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About our team W
ith an aim to revolutionize electric mobility in India while focusing on sustainable technologies, IIT Bombay Racing is India’s premier Formula Student Electric team. We engineer high performance electric race cars to compete at Formula Bharat and Formula Student UK,which is Europe’s largest educational engineering competition attended by over 10,000 people and 110+ teams from all over the world and is also covered by the BBC network in the UK. Started by a small group of motivated engineers in 2012 in a tiny lab in the Mechanical engineering department, the team now comprises of 100+ highly enthusiastic undergraduate students from across all departments at IIT Bombay. We started with internal combustion engines, and made the switch to electric powertrains in 2012, after the BAJA competition. Vayu, our premier edition car, bagged the first-ever Indian perseverance award at FS Michigan and also won the best new-entrant award, competing with 25 other debutants. 1
It has been a long journey ever since, progressing from Agni to the Prithvi series, we then shifted to electric vehicles. This marked a significant milestone in our progress. The first electric Formula student race car in India, Evo was built by us in just six months followed by Evo 2.0, which cleared all the scrutineering criteria to participate in the dynamic events, making us the first Indian team to achieve such a feat. By the third attempt, we were able to complete both, including the endurance test. Since then, we have made incredible progress. We have developed Aluminium Honeycomb Monocoque Chassis, Carbon fibre A-arms, a hybrid planetary gearbox and also incorporated regenerative braking.
IIT BOMBAY RACING One of the most revered teams in India today, we are continually striving with the same never-say-never attitude that we started with and are now capable of manufacturing carbon fibre parts entirely in house. We have designed and built 12 cars, with the 13th one on the way for the next competition. This year, we ranked 4th overall at FSUK, and stood 1st in the Engineering Design event. We also won the Formula Bharat Design event. We have also been winning the Formula Student Award for having the best year-on-year growth for 6 consecutive years.
Among our sponsors, the most notable would be our own institute-IIT Bombay- which has always supported us in our endeavours. However, equally significant are our sponsors, NRB Bearings, Mahle, and Wipro 3D among others. This dream would never shape out into reality if it weren’t for their help. Starting out with no idea of what had to be done to succeed, but with the will to do whatever it took, we have come a long way and, along with the support of our sponsors, hope to achieve new frontiers in the electric vehicle domain, creating unmatched engineers in the process.
This journey is made possible only through the support of our sponsors and Industry collaborations. With their help, the team conceptualised and 3D printed titanium wheel uprights. We also designed our battery management system and our in-house aero package happens to be an innovation to reckon with.
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NRB BEARINGS - Handling Friction, Smoothly Aditya Shah
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f the name NRB Bearings sounds oddly familiar to you, but you can’t for the life of you remember where you know it from, let us help you out. Odds are, you’ve been watching the stock market (or more realistically someone in your family was on CNBC while you ate Doritos straight out the bag regretting the series of life decisions that brought you to that moment). That’s right; NRB Bearings is one of the hottest stocks on the NSE, and a key driver in the auto industry. In fact, as of today, 90% of vehicles that ply Indian roads, run on NRB parts.
Interestingly, only 63% of roads in this country are paved. This means that if you pick a random car, it is more likely that the car has an NRB component in it, than the car being on an actual road!
“...if you pick a random car, it is more likely that the car has an NRB component in it, than the car being on an actual road!” However, this success, did not come overnight. NRB Bearings has been at it since 1965, and was born as an Indo-French joint-venture with the Nadella group. For over 50 years, NRB has pioneered bleeding-edge roller bearing technology. In the late 90’s, post the liberalisation of the Indian economy, NRB transformed itself from being a componentsupplier, to a company that provided full-scale
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IIT BOMBAY RACING friction solutions, from design to delivery. They leveraged India’s nascent IT industry, and using this country’s engineering strengths and setting up an inhouse Research and Development Centre, propelled themselves to the top of the bearing wars. Its global client list includes most industry leading firms viz. Getrag, Honda, John Deere, Maruti Suzuki, Mercedes Benz, Volvo and ZF just to name a few. NRB controls close to 70% of the market in India for needle bearings and globally is a market leader in automotive cylindrical bearings with a growth rate of 46% in this segment; this is in spite of the German and Japanese competitors having set up their manufacturing facilities in India. Today NRB operates 8 manufacturing plants, and exports bearings and associated products to its customers across 26 countries.
