checkered wrote:Toyota engine chief says KERS 'primitive', Autosport - February 20th, 2008
Autosport, quoting Luca Marmorini from the latest issue of Autosprint wrote:The adoption of energy recovery leaves me rather perplexed because the system chosen by the FIA is really primitive. (They are) extremely simplified compared to the system we have on the Toyota Prius road car, or even on the Toyota Supra HV-R that won the 24 Hours of Tokachi. The potential of hybrid engines is immense, but the solution chosen by the FIA restricts itself to recover energy from the rear wheels. The parameters involved should be more.
Let's say that, if the Supra that races at Tokachi recovers 70% of the dissipated energy, the system chosen for F1 restricts itself to 20%. This system will end up being the same for everyone too, and in this case we'll refer to it as an accessory, devaluing a great technical issue along the way.
Luca Marmorini's main point is that the system chosen by the FIA is "really primitive", especially in comparison to systems Toyota has designed and developed for current road car applications.
To which Marmorini refers that the FIA restrictions are for recovery ONLY from the rear wheels, and that this restriction will limit energy recovery to about 20%. It seems to me that he would prefer recovery from both the rear and front wheels, which is how the Supra HV-R recovers energy (not sure about the Prius though).
Making extremely simple assumptions, by involving both the front and rear axles in the recovery process, the expected energy that would be recovered would be about ≥40%. But even though the energy "recovered" would approximately double, the total weight of the car would also increase substantially, since the system would have to increase in size (thus increasing weight naturally) and/ or expanding the system to other areas of the car. Which might be a problem due to the limited amount of free space on the current F1 platform. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
In this thread they are discussing KERS in F1, 4 pages total. Great discussion I might add.
Atlas F1 Bulletin Board- Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS)
An extract from the first post:
ATM_Andy wrote:
KERS Rules for 2009:
The use of any device, other than the 2.4 litre, four stroke engine and one KERS, to power the car, is not permitted.
With the exception of one fully charged KERS, the total amount of recoverable energy stored on the car must not exceed 300kJ. Any which may be recovered at a rate greater than 2kW must not exceed 20kJ.
The maximum power, in or out, of any KERS must not exceed 60kW (81bhp). Energy released from the KERS may not exceed 400kJ in any one lap. Measurements will be taken at the connection to the rear wheel drive train.
Any KERS may only be capable of increasing the stored energy whilst the car is moving on the track. Release of power from any such system must remain under the complete control of the driver at all times the car is on the track.
Cars must be fitted with homologated sensors which provide all necessary signals to the SDR in order to verify the requirements above are being respected.
Any components required as part of a KERS will be controled by the SECU
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Supercars.net: 2007 Toyota Supra HV-R