Tried but failed

[FB]

Just 'cos I'm bored at work here's a real techy one. When Ferrari when down the turbo route in 1980 they had two options, traditional turbo chargers or a pressure wave supercharger. Now I had to look up how this works but the main difference, from what I can tell, is that the the fan blades (I'm sure there is a more technical name) are spun round not only by the exhaust gases but also by a belt drive off the engine.

Presumably this was being considered as it drew less power from the engine than a normal supercharger but may eliminate turbo lag of a normal turbo system as you don't have to spool the turbo up. Here's a novelty, the image I've found shows a single fan being driven by the exhaust gases and compressing the air into the engine. Neat, apparently this has only ever been used on a few road car applications, which seems like a waste of a very clever piece of tech.

Here's the system in the back of the Ferrari - not a very pretty installation.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Just to check, are you saying FB that a 4 cylinder engine for example, would have one fan per cylinder?

The issue I could see with that is engine cooling. Very quickly the hot air directly from the exaust outlet into the fan would heat things up and the in coming air would arrive in the engine quite hot and less efficient. There would be no room for an inter-cooler in line with each individual turbo. Or it would have to be a pretty big package.

 

[FB]

No, it's a single unit which runs off the exhaust manifold on one side and feeds to the inlet manifold in the other. Not so easy with a V6 engine but perhaps simpler with a straight 4. And then you need a output from the engine to help mechanically drive the fan as well.

 

[FB]

For those who don't understand my explanation here's the Wiki page which explains things a lot better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_wave_supercharger

 

[cider_and_toast]

Right, got it.

As I thought, the temperature is increased by using the exhaust gas without an inter-cooler however wow! what a neat little system.

I initially thought from the diagram that the exhaust gasses were turning the fan as well as the belt (which you can't see in the picture) but the belt obviously does the turning while the gas does the compressing.

Just thinking about the design, shape of the tubes and timing to enable the tube to close preventing the bulk of the hot exhaust entering the inlet side and causing the exhaust to bounce on a closed inlet to exit on the outlet side and draw more air in. That makes my brain go fuzzy.

A very neat bit of design work.

 

[sushifiesta]

I'm probably being dim but if the flow of the exhaust gases is directly compressing the air input to the engine why is the fan needed?

 

[cider_and_toast]

sushifiesta after my reply from FB about the number of fans per cylinder it all became clear. The fan is needed to direct the compressed gas up the relevant path of the inlet manifold. Therefore as it rotates it opens each path way. So the pipe work for a four cylinder engine would be one cold air inlet, four outlets (one for each cylinder inlet valve), one exhaust air inlet and one exhaust air outlet but with four branch connections to match the cold air outlets.

 

[siffert_fan]

The Lotus 56B. Proof that a turbine doesn't work in F1.

 

[siffert_fan]

The eyesore Cosworth F1 car which, along with the Matra MS84, McLaren M9 and Lotus 63 proved that 4WD doesn't work in F1.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Jenson's fuel fail in testing, he ran out of fuel giving his mechanics some leg exercise, maybe he did an extra lap..

 

[Bill Boddy]

Maybe he was told to keep going until he ran out of fuel.

 

[cider_and_toast]

While on the subject of wing cars. This is a model of Tony Rudds design for the 1969 BRM. It got as far as running in the wind tunnel before BRM's star driver, John Surtees, found out about the project (Source It was fun: Tony Rudd's biography) and demanded that the BRM management shut it down as it was diverting resources from that season car development. The plan was to have it up and ready to race for the 69 Italian GP. In the wake of its cancellation Rudd and fellow designer Peter Wright walked out and joined Lotus where much of their work found its way into the Lotus 78 and 79. Imagine though, if this car had made it on to the grid. Not only would it have revolutionised F1 but imagine the leap forward made by the 78 when launched in 1977 and then imagine where we would be now if that launch had taken place some 8 years earlier.

 

[The Artist.....]

What about the Eifelland F1 Car??

 

[FB]

Back to the Arrows A2, I didn't realise it had double skirts but this photo shows them really well.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I don't think they are double skirts FB. I believe they are at the rear of the car and inside the rear wheels. I think they are an easier solution than that of the Lotus 80 in carrying the skirts all the way to the rear of the car.

If you look at the rear wheels, they are inside the line of the side pod, I think the side pod skirts run up to the front of the rear wheels and then there is a step, gap, in and the second skirt goes to the rear of the car.

On the type 80, Lotus filled this gap with a skirt that formed an S as shown below:

According to it, they defied any and all attempts to prevent them getting stuck inside the side pods when the car bumped and bounced. With the sliding skirt jammed up in the box, the downforce went with it.

 

[siffert_fan]

C_A_T

According to Mario, the 80 produced so much downforce that the chassis couldn't handle it, and the whole thing flexed. They wound up putting a reinforcement "collar" around the inside of the cockpit (as they did on the 79), and then it started popping rivets at various places, including the spring perches.

For Chapman, lightness was all-important, and strength was the enemy of lightness.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Yeah, I think Mario used the term "as stiff as wet lettuce" when talking about it.

I think Len Terry said that Chapman had difficulty understanding the difference between strength and stiffness but then the two of them never really got on.

 

[siffert_fan]

Mario has always been one of my all-time favorite drivers. He was peerlessly honest, even about his own mistakes, and could always be counted on to coin a good phrase. One of my favorites was at Indy practice. Mario had smacked the wall, and a reporter asked him what happened. Mario's reply--"I went into the turn too hot, ran out of talent and hit the wall"

You have to love honesty like that!!.

 

[cider_and_toast]

From what I've read, he really brought the concept of "set up" to F1. That's why Chapman was such a fan. While Colin loved natural drivers like Jim Clark or Ronnie Peterson, I think he really appreciated Mario for his ability to read a car rather than drive around the problems like Jimmy or Ronnie. Mario's attention to detail was perfect for setting up fragile cars such as the 78 and 79.

I've read that Mario wanted to stick with the 80 and was sure he could dial the problems out but Chapman was less interested in F1 by that time and Carlos Reutemann had more influence in the team and didn't want to spend the time chasing a dead end when the 79 was perceived to be the car to beat.

Chapman wanted to keep Carlos and assured him that he would be number 1 for 1980, which Carlos didn't believe but the fact that he made that promise would have been enough to tell Mario that his time at the Team was coming to an end.

Obviously I am a little too young to remember Mario at Lotus but I do remember him giving Mansell a run for his money at Newman-Haas in the early 90's. I've read in Mario's own words that he never got on with Mansell (and who could blame him) but at least Mansell's challenge gave him a last fling at the top step.

Another great all round driver who's legacy is vastly underrated I think.

 

[siffert_fan]

Mario could win in anything. Besides winning the WDC and Indy 500, he won the 12 hour Sebring race in a Ford GT, and any driver will tell you that 12 hours at Sebring is harder on car and driver than 24 hours at Le Mans. He was also winning everything when teamed with Ronnie Peterson in the Ferrari 312PB prototype.He also won in NASCAR.

There were rumors going around at the time that Mario was setting up Mansell's car the first season, while Nige would go off and play golf. Mario didn't appreciate that. The second season, Mansell had to do his own set ups, and his performance suffered accordingly.