would not exist without NRB Bearings, and their unwavering support. NRB Bearings has been our largest sponsor for the better part of a decade, and our relation continues to grow stronger. They help the team out with components, machining and sweet sponsorship cash. Our relation with NRB began with the introduction of the Prithvi 1: our first off-road vehicle. Then, with their support, we moved on to electric vehicles, and went on to compete at FSUK, where we ranked 1st in Engineering Design globally in 2020.
At this point you’re probably wondering why we made you read this stuff. How is this relatable to the IIT Bombay Racing Team? Well allow us to explain. Simply put, the IIT Bombay Racing Team
Today, NRB is the Title Sponsor of the IIT Bombay Racing Team, and together, we develop the fastest electric formula-style racecar in India.
the IIT Bombay Racing car EvoK at the biennial auto expo component held in delhi in the year 2020
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Interview with Harshbeena Zaveri by Srushti Bhamare
Vice Chairman & Managing Director
How did being a non-engineer and woman at a time where there were fewer women in the automobile sector make that difficult and how did you move past that and do what was to be done?
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hen I joined the company as a trainee my aim was to become knowledgeable as a shareholder and promoter before I returned to the US to study law or public policy. However, the early 90s were turbulent times for industry and we faced one challenge after another. My degree in anthropology and Urban planning with a focus on migration and cultural change and demographics gave me totally different perspective on the opportunities before us. For my science requirement (in a liberal arts college in USA, you have to take some courses in all fields) I took Astronomy and I was fascinated by quantum mechanics and the ability of some human beings to ‘see’ things differently from those around. Thus, I was always driven by looking for what others didn’t see and a bigger picture quantum approach vs the Newtonian physics and constraint theory that most of the mechanical engineers around me had embraced. The more they focused on why something couldn’t be done, the more I became like the bumble bee who flies in spite of all aeronautical theories (which prove why the bumble should NOT be able to stay afloat!) 5
In the late 90’s when digitization was just setting in, I realized that technology was moving towards analysis and was more software driven and India’s nascent IT industry gave us an edge; I sensed an opportunity. I felt that we could leverage India’s IT and engineering strengths and evolve into a friction solution provider instead of a commodity bearing supplier. We took a leap of faith to become technology independent and focus on developing products with an eye on the future -fuel efficiency and light-weighting technologies. This propelled NRB, to become a recognized leader in disruptive technologies and customized friction solutions.
IIT BOMBAY RACING In one of your interviews, you had mentioned how you love crisis and disruption, what did it take in those vulnerable times, whether it was the recent lockdown & shutting down of places or the old 1992 liberalisation. What do you think kept you driving across all of these situations? The critical leadership traits that will serve you in managing in such a crisis are: • Authenticity • Empathy • Passion • Demonstration of calm along with • Optimism At the same time not losing the opportunity to leverage the sense of urgency a crisis brings. The key is to implement and create supplementary plans which were inevitably the correct things to do. The fact is - it’s not easy to get support from people on such plans in a non- crisis situation. I have always been excited by such situations as it gives a leader a chance to prove themselves and also being out the bear in their people. I am driven by the Chinese definition of a crisis where two characters when placed side by side – one the character of opportunity and the other the character of danger come together to form a new word: crisis. A simpler way to explain this to my team why this is exciting and not something to be feared is with the fun visualisation that a rainbow can only emerge after a storm is the quote – “Don’t wait for the storm to pass, learn to dance in the rain” I am not Perfect . But I care for all of my employees and NRB as perfectly as I could, and along with my family, NRB has been my world. The real competitive advantage in any business is one word only, which is PEOPLE (Kamil Toume- Writer & Thought leader) and that is a fundamental belief that underscores all my efforts.
