Little Civic battleling Turbos at Hi-Land.

A little background on the Japanese Group A with this round at Hi-Land. Very high track that suits well turbo powered engines but you will notice the little Civic are not giving up !

Nissan wins at Barthust.

Here is how Nissan with its GT3 NISMO GTR and "video game players" have won after a race disrupted by no less than 20 safety car interventions. At the last restart the Japanese Katsumasa Chiyo has well erased his error that occurred in qualifying judge by yourself !

Congratulations to the entire NISMO team for this result !

RC F GT3 vs GT500. [Aero]

Despite their quite similar appearance FIA GT3 and Super GT GT500 are radically different. Without going into a high comparison, one is derived from a mass production car of  when the other is a prototype very cleverly disguised into a GT .

Photo par: オタク系男子

The RC F GT3 gets a 540ch V8 when his the GT500 hides under its hood a "modest" (much) over 500hp 4-cylinder. But the real difference lies in the design of both competitors and especially in their aerodynamics management.

Here the frame (commonly called tube) of a GT500:

This architecture (shared with DTM) enables more rigidity plus a light weight and a compact package but most importantly, to better manage the aerodynamic flow. Here's what looks like a GT500 bottom view. The following illustration shows a Toyota GT One but the principle is essentially the same (like all current proto sports ). The carbon tube is clearly visible here, the diffuser redirects the clean air flow above the flat bottom and around the tube. Sport proto and monoseaters cars try to get the largest volume of this air to the rear and mainly on the diffuser.

On Super GT, here's what it might look like (I do not know who is illustrator unfortunately).

This technique creates an extremely powerful ground effect and is responsible for the largest amount of downforce generated by a GT500. Indeed, if have compared the dimensions of the rear wings you will notice that the GT500 seems a lightweight compared to the GT3 one, yet the donwforce generated by the G500 is near the LMP one ! Obviously the rear diffuser plays an important role too. Finally here's a picture that can facilitate understanding the aerodynamic flow around each car.

On the GT3 and GT500, the air flow entering the engine bay is only used for engine cooling (heat exchangers, radiators) and supply engine air boxes. The heated air is directed to a low pressure area and significantly decreases drag generating some amount of downforce.

On the GT3 the airflow that passes under the car is routed directly to the rear diffuser when it is deflected on the flat bottom and around the tube on the GT500. The huge front canards on the GT500 create a low pressure area behind it (at the expense of a certain amount of drag) to improve the extraction of the airflow coming from the diffuser. Note that the little spoiler on the GT500 trunk helps to increase downforce on the FRONT axle.

German DTM cousins are very close in terms of aero GT500 but slow to adopt the 4-cylinder turbo engine, I can't wait to see them battling on the same track !

A revolution called Nissan GT-R LM Nismo

After months of expectations and speculations, the Nissan GT-R Nismo LM finally flood the internet of many pictures and lot of technical data Nissan shared for our pleasure. 

 Engine ! 

Contrary to rumors, the VRX30A NISMO 60° 3.0L V6 twin-turbo Cosworth is not made from any F1 engine, but rather an original product Nissan developed in partnership with the famous engine manufacturer. It has been developed from scratch, taking care of its positioning in an unusual environment. Turbo and manifold sits very high in contrast to what is usually done on LMP1, and for good reasons (see below). It would make 500 horsepower to the front wheels and coupled to a double flywheel kinetic energy recovery system of 8MJ reaching the WEC regulations limits would produce an amount of more than 1200hp... !

The double flywheel KERS (by Torotrack) is located under the drivers legs (seating in an almost extended position ) and sends the energy accumulated during braking to the rear wheel through a long transmission shaft. The 5-speed gearbox (bolted to the front of the engine) had the opportunity to be harmed during the filming of the promotional film aired during the last Super Bowl. At low speed behind the filming car, accelerations decelerations put some unusual stress to the lower gears and broke them. Which is not bad as these conditions are nearly the same as can be encountered behind the safety car (although thanks to the speed limit under yellow flag occurs more rarely track).

Here the packaging may seems really compact and it is! Everything is pushed upward to release the greatest possible volume at the rear of the front diffuser.

Tunnel ending. 

So you couldn't miss it could you ? The Nissan prototype is mid front engine type and front wheel drive but then, why such a solution? First of all, Nissan doesn't want to do and look like everyone else, and secondly this architecture offers many advantages in terms of aerodynamics. The new rules offer to have much more front downforce. The increase of downforce on the steering axle is much less harmful in term of drag penalty than the increase of downforce to the rear (under the current regulations). This being said, to best enjoy this rules what is more logical than moving the center of gravity forward ? (The more weight you have on an axle, the more downforce you put on it). The radiators are mounted before the front wheel center line, as said before the turbos and piping are tightly fitted very high in order to release the rear of the front diffuser to minimize disruption to the clean air flow. Another advantage about having the power train on the front axle, unleash the back of the car from aerodynamic stress and allows the creation of two tunnels feed by the front diffuser to either side of the tube.

To exploit this solution at its best, less wide tires sits on the rear axle (9 inches wide vs 14 inches !), They allow a larger flat bottom surface and a reduced frontal area. To further maximize the flow of the two tunnels, half-shafts transmissions have been raised and operate the 16 inches diameter wheels by a cascade of gears. For an even more aerodynamic efficiency, push rods and other conventional suspension systems have been quietly forgotten to a more compact system that reminds us something we had already seen on the Nissan ZEOD front end.

