafting racers from the sim world, but I think the importance of GT Academy goes beyond driver discovery and development.  It gets a new generation of fans interested in racing.

Read through RACER's "IndyCar 2018" series of articles.  In that series, a topic that keeps being brought up is that the millennial generation of fans might like motorsport, but they like the fast paced, instant gratification style of racing found in Formula Drift and Global Rally Cross.  Traditional circuit racing like NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula 1 just looks like guys going in circles for hours on end to these kids, but these same millennials who wouldn't dream of watching a two hour Grand Prix, will watch a NFL game that is at least as long.  I think the reason for this is that a lot of people have first hand experience with traditional stick and ball sports in school (ie, they played stick and ball sports in school).  Because of the high financial barrier to entry in motor racing that prevents gaining first hand experience, kids don't get to learn about the subtle strategies and race craft which makes watching a race exciting.  Sim racing is the analogy of playing high school football.  If sim racing gave a teen a chance to be a future Indy 500 winner, or Formula 1 champion, especially if they wouldn't have that opportunity anywhere else, don't you think that would make more teens interested in sim racing?  I do, and I know from my own experience that an interest in sim racing can make a person a life long fan of real racing.

For racing to have a bright future, we need to have a new generation of fans.  If no one is watching the races, racing is eventually going to whither and die.  If things like GT Academy can democratize the entry into professional racing, and in turn broaden the base of people who are interested in racing, then I'm all for it.  Having more people watching the races can only be a good thing.