world goes topsy-turvy that can make or break a company! In the same sense, that one’s personality and attitude only matter when things aren’t going right for you. Otherwise, it’s just there. It’s part of you. But when you face difficulty your flexibility and your character strengths really come out into the open. We completely restructured our company, trained our entire management team during lockdown period to understand Cash Flow Management and gave them attitudinal training for short term goal orientation. We took the responsibility for achieving results away from them for 4 months and vested most critical decisions to a committee which engages formally with each function on a weekly basis through an entire day. The idea was to SIMPLIFY decision making, collate all incoming information over that week and explain exactly what the goals were for the upcoming 4 weeks. This took the anxiety away and created deep mutual trust and respect for leadership team as most of what they said came true. We created focus areas and realised the world will not be same for 18 months, if ever.
Thus, at NRB, we decided our advantage was People and Culture. If culture is like personality and character, then it matters deeply to what extent the organizational culture is adaptive to (both)external and internal realities. If it’s not adaptive, that makes a great deal of difference in a situation when everything changes and there is lots of turbulence - when the
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MILESTONE IIT Bombay Racing is delighted to have associated for many years with a company that is so passionate for innovation and engineering. NRB has been one constant source that has been fuelling our success and helping us outperform ourselves with each passing year. While we are incredibly grateful to NRB for supporting us consistently, we’ve always wondered, why us? Why IIT Bombay Racing?
First of all, I feel very strongly that Whatever initiative anyone takes in hand, especially if they consider it an important or a strategic initiative, should be on goal. It’s not a question of doing a little bit and then stepping back and doing a little more and stepping back. We carefully chose institutions that we want to support. Long term support has always been our approach. Secondly, to ‘engineer’ means to make, to create things! IITs are one of the few institutions that teach engineering in the more practical and the way it should be taught, but here too there is almost no real, hands-on exposure, the way IITB Racing gives the students who join this initiative! For us preserving the “Spirit of Engineering”- making things, the way German and US university education emphasizes is critical. Almost all engineers in our country are not making something (doing enough of that!) in their 4-year degrees as part of the course curriculum. Flexibility and an open mind and pursuit of passion are crucial to success. My son, who graduated from engineering for the first two years in his 4-year degree course in the US- Then he changed his mind. After finishing most of the mechanical requirements, he fell in love with applied Mathematics, so he decided to make the change and graduated in applied maths and political science. So here in India, you cannot graduate in a non-science field when you are doing engineering. Over the years, we have had many passionate engineers at NRB from IITB, and I know how committed many of your deans are, which is why we love supporting you. The third reason is our system does not support experimentation, implementation and detailed working; everything is very theoretical, and therefore you don’t really get much experience in creating things. My approach is to help them visualize the
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goal and the bigger picture, so students learn to do this and then zeroing it to the finer points. Here the tendency to teach Newtonian physics first and only introduce quantum mechanics much later makes our engineers’ thinking narrow because they believe the world is the universe. Engineers’ brains get hardwired, and they cannot grasp the three-dimensional and four-dimensional approach. Most of them cannot think about a realm without gravity. Many of them can’t even understand the infinity of numbers. The whole concept of the theory of constraints becomes fundamental to the entire mindset. And a person who does not have an engineering background can sometimes actually solve the engineering problem due to the absence of a constraint mindset. Racing here has kind of taught you to think beyond the obvious and become independent thinkers - IITB has a culture out of all IIT’s that I appreciate the most because I find the students here are more courageous and open-minded in terms of their futures and have that courage and conviction to be different. That this initiative is entirely run by students who care about the experience and not just their grades - I really love that. So, I want to support IIT Bombay Racing.
Grades are only important to get your first job or into a post-graduate program. IITB racing students develop their minds; we are a mobility-focused company that engineers friction solutions. We can mentor not just technically but also mentor in terms of mindset, attitude and hone their ability to become winners and to take losing in their stride - which is more important than to be a winner. Those who persist and who are very comfortable with losing, they actually can fly. Ability to lose and get up and start again, to take risks, is essential, and IITB Racing gives the chance to fail and improve again from that. This is very valuable for future leaders
IIT BOMBAY RACING A lot of readers are students of the institute or other technical teams that are around us. What would be the message that you would like to leave them with? My message to you all is - Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Trust your ability to learn from your mistakes and that this trait helps you become a leader and create truly worthwhile discoveries and inventions and be more successful than you would have been otherwise. If you are open to small mistakes, you are less likely to make big mistakes.
from and what they look like. Treat people how you would like to be treated. And strive hard to be the best version of yourself.
