Oval Racing Technology
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Oval Racing Technology Issue 13 • December 2015 • www.racecar-engineering.com/stockcar Building the future FROM THE PUBLISHER OF Precision Center of Gravity & Moments of Inertia Starting at $350 Engineered by more than data. www.aerodyntech.com Untitled-115 1 17/03/2015 13:19 CONTENTS ou ni itte wa, gou ni shitagae; a with it new ways of doing things and new traditional Japanese saying which technologies. It did not do as others did. CONTENTS Groughly translates as: ‘When At around the same time NASCAR R&D you enter a village you should obey the was going through the process of introducing FORD TECHNICAL CENTRE village.’ We in European-dominated parts the Car of Tomorrow, something which Stockcar Engineering gets a tour of the Blue of the world would say: ‘When in Rome, also brought a new wave of oval racing Oval’s new hi-tech motorsport R&D facility do as the Romans do.’ technology with it. located in the very heart of NASCAR country Toyota, however, disobeyed the village ese two things have changed the face to an extent when it arrived in NASCAR. of stockcar racing forever. In the period since HAAS F TEAM And when Kyle Busch crossed the line at 2007, when Toyota first entered the Cup, Can a crack NASCAR outfit cut the mustard Homestead he achieved something no man to today, the sport is almost unrecognisable in Formula 1? We visited the Kannapolis base had ever done before, clinch the premier level from a R&D perspective. e new skills have of the nascent Haas F1 operation to find out NASCAR championship at the wheel of a car reached such a level that one team is even bearing the badge of a foreign brand. turning its attentions to Formula 1, while NASCAR AERODYNAMICS Sure, the Camry is a US-built car for the the domestic manufacturers like Ford are How an R&D project looking at the problem North American market, but I was taken now copying Toyota, and turning their of dirty air in the Sprint Cup led to a whole aback by how little was made of this victory. attention to the future. new aero package for the 2016 season Yes the driver had a great comeback story What the future holds is slowly becoming after serious injury at Daytona, but what of clear and there is greater change to come. STOCKCAR PRODUCTS the real milestone, NASCAR’s acceptance of ere will be new brands, new names and From wiring solutions to bellhousings; feast internationalisation and the cumulation of new rules, and it will become clear that the your eyes on our selection of the very best of Toyota’s new approach to stockcar racing? future is much sooner than anyone expects. motorsport products for stockcar engineers When it arrived in stockcar racing (the village), initially in the truck series then SAM COLLINS P S C, M B D O later in Cup, the Japanese marque brought Editor In the period since 2007, when Toyota first entered the Cup, to today, the sport is almost unrecognisable from a research and development perspective STOCKCAR ENGINEERING - – www.racecar-engineering.com 3 SPRINT CUP - FORD TECH CENTRE The Blue Oval oce Stockcar paid a visit to Ford’s new technical centre to see how it’s taking the fight to its NASCAR rivals with F1 spec technology By SAM COLLINS 4 STOCKCAR ENGINEERING - - www.racecar-engineering.com ‘Part of this sport is technology and that will have to come to NASCAR’ ord has not had a great 2015 2015 season. ough in reality the changes actual race teams themselves. We don’t just NASCAR Sprint Cup season. have long been in process, with the headline of go racing, we race to perform. We are going to While its old enemy Chevrolet Ford Racing morphing into Ford Performance go out on the track and perform and test new celebrated its 750th victory and the and absorbing various other operations at the technologies and innovations and bring that The Blue manufacturers’ championship, the same time. ‘e big shift within our company is into the rest of the product line in the company.’ FBlue Oval languished in third and last place, not just the name change but functionally how At the heart of this new hi-tech engineering with half the wins of either of its rivals. we operate,’ Pericak says. ‘We were supporting lead approaching to racing, especially NASCAR, Indeed, Ford’s last manufacturers’ our race team’s 100 per cent, nearly, out of the is a new facility in Concord, NC. While not much championship win was way back in 2002; its marketing group in the company and now that to look at externally, the Ford Performance Oval oce last drivers’ title two years later. In general, the has shifted to our product development team. Technical Center has been designed with the statistics are not great reading for the executives Our product development team has much more present and future of stockcar racing as its in Dearborn. ‘Overall we’ve struggled across all resources available, whether it is aerodynamics primary purpose. e 33,000sq.ft facility of our teams this year. We’re going to be making or engine, or no matter what it is. Realigning is equipped with a range of tools including necessary changes to strengthen everybody’s everything under product development within a K&C rig, which is in almost constant use performance,’ Dave Pericak, global director of Ford actually adds to a much larger team than by Ford teams which do not have their own Ford Performance, told the media late in the what we had before in order to support the facility. A torsional test rig is also installed as STOCKCAR ENGINEERING - - www.racecar-engineering.com 5 SPRINT CUP - FORD TECH CENTRE One of the most useful pieces of kit at the new facility is this Ansible Motion simulator. It’s fitted with a NASCAR buck but there are also plans for GT and road car bucks to be developed well as a centre of gravity rig and Co-ordinate from chassis. ose parts of the company will in racing that can apply directly back to their measurement equipment, though there is space benefit from this as will the individuals. Really work in production. at back and forth has for much more equipment to be installed as we look for people with four to five years of been really beneficial already. In mainstream new technologies emerge. experience in the company in that department automobiles there is a lot of pressure and As well as giving Ford’s teams and and we evaluate them to see if they would pace still, but it’s usually a three to five year in-house engineers a place to conduct R&D work benefit from working on motorsport for a programme, everything is quite long term. In in private, one of the other purposes of the new period of three years, after which we send them motorsport the cycle time is so much quicker.’ centre is to bring the production car engineers back to production with all those new skills.’ At the heart of the centre is a tool that is closer to the racing organisation. relatively new to NASCAR and requires people ‘We have made progress already in terms Skills transfer with new skills. Indeed, the skills to create and of not just going racing for the marketing e first group of engineers in the programme install such a technology are not even available department and giving teams money,’ have been working in the racing organisation for in the USA, instead they come directly from explains Mark Rushbrook, Ford’s motorsport about two years now, most of them in NASCAR, the world of Formula 1. Ansible Motion, a engineering manager. ‘We are able to bring but one is embedded in the new Ford GT Le company based just down the road from the more to it than our tools and technologies, Mans project. ‘It’s been great as they come old Lotus Formula 1 R&D centre in Hethel, though they play a key part. We have got new with lots of knowledge and experience of the England, was contracted to design and install people into this, too. We have a thing called the mainstream and then we put them in to this a highly accurate and innovative simulator in motorsports technology exchange programme. world and give them pretty key assignments the new facility in Concord. Now, according to at means that we identify the areas where and they see and understand what’s going on,’ Rushbrook, it is beginning to prove its worth. we think there may be a good opportunity Rushbrook says. ‘Often they are aware of tools ‘We installed it about two years ago, at that for exchange, so right now we have got two used at the OEM level that have not been in point we were totally focussed on NASCAR from the engine department, one from engine motorsport before but can be very powerful. On and had not planned ahead enough to take calibration, one from vehicle dynamics and one the other hand sometimes they see something on board what we would be doing with other 6 STOCKCAR ENGINEERING - - www.racecar-engineering.com One of the purposes of the new centre is to bring the production car engineers closer to the racing organisation Above left: The reception at the Ford Performance Technical Center celebrates the Blue Oval’s rich motorsport heritage. Modern cars and Roush Yates NASCAR powerplants are also on display Above: There is a variety of test rigs at the centre including a K&C, which is in almost constant use by Ford’s NASCAR race teams.