Racing Car: October 2014

Composition and Design Considertions of Racing

Unlike the ordinary vehicles in the daily life in which engine accounts for a major function. Moreover, in the racing cars, chassis, suspension, tires and body structure also plays a significant role due to the special racing track and rules. The design requirements of racing are different according to different categories of racing.

Taking Formula 1 Grand Prix (F1) as an example. In F1 racing field, speed is everything, the technicians in each motorcade never stopped improvements of racing car in pursuit of speed, every improvement would be a perfect progress. However, it is admitted that there is never a racing team with the exactly same design of racing cars in each race.

Originally, Grand Prix Formula One is defined that a vehicle which has at least four wheels which are not in a line, where at least two wheels for steering and at least two wheels for driving." More specific definition refers to the Formula One racing that the cylinder volume is 3.5 liters, power of engine is about 600 hp and a maximum speed is 315 km. Here the "formula" takes a certain format, it means to the strict rules of the car weight, length, width, distance and the size of tires. In all Formula racing, Formula One racing is the most senior level.

FIA (International Automobile Federation) requires the displacement of engine in racing car is 3L and 12 cylinders below, naturally aspirated engine without the supercharger. Chassis should be manufactured with carbon fiber for the manufacture due to lightweight and strong intensity. Furthermore, chassis is very low and only 50-70 mm minimum clearance from the ground. Compared with ordinary cars, F1 racing has many unique characteristics including thin and long body structure, low ride height, the large wheels very are conspicuous and completely exposed.

Here introduced the composition of F1 racing and related design considerations.

Chassis: Chassis which locates under the vehicle is a major part of F1 racing, the main component is a single shell connecting with all other components. The chassis of F1 is made from carbon fiber composite material, and polyethylene.

Cylinder: cylinder is a part of the engine where combustion power is generated. The fuel gas mixture combust in the cylinder pushing piston reciprocating in the cylinder.

Diffuser: Diffuser is an air outlet at the bottom rear of the vehicle which plays an important role in F1 racing aerodynamics. Pressure is obtained by generating the low pressure area under the bottom of the body and it is the main source of racing raising top and bottom pressure in the high-speed corners.

ECU: Electronic Control abbreviation unit which is used to control and record all electronic F1 racing program, it is installed in the car's black box.

Engine: Engine, a 2.4 liter V8 engine is normally applied with F1 racing with the request of weigh must be more than 95 kg.

Front Wing: the front wing making under pressure for the front part of the body, therefore, it is an important component in F1 aerodynamics. In each race, the team of each motorcade will improve the front wing depending on the different requirements of under pressure for a particular track. In addition, the driver can also do the front wing adjustment in the course of the race, the main content of the adjustment is to change the angle of the wing attached.

Fuel: Fuel, super unleaded gasoline is used in F1 racing, in which the composition must meet the FIA rules and strict emissions standards of EU. In order to ensure the legitimacy of fuel in each team, FIA will conduct random checks at every races. Before the season, the manufacturer must provide a sample to the FIA in order to serve as a model for the record.

Gear box: gearbox transmits power with a certain speed or the gearbox reduction ratio, F1 prohibit the use of automatic continuous transmission, and must be forced to be equipped with a reverse gear. Currently, the number of gear for F1 is the seven-speed gearbox.

Head and Neck Support (HANS): head and neck protection system which is introduced since 2003 is used to give the driver's head and neck to provide additional protection. Following the head and neck protection system to prevent the driver's spine back strain, but also to prevent rejection before the riders head hit the steering wheel.

Tires: Tires used in F1 are currently provided by Bridgestone tires, in accordance with the technical rules, the width of the front tires is not more than 355 mm, rear tires are not more than 380 mm and the tire edge diameter is no greater than 330 mm. To improve the performance of the tires, the tire manufacturers provide specific recipes for almost every race tires, the hardness of tires is mainly determined by the track and racing characteristics.

Slicks: slicks are a kind of tire without tire tread grooves. FIA announced to abandon the use of slicks in 1997, but they are re-enabled in 2010. Due to the large slicks ground area, so the grip ability of slicks is very strong so that the car speed in the corners is very high.

Intermediate Tires: intermediate tires, located between the dry tires and rain tires, intermediate tires have more grooves than dry tires, rain tires have more than the ground area. It is used when the track is wet or drizzle.

Wet-Weather Tires: rain tires, rain tires are used in racing when it is raining with high drainage performance preventing the wheels and the ground to form a film of water to ensure that the tires stick to the ground.