The second message is not to fear charge and challenges - a crisis is an opportunity, and crisis management is essential; if everything is going wrong, be calm. A still mind is essential for good decision-making. Panic never helps in any situation. If there’s something that makes you survive, it is a calm mind in the crisis. It’s vital to train your brain to have the right habits. If there is a crisis or calamity, breathe deeply stay calm, stay focused and always blank down everything that, if possible, even joking about it reduce the nervousness. A sense of humour will serve you well in most situations in life! The last message is to treat everyone equally irrespective of background, gender colour, sexual orientation, where they come
Trilochan Singh Sahney, Founder
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Interview with Jehan Daruwala by Nikita Dipali and Jagadish Arul
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oncluding this F2 season with a sensational victory, the 22-year-old Mumbai-based racer of the Red Bull Junior Driving team made history and gave Indian motorsports enthusiasts the perfect end to 2020. India’s hopes of competing again in F1 can only glimmer brighter with Jehan’s recent performance. Here is his take on the season and beyond in an exclusive interview with Milestone. How does winning Bahrain GP feel? It feels good to have won the F2 race in Bahrain. The season didn’t start the way I had anticipated. I knew I had the pace but the issues I had with the starts kept taking me backward. Midway through the season, things changed, and I was fighting for positions in the top few. The podium and the win in Bahrain was special as I finally stood on the top step in this season. I felt proud hearing the Indian National Anthem and I hope to take this forward to the next season. How does it feel to have made history, given that you’ll be remembered forever for being the first-ever Indian to win a Grand Prix in 2017? The New Zealand GP that I won in 2017 will always be a milestone in my career. It was the final race of the Toyota Racing Series that I had participated in. My name on the trophy among other racing legends feels special.
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Who is your racing inspiration? Do you have a role model? Well, I have always been a fan of Fernando Alonso. My inspiration would be Senna. The role model in reality is my father who inspires me to be a good human being above all else.
How and when did you get into racing? I used to kart as a 9-year-old recreationally with my dad when we saw an ad for a 3-day karting camp that got me hooked. After that, I participated in the Nationals in India and won it the next year. We then karted at the Asian level where I was very competitive as well. Finishing as a runner up in the “One in Billion” hunt changed my life as it threw open the opportunity for me to race and compete in the UK and Europe among the very best. Post that I moved to single-seaters and finally this year made the shift to Formula 2.
IIT BOMBAY RACING
Who/What would you attribute most of your success to? Success, I believe, is relative to what one wants to achieve and I still have a long way to go. Having said that, my success to-date has been a combination of many things. I am fortunate to have the support of my family without whom this wouldn’t be possible. I have a fantastic team of my coach and fitness experts. Describe your experience inside a mechanical marvel like a formula car. It’s a feeling like no other. I miss it off-season and can’t wait to get back into the car. The adrenaline rush, the desire to compete, all of it is exhilarating, to say the least. How has the journey of climbing up to F2 been?
with its fair share of giving up time with family and friends – I moved to the UK and went to boarding school there at the age of 13 as it was challenging to keep traveling from India for every event. So, I only used to meet them at the races and the holidays in winter. I love coming back home whenever I have a reasonably long break.
What do you feel about the F2 season so far? How different does it feel from F3? The move from F3 to F2 is quite a step. The tyres are different and so learning to adapt is essential. Every race weekend has different tyre compounds as well so what we use in free practice is not the same compound that is used in qualifying. The variable keeps changing depending on weather, driving style, track temperature, etc. It’s a huge learning curve and one that I have worked hard on this year.