Thank you Nissan ! 

Weight distribution and effectiveness of such a set, could theoretically work at Le Mans without rear spoiler to further reduce the so damaging drag to improve energy efficiency advantage of this prototype. If this all seems perfect to win, however, is a detail to address not least, the weight ! Because all this transmission system is heavy, and rumors say Nissan has already reached the minimum weight allowed and without... the energy recovery system. In any case we can only welcome the WEC and the FIA for authorizing such projects, but also Nissan in his new way to communicate ! Thank you!

Toyota everywhere !

On January 30th Toyota announced his imminent (almost) return to the World Rally Championship but this annoucement was, only the tip of the iceberg ambitions of the Japanese giant, if you thought that Japanese manufacturers was ginving away from motorsport, think again !

Rally:
Since 1999, Toyota had not been officially involved in the WRC, however a mysterious white Yaris was spotted testing by Toyota Motorsport GmbH and Stéphane Sarrazin at the wheel. The Japanese campact will be powered by a 1.6 L turbo direct injection in accordance with the WRC regulations, and if Toyota has planed their come back for 2017, it would seem that the Yrais has already made thousands of kilometers of tests on all conditions !

No surprise here, Michelin will equip Toyota. Pilot hand, if we know that Stéphane Sarrazin, Sebastian Lindholm and Eric Camilli were solicited for testing, no official information was available about the crew selected for the 2017 campaign yet.



FIA WEC:
No major changes in endurance at Toyota, they are still planing to run two cars for the 24h du Mans. Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi, the defending champions will be joined by Kazuki Nakajima in the No.1 car and Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway will be in charge of the second car.

Nascar:
Toyota will still be in NASCAR in 2015 with Toyota Motors Sales (TMS) and Toyota Racing Development (TRD). The Toyota Camry and Tundra will be the Japanese brand representatives of the Japanese Sprint Cup Series, Xfinity Series and World Truck Series. Drivers side it is the US Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers who will drive the Japanese V8 powered cars.

Super Formula:
In addiction of having buried Honda's engine both in pure performance and reliability, Toyota will equip 10 cars from its 2.0 L turbocharged direct injection this year. Let's hope that Honda will be able to catch up it's late ! Note that the new  FIA Super Licence point access, will not help the popularization of Super Formula even with higher performance than GP2 cars. 50 points will be awarded to the winners of the GP2, against only 20 for the Super Formula winner. The new FIA F2 Championship best driver will get 60 points!

Super GT
After blowing the title for just one point closely with the LEXUS TEAM TOM'S KEEPER, Lexus comes back to GT500 with no less than 6 crews. Lexus RC F GT500 2015 will still be powered by the RI4AG 4-cylinder 2.0 L Turbo direct injection developed by Toyota Technocraft Co.Ltd.

In GT300, Toyota will still run the Prius apr GT but provides a parallel development of its RC F client version based on the GT3 regulations. The LM Corsa Team will run one of the 3 GT3 built. The differences between the GT3 and GT500 versions are numerous and deserve to be clarified, to see very soon on this blog.

Gazoo Racing:
The "made in Toyota" entity will be back to Germany for the famous 24h Nürburgring with two cars only. A Lexus LFA Code X, true development laboratory to be a possible contender of the great Audi and Mercedes SP1, and a brand new Lexus RC which we do not know yet the class in which it will compete.

Gazoo Racing will still race in the Super Taikyu with the Gazoo Racing Spirit 86 and the National Rally Championship with its Japanese Gazoo Racing Vitz Turbo. Throughout the year the brand will organize events throughout the archipelago which will be intended to merely to convey the fun of driving. The "Wakuwaku Dokidoki" days will feature workshops where emergency braking, slaloms, racing and sports driving training will be provide to everyone. The drivers will not be alone in the spotlight such as young mechanics will also be asked to get the basics of motorsports. If you are planning a trip in the archipel , please check the calendar of the entity and go to Tokyo Mega Web where many attractions are proposed throughout the year !

Toyota driving school:
 Toyota has invested heavily on monotype formulas trying to find the Japanese pearl that will shine to the world, especially with the F3, local FIA-F4 and future Formula Toyota Racing School where here too, the mechanics will be tested too.

As you can see, Toyota has still many ways to make thrilling seasons !

The MP4-30 livery

McLaren-Honda unveiled the MP4-30 livery disappointing at the same time many enthusiasts. If we were almost sure that the red and white combination would not be choose, we were however able to look forward to something more original ! The very famous McLaren orange Papaya for instance would have been a good choice for marking an historic turn. On the development side exept the new regulation nose, we will have to wait for the Spain tests to see the truly significant changes. Winter testing in Jerez will take place in few hours and the team will definitely have to do better than in Abu Dhabi where only 5 laps had been done.

Top Fuel, record breaker at Fuji Speedway !

It's done ! At the last HKS Premium Day, having already break the Suzuka Circuit lap record for the fastest Tuned Car, Top Fuel with Voltex Engineering support had made an amazing 1:39'131! Which means they are the fastest Tuned Car at Fuji Speedway too. The 1:38 range was reachable but an exhaust failure stopped them. Keep in mind that the 2014 GT500 (the fastest ever) lap times at Fuji are in the 1:30,498 for the best of them ! Astonishing ! (You can see some smoke in the cabin because of the exhaust failure.)