Nose: the nose, known as the "nose." The first half of the F1 car, for safety requirements, it must meet the front and side crash tests. Nose cone also has the function of protecting single shell in the crash.

On-Board Camera: car camera locating on the car body is a mini TV camera, it can be installed on the car's gas tank, mirrors and front and rear wings in order to provide real-time dynamic screen when in practice, qualifying and the race.

Petrol: fuel, only the super unleaded gasoline can be used for F1, although it is largely the same with No. 98 unleaded petrol which can be get in an ordinary gas station, but the F1 fuel added additive to ensure the faster and better combustion. In addition, it is lighter than ordinary commercial gasoline. Each motorcade are allowed to choose fuel suppliers and must submit to the FIA fuel sample was used for testing before the start of the season.

Rear Light: taillights, it is used to reduce the risk of rear-end security device. When the racing use rain tires, taillights must continue to light up. Taillight is composed by 30 light-emitting diodes, the size is not smaller than 6x6 cm and is required to the installation of at least 35 cm away from the reference position of bottom part of the car.

Rear Wing: tail which is also called a swept-wing is mainly to create down-force for the rear axle, the design of rear wing must adapt to the track, and the steeper the flap, the greater down-force and also, the rear wing design and the surface angle can be further improved as a part of the design of a car.

Video: F1 2012-Awesome Race at Malysia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X9NEZ7plFQ

REFERENCE http://www.baike.com/wiki/F1

Motocade/Racer

Motorcade

Motorcades are definitely critical in the car racing, here listed the information about ten motorcades which are from different countries including the first & second racer and motorcade standings rank.

Racers

When mentioned racer, it had to say Michael Schumacher, he was Born in Hürth, Germany and a Formula One racing driver. Schumacher is one of the greatest Formula One (F1) drivers and almost refreshed every record in his first 16 years of his career. He achieved seven-time Formula One (F1) World Champion and was the only driver to win the championship in Germany.

However, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg are also well-known racers and have obtained awesome performance. The following is the latest racer standings rank.

Video: Drag Race:Mclaren MP4-12C VS. Ferrari 458 Italia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTYDqHPl5jU

REFERENCE: http://sports.sina.com.cn/f1/team/McLaren/
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1

Racing Track

Car racing has over 100 years of history, the first racing game is on April 20, 1887 in Paris. The earliest racing is on the road between the cities, there were many riders killed, because of the risk of racing road, so the professional race tracks came into being. Some famous racing tracks are listed in the table below.

Racing Track	Lap Length	Total Length	Total Laps	Record	Racer
Albert Park track	5.303km	307.574km	58 laps	1’24’’125	Michael Schumacher
Shanghai International Circuit	5.451 km	305.066 km	56 laps	1’32’’238	Michael Schumacher
Circuit de Catalunya	4.627 km	305.256 km	66 laps	1’15’’641	Fisichella
Istanbul track	5.338 km	309.356 km	58 laps	1’24’’770	Michael Schumacher
Nurburgring	5.148 km	308.863 km	60 laps	1’29’’468	Michael Schumacher
Valencia track	5.440 km	310.080 km	57 laps	1’38’’708	Massa
Monza	5.793 km	306.720 km	53 laps	1’21’’046	Barrichello
Suzuka	5.807 km	307.573 km	53 laps	1’31’’540	Kimi Raikkonen
Abu Dhabi track	5.554 km	305.470 km	55 laps	None	None

In terms of Shanghai International Circuit, it belongs to Shanghai International Circuit Co., Ltd. which was established in February 2002 with a registered capital of 3 billion yuan. So far, they have successively completed major projects as the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai building; the introduction of the 2004 to 2010 for seven consecutive years, one of the world's three major sporting events F1 World Championship, and successfully hosted the 2004 independent, 2005 China petrochemical F1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Introduction of Auto Racing

Auto Racing is a sport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. There are numerous different categories of auto racing.

Categories

1.Formula Racing

The best-known variety of single-seater racing, Formula One which hosts the famous Monaco Grand Prix, involves an annual World Championship for drivers and constructors.

In single-seater (open-wheel) the wheels are not covered, and the cars often have aerofoil wings front and rear to produce downforce and enhance adhesion to the track. In Europe and Asia, open wheeled racing is commonly referred to as "Formula", with appropriate hierarchical suffixes. In North America, the "Formula" terminology is not followed (with the exception of F1). The sport is usually arranged to follow an "international" format (such as F1), a "regional" format (such as the Formula 3 Euro Series), and/or a "domestic", or country-specific format (such as the German Formula 3 championship, or the British Formula Ford).