The journey has been good as at every step I felt like I am moving closer to my dream. It has come
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What goes on in your mind right before a race starts? I generally follow a routine before the race and before the starts I focus on the start procedure that I have to follow and keep alert for the lights. Given the frequency of accidents in Formula Racing (Context: F1 2020: Romain Grosjean and the unfortunate F2 2019: Anthoine Hubert), do the dangers of your profession scare you? Both the crashes were horrific and difficult to see. To lose a person is never easy and Hubert’s loss will always be a void in the fraternity. 11
“The role model in reality is my father who inspires me to be a good human being above all else.” Regarding Grosjean, it was a welcome relief to see him get out of the car and know that he was ok. It makes you realise how good the safety is, in terms of the car.
IIT BOMBAY RACING
Obviously, when accidents happen, you can’t help but think of it but once you get into the car and are going at the speeds we do, the focus can’t be anywhere but on track. Given Racing is a dangerous profession, what did it take to take the plunge and pursue your passion? I never really gave the dangerous part a thought. It’s part of what we have signed up for and comes with the territory. We drive fast powerful cars to their limit and sometimes things can go wrong. It’s harder for the people watching and I know that my family does worry when I’m on track.
What is your opinion on Simulator Racing (Simracing?) I think sim racing is fun and a good way to stay sharp, especially off-season.
What are your plans and vision for the future? For the moment, my focus is on the next season in F2, to try my very best, taking all the lessons learnt this year and trying for the title. My ultimate goal of course is Formula 1 which is the pinnacle of motorsport. 12
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Circuit de Monaco Date: June 1, 2003
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aceday had arrived. The drivers readied themselves for the familiar thrill, the rush that one gets, racing at 200+kmph. The fans braced themselves for yet another showdown between 20 of the fastest cars they had ever seen. Plot twist : The circuit had other plans. That day, a total of zero on-track overtakes were made, a record in modern history. F1 and no overtakes, seems unbelievable right? Well not really, if you’re in Monaco.
by Kshitij Sovanee and Sahil Kumar
The ACM was denied admissibility into international bodies representing such clubs solely because the principality did not conduct any events and that is how the Monaco Grand Prix was born. 14th April 1929 marks the day the first race took place, and the circuit is still going strong. There have been several minor changes over the years, with racing being abandoned for a brief period when war broke out, but the essence still remains intact. The popularity of the race keeps growing, as the circuit is difficult to maneuver.
The Circuit de Monaco, also commonly known as the ‘Monte-Carlo’ Circuit is a street circuit that is laid around the city streets of La Condamine and MonteCarlo, around a majestic harbour, in the principality of Monaco. The circuit is home to the Monaco Grand Prix, considered to be one of the three events, where victory counts towards the unofficial Triple Crown of Motorsport. Racing has been held in this principality right since 1929, and was in fact the brainchild of the wealthy patron Anthony Noghés, who was the general commissioner of the Automobile Club de Monaco, which had previously been a cycling club. 13
The 1929 Monaco Grand Prix
IIT BOMBAY RACING The building of the circuit takes six weeks, dismantling takes another three, post races. The circuit is narrow, with many elevation shifts and tight corners, making it perhaps one of the most demanding tracks in Formula-One Racing. To bring it to perspective, the track contains both the slowest and the quickest corners, to be ideally taken at 48 and 260 kmph respectively, showing just how diverse and taxing the circuit is, preferring the drivers’ aptitude and skill over brute force and speed.
Snaking down L’Avenue des Beaux Arts, and avoiding an enormous bump, reminiscent of the topsy nature of the circuit, we negotiate the Mirabeau corner. From the Mirabeau, the circuit suddenly descends in altitude as drivers charge straight on, to eventually arrive at the renowned
Having laid enough premise, let’s actually take a tour to explore the track and appreciate it!
Grand Hotel Hairpin, one of the most easily recognisable corners in Formula One. Fun fact: The hairpin is named based on who owns the hotel overlooking it, and thus it keeps changing. But that isn’t really why this corner is as well-known in the F1 community as it is.
