Racecar Engineering Anniversary partners: 25 years as the leading motorsport technology publication 8 Volume 25 Volume 25YEARS OF INSIGHT August 2015 • Vol 25 No8 • www.racecar-engineering.com • UK £5.95 • US $14.50 9 7 7 0 9 6 1 1 0 9 1 0 4 McLaren MP4-30 0 Rebuilding the legend with Honda 8 Le Mans 2015 Le McLaren MP4-30 McLaren FIA investigates spinal injuries FIA investigates August 2015 Porsche wins Le Mans Pikes Peak electric Crash investigation We uncover the truth behind Rhys Millen’s one megawatt Peter Wright’s FIA study into its famous victory in France PP03 tackles Colorado hillclimb raised nose cockpit design RCE_Cover_AugustMBAC.indd 3 23/06/2015 12:42 UKpubs2015Allfluidfilters_Layout 1 2/11/15 9:47 AM Page 1 traordinary All-Fluid Filters 4 DIFFERENT SERIES. MODULAR. .TONS OF OPTIONS 71 SERIES - Our largest capacity filters. 2.47" diameter; 72 SERIES - Same large-capacity, 2.47” diameter body as Two lengths. 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[email protected] tel 562 861 4765 fax 562 861 5503 EUROPE JLS Motorsport [email protected] tel 44 (0) 121 525 5800 fax 44 (0) 121 525 4833 Untitled-24 1 05/06/2015 10:56 CONTENTS – AUGUST 2015 – Volume 25 Number 8 COVER STORY TECHNICAL 8 McLaren MP4-30 55 Consultant Woking’s vacuum-packed racer Di erent di erentials for FSAE 59 Aerobytes COLUMNS Clubmans cars in the wind tunnel Driving positions 5 Ricardo Divila 62 Could racecar seats be causing injuries? How racing got safer Danny Nowlan 7 Mike Blanchet 70 Is the motorsport industry in serious trouble? A look at the lot of the LMP2 owner 77 Tech update FEATURES F1 seatbelts and new GTE regulations 16 Honda F1 engine BUSINESS NEWS & PEOPLE The troubled RA615H power unit 24 Le Mans 24 Hours 82 Industry News Facts and gures from the big race Ford con rms Le Mans assault; A1 GP cars sold 36 Rebellion R-One 88 Racecar People LMP1 team’s engine switch Silverstone boss Patrick Allen on track’s new focus 39 SMP BR-01 92 Chris Aylett New Russian racecar Motorsport needs to do more to attract new fans 42 Drive eO PP03 95 Intercom Huge-power electric Pikes Peak racer What Racecar readers think of FSAE costs 48 Skoda Fabia R5 97 Products New VAG rally challenger The latest kit for all your racing needs 98 Bump Stop Skoda’s new Fabia R5 needs to take the fi ght to Ford and PSA and also live up to the reputation of its S2000 predecessor Subscribe to Racecar Engineering – nd the best o ers online www.racecar-engineering.com Contact us with your comments and views on @RacecarEd or on Facebook.com/RacecarEngineering AUGUST 2015 www.racecar-engineering.com 3 Contents_AugustMBAC.indd 3 23/06/2015 09:33 POLE PRECISION www.avl.com/racing Untitled-31 1 15/04/2015 12:21 STRAIGHT TALK – RICARDO DIVILA Safety fast How aerospace pioneers helped racecar designers to build safer cars o be absolutely honest, racing’s golden was to develop equipment and instrumentation so project. This ‘law’ states: ‘The universal aptitude age was somewhat less than 24-carat, aircraft crashes might be simulated, and to study for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment T as it involved at least a brace of drivers the strength factors of seats and harnesses. Human an incredible miracle.’ He would fit in very well in departing this hallowed Earth and joining the tolerance to the deceleration encountered in the world of motor racing. ‘choir invisible’ every year. It was rough out there simulated aircraft crashes could also be simulated. By riding the decelerator sled himself, in his and the cars were not that safe. ‘It was a great So what could be survived? Textbooks of the 29th and last ride at Holloman, New Mexico, Stapp race. No one got killed,’ Juan Manuel Fangio said day put 18g as the limit of human tolerance, but demonstrated that a human could withstand at of the 1958 Italian Grand Prix. was that really the limit? And if it wasn’t, could least 46.2g. (In the forward position, with adequate Car design did not take ergonomics, biology there be a way to protect a pilot during a high- harnessing). This is the highest known acceleration and biomedical science much in consideration, nor speed crash? Deceleration tests would go a voluntarily encountered by a human. was there any work done on the structures or long way in answering these questions, and so Also, Stapp reached a speed of 632mph, other safety features around the track. At Eau that became a John Paul Stapp, of rocket sled which broke the land speed record. This made Rouge straw bales on the outside of the corner did fame, research project. him the fastest man on Earth. Stapp believed that a great job of protecting the old rock face, but not The first run on the rocket sled took place on the tolerance of humans to acceleration had not so much the drivers. 30 April 1947 with ballast. The sled ran off the yet been reached in tests. He believed it is much These days, ecological conscious people at tracks. The first human run took place the following greater than thought possible. places like Nurburgring, Oulton Park, Monza, December. Instrumentation on all the early runs As a result of Stapp’s findings, the acceleration Rouen or Hockenheim would raise a huge outcry was in the developmental stage, and it was not requirement for fighter seats was increased about the dangers to the trees being considerably up to 32g (310 m/s²). damaged by wayward cars. Textbooks of the day put 18g as His work showed that a pilot could Some glimmers of safety were coming walk away from crashes when into the sport, with seatbelts for example. But the limit of human tolerance properly protected by harnesses if a whole gaggle of drivers didn’t like them, the seat does not break loose. strapping the belts up under the seat and Having established the preferring to be thrown out of the car rather human tolerance it became than stay for the barbecue that usually obvious that the frail spaceframes ensued. Masten Gregory made a name for of racecars needed some himself by standing up on the seat of the improvement, and that designing car heading for a crash so as to be thrown for crash strength and clear. In fact, he did it enough times to preventing intrusion into the class it as a technique. survival cell could increase the As Gregory said of his exploits in a survival ratio of drivers. Silverstone sportscar race in 1958, where On the chassis side he had lost control of his Lister Jaguar: ‘I mandatory crash testing brought stood up on the seat and stepped over the a new level of survivability, to the side. The car hit the bank and wiped out. XPB point that drivers and teams are I landed on the grass, I hurt my shoulder. In the old days a crash like this could be fatal, unless the driver jumped clear! quite blase about crashes, and It was paralysed for a while, but relatively the thought of coming back from little happened to me, really.