2. Touring Car Racing

Touring car racing is a style of road racing that is run with production derived race cars. It often features full-contact racing due to the small speed differentials and large grids.The major touring car championships conducted worldwide are the V8 Supercars (Australia), British Touring Car Championship, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), and the World Touring Car Championship. The European Touring Car Cup is a one-day event open to Super 2000 specification touring cars from Europe's many national championships.

The Sports Car Club of America's SPEED World Challenge Touring Car and GT championships are dominant in North America. America's historic Trans-Am Series is undergoing a period of transition, but is still the longest-running road racing series in the U.S. The National Auto Sport Association also provides a venue for amateurs to compete in home-built factory derived vehicles on various local circuits.

3.Stock Car Racing

In North America, stock car racing is the most popular form of auto racing. Primarily raced on oval tracks, stock cars vaguely resemble production cars, but are in fact purpose-built racing machines which are built to tight specifications also called Silhouette racing cars.

The largest stock car racing governing body
is NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto
Racing). NASCAR's premier series is the Sprint Cup Series, its most famous races being the Daytona 500, the Southern 500, the Coca-Cola 600, and the Brickyard 400. NASCAR also runs several feeder series, including the Nationwide Series, and Camping World Truck Series (a pickup truck racing series). The series conduct races across the entire continental United States. The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series conducts races across Canada and the NASCAR Toyota Series conducts races across Mexico.

NASCAR also governs several smaller regional series, such as the Whelen Modified Tour. Modified cars are best described as open-wheel cars. Modified cars have no parts related to the "stock" vehicle for which they are named after. A number of Modified cars display a "manufacturers" logo and "vehicle name", yet use components produced by another automobile manufacturer.

There are also other stock car governing bodies, most notably the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA).

In the UK, British Stock car racing is also referred to as "Short Circuit Racing". This takes place on shale or tarmac tracks – usually around 1/4 mile long. The governing bodies for the sport are the Oval Racing Council (ORC) and BriSCA. Both bodies are made up of individual stadium promoters. There are around 35 tracks in the UK and upwards of 7000 active drivers. The sport is split into three basic "divisions" – distinguished by the rules regarding car-contact during racing. The most famous championship is the BriSCA F1 Stock Cars. Full contact formulas include Bangers, Bombers and Rookie Bangers – and racing features Demolitions Derbies, Figure of Eight racing and Oval Racing.

4. Sports-Car Racing

In sports car racing, production derived versions of sports cars also known as grand tourers (GTs), and purpose built sports prototype cars compete within their respective classes on closed circuits.The premier championship series of sports car racing is the FIA World Endurance Championship. The main series for GT car racing is the FIA GT1 World Championship. There is also the FIA GT3 European Championship as well as the less powerful GT4 European Cup. Previously, an intermediate FIA GT2 European Championship existed, but the FIA dropped it to cut costs. Other major GT championships include the Japanese Super GT championship and the International GT Open for GT2 and GT3 cars. There are also national GT championships using mainly GT3 and GT4 cars featuring professional and amateur drivers alike.

Sports prototypes, unlike GT cars, do not rely on road legal cars as a base. They are closed wheel and often closed cockpit purpose built race cars intended mainly for endurance racing. They have much lower weight and more down force compared to GT cars making them much faster. They are raced in the 24 hours of Le Mans (held annually since 1923) and in the (European) Le Mans series, Asian Le Mans Series and the United SportsCar Championship. These cars are referred to as LMP (Le Mans prototype) cars with LMP1 being run mainly by manufacturers and the slightly less powerful LMP2 cars run by privateer teams. All three Le Mans Series run GT cars in addition to Le Mans Prototypes; these cars have different restrictions than the FIA GT cars.

Another prototype and GT racing championship exists in the United States, which began in 2000, the Grand-Am, sanctions its own endurance series the Rolex Sports Car Series which consists of slower and lower cost race cars compared to LMP and FIA GT cars. The Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series announced a merger between the two series forming the United Sports Car Championship starting in 2014.

These races are often conducted over long distances, at least 1,000 km (621 mi), and cars are driven by teams of two or more drivers, switching every few hours. Due to the performance difference between production-based sports cars and purpose-built sports prototypes, one race usually involves several racing classes each fighting for their own championship.

Famous sports car races include the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 24 Hours of Spa-Franchorchamps, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, and the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. There is also the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring on the infamous Nordschleife track and the Dubai 24 Hour which is aimed at GT3 and below cars with a mixture of professional and pro-am drivers.

Other Categories

REFERENCE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_racing