The lap starts with a short sprint up the Boulevard Albert ler, on to the Sainte-Dévote corner, which was historically a scene for many first-lap accidents, because it is a near 90 right hand bend. To put the shortness of this section of the track into perspective, this is in fact the shortest run to the first corner we see all season, with the distance from pole position to the turning being a mere 140m. We then head uphill along Avenue d’Ostende, before changing down for the long left-hander at Massenet. Out of Massenet, the cars blast past what is the entrance of the most famous building in Monaco, the Monte Carlo Casino as we head for the aptly named Casino Square.
Fairmont Hairpin This hairpin is the slowest corner across all circuits, supposed to be taken at a painstaking 48kmph and has been the place where many overtaking attempts are made. However, no two modern F1 cars can 14
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possibly round side-by-side especially since the drivers need to use full-steering lock to get past. Many F1 teams have had to redesign their steering and suspension specifically so as to negotiate this corner. After negotiating what is one of the toughest sections of the track, thanks to the sudden drop followed by the tightest corner of the season, the cars head downhill again onto the double-right hander known by the name of Portier, the very exact spot where the legendary Ayrton Senna proved he too was just human, as he famously crashed in 1988 suffering a rare lapse in concentration, which saw him throw away a mighty 55s lead over then-teammate and bitter rival Alain Prost, who ended up taking the race win.The exit of Portiers leads straight 15
“The Tunnel also poses a unique problem when it rains, being the only dry section due to its indoor nature, while the rest of the track is wet.�
IIT BOMBAY RACING
Ayrton Senna, 1988
into The Tunnel, possibly the most iconic stretch of race track on the F1 calendar, but with complications of its own. The Tunnel section is the only chance the cars get to hit top speed other than the short pit straight. Having said that, this makes it all the more challenging as the drivers need to keep adjusting their vision as they emerge from the dimly-lighted tunnel at the fastest point of the track to then brake hard for the tight left-right-left Nouvelle Chicane in broad daylight. The Tunnel also poses a unique problem when it rains, being the only dry section due to its indoor nature, while the rest of the track is wet. To tackle this very problem, in 1984, the organizers famously wet the tunnel section of the track manually, at the request of then-McLaren driver Niki Lauda.
Nicki Lauda, 1984 16
MILESTONE The exit of the tunnel, as the cars brake for the Nouvelle Chicane, is one of the only overtaking opportunities on the circuit, a Halley’s Comet when it comes to racing in Monaco. Make your way round the chicane, and now you’re on the marina front. A small strip no more than 2m wide separating the track from the water, as the cars blaze past the spectacular yachts moored in the harbour housing the elitest of crowds. At the end of this strip comes Turn 12 of the circuit, Tabac, a remarkable corner especially if you’re a photographer. Down we then go onto Piscine, or the ‘Swimming Pool’ chicane, taking us past the surrounding pool complex called Rainier III Nautical.
The streets of Monte-Carlo have hosted a Grand Prix since 1929, when William Grover-Williams won in a Bugatti. Since then, only the greats have truly mastered those streets. Ayrton Senna holds the record here with six wins out of which he won 5 consecutively between 1989-1993, while Michael Schumacher and Graham Hill have bagged five wins each. Since we are talking about records now, Dutchman Max Verstappen, who in 2015 suffered a high-speed crash on the streets of Monaco, holds the lap record here with a time of 1:14.260, which he set during the 2018 Monaco GP.
Turn 12, Tabac A short sprint down the straight and we find ourselves negotiating the tight right-hander La Rascasse, scene of one of the most controversial incidents ever in F1 qualifying, when German ace Michael Schumacher appeared to deliberately park his Ferrari to ruin the 2006 qualifying for those behind him doing their flying laps, in particular, his main rival Fernando Alonso. Another short straight, and we come round the final corner of the circuit Virage Anthony Noghès, named in honour of the man himself, before heading onto the start-finish straight to do it all over again. 3.337km is what the track length is - the shortest on the F1 calendar. However, the GP makes up for this in the number of laps - 78, which is way more than the usual number in other GPs.
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Max Verstappen, 2018 The new innovation for 2015 was the debut of the FIA Formula E Championship on a shortened version of the course. Instead of heading up the hill along Avenue d’Ostende, cars turn a sharp right onto Avenue J.F. Kennedy, past the Sainte-Dévote cornerheading back towards the Nouvelle Chicane, over to the end. The e-Prix takes place two weeks before the Formula One circus rolls into town for its traditional event.
IIT BOMBAY RACING The Circuit de Monaco is truly an excruciating circuit, destined to stretch the last of the drivers’ nerves, always looking to spring the deadliest of surprises. Former Brazilian F1 driver Nelson Piquet famously drew an analogy of ‘riding a bike in your living room’- so cramped is the actual circuit. However, irrespective of all the critical reviews and acclaim that it receives, the Monaco Grand Prix is
the jewel crown of the F1 schedule, the Kohinoor Diamond to the Royal Crown, an anachronistic throwback to the modern day safety-conscious era, allowed to be continued only due to the glamour surrounding it, the piquant location and the beautiful people who make it a point to attend year-after-year to uphold the true spirit of the sport- that of unity and hope.
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Jim Clark
by Jagadish Arul
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ne day, on a tiny farm in Scotland, a 13-year old boy discovered his passion to drive while riding on the family tractor. As he grew older, he began participating in club races for recreation and it was quickly apparent that he was a natural. From there, he went on to become a Formula racer, set records and won hearts becoming immortal in racing history for his absolute genius, passion and humility. A racer, who could take anything with 4 wheels and an engine and make it fly on a racetrack. A racer, who is considered to be at the top of the list of the best drivers to ever race, even half a century after his time. A racer, whose fatal accident led investigators to put fault on the machine simply because human error was not a possibility in his case. That was Jim Clark Jim’s habit of club racing eventually led him to the race that would change his life forever. In a race at Brands-Hatch, he finished 2nd to Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars, who was so impressed by the young racer, he invited him to race for Lotus in the Formula Junior Series. Jim’s victory on the Goodwood in Formula Junior impressed Colin further and Jim was immediately made a part of Team Lotus Ford debuting in the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix. His journey since has been one of great interest and 19
adoration to fans, friends and rivals alike. At Belgium in 1960, during the second race of his career, Clark was a spectator to one of the worst weekends in F1 history. The Spa-Francorchamps was a deadly circuit,
IIT BOMBAY RACING
“...Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars, who was so impressed by the young racer, he invited him to race for Lotus...” notorious for its crashes and the deaths of many F1 drivers. That day, the Spa claimed the lives of two drivers, Chris Barstow and Alan Stacey. Jim later recalled in an interview how he “was driving scared stiff pretty much all throughout the race” and how it nearly put him off of racing forever. Since then he detested the Spa, despite which he would go on to win there four times in succession. Soon after, in 1961 at Monza, he was involved (by no fault of his own) in a collision that would cost the lives of 14 spectators and Ferrari’s driver, Wolfgang von Trips. Jim reconsidered retiring but was persuaded by Lotus’ Colin, whose brilliance as a designer was beginning to shine through Jim and his
ability to bring out the best in any car. The duo would continue to work together for all of Jim’s career and grow to be as close as brothers. The deciding factor on the results of the Lotus team quickly became whether the machine could consistently sustain max performance in Jim’s artful control. Clark lost races that he was set to win in 1962 and 1964 owing to internal oil leaks. But when the car and its glass-cannon Climax model engine held true, he was unstoppable. He won his first driving title in the 1963 World Championship of Drivers and went on to win another in the 1965 World Championship of Drivers with records of 7/10 and 6/9 races respectively. Despite all his success and fame, Jim was a grounded person. Being a shy introverted champion and a reluctant humble hero only made him so much more endearing to F1 fans everywhere. He was a loved and respected racer who had many rivals, but no enemies. Often described to be the epitome of calm and controlled aggression, on-track he seemed almost invincible. In fact, his starting strategy every race would be, as he put it, “get myself madder than hell
“Jim Clark’s racing talent was apparent in the techniques he implemented and the number of unique methods he reserved in his bag of tricks.”
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and take off ”. His aggression on-track was balanced by his character off-track, a vulnerable and warm person. His biography: “Jim Clark at the Wheel” revealed more about his thoughts on racing. To Jim, the physical attraction of motor racing was driving a car as near to its physical limit as possible without overstepping said limits. He was always conscious of the importance of driver and car safety and had admitted that he’d rather lose a race than push himself or the car beyond limits. Motor racing was an art to him, and the drivers were just artists. The natural skill and talent that an artist possessed were no different in Jim’s eyes from the talent a driver had. Even the occupational fear was essential to a racer’s identity, according to Jim, for in the absence of it “any silly bugger could get in the motor car”.
“On that day, racing was said to have lost its heart.” 21
The wreckage from his fateful accident Jim Clark’s racing talent was apparent in his mechanical sympathy. Popularly, at Zandvoort in 1967, Jim felt something was wrong with his Lotus 49, although there were no glaring faults. Later when Lotus ran a full check-up on the car, they found one of the ball bearings just beginning to fail. Jim also managed to improvise with the Lotus understeering design (in an era where oversteering was the norm) and reserved several unique methods in his bag of tricks to tackle various circuit aspects. His favourite, however, was turns, and that made the old Nürburgring a favourite. His racing performances were close to a ballerina’s
IIT BOMBAY RACING dance, strengthening his ideology in equating racing to art: silky smooth fluidity in co-existence with discipline and consistency. In 1968, as Clark won the Tasman Series, he put up his third championship series victory. He began the F1 season with a bang, by winning the first race of the 1968 South African Grand Prix. However, on April 7 of the same year, Jim Clark, aged 32, met an untimely end when racing at the Martini Gold Cup in a Formula Two racing car at the Hockenheimring. On the fifth lap, Jim’s car veered off track and crashed into the trees. He was recovered from the car, sustaining fatal injuries to the neck and skull and passed away before he could reach the hospital. The cause of the crash has since been chalked up to mechanical failure because no one would believe that Jim Clark could make a racing error.
Memorial statue of Jim Clark in his home town of Kilmany, Scotland
On that day, racing was said to have lost its heart. But the darkness his unfortunate accident caused didn’t change the fact that Jim and his journey was a ray of hope for racers everywhere. His life was a testimony to the fact that the spirit of racing isn’t hindered by birth. That even a small-time farm boy who grew up riding tractors could become a celebrated, revered and loved all-time-great racer just because he was passionate about racing.
Jim Clark Motorsport Museum in Duns, Scotland
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RALLYING AND COMMUNICATION Nikita Dipali
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R
allying is racing, on steroids! In stark contrast to the controlled, planned, meticulous environment of F1, Rally is spontaneity supreme. In fact, if you ever were to visit the ‘Chaos and Spontaneity’ Restaurant, they would definitely serve you Rally on a silver plate with watercress around it as their signature dish.
IIT BOMBAY RACING If you aren’t aware, Rally is a form of motorsport where the driver and the navigator (co-driver) race on dirt roads between a predetermined set of points, one after the other. The one with the highest overall speed takes the win. As one of the most immune motorsports to weather and track conditions, rally races are conducted practically on any surface, in any weather. Dirt, gravel, rain, snow, sunshine, nights, fog, forests and good ol’ tarmac, all get the nod of acceptance as viable racing environments.
“Rally never ceases to entertain with its own dash of brilliance emerging through the chaos.”
Top-notch performance on different terrain stretches calls for modifications like replacing suspension, transmission systems and more, with better-suited options. This is done by a blindingly fast team of mechanics, in operational hubs known as ‘Service Parks’. However, when the driver and co-driver team is on-road, they need to service the car themselves with a basic mechanical toolkit. The drivers need to be good mechanics too since jobs could range right from changing punctured tyres (pretty standard) to figuring out what is wrong with the car and fixing it. In Mexico 2014 World Rally Championship (WRC), Belgian driver Thierry Neuville poured a large bottle of beer (that they had received as a token of victory in the previous stage) into the leaking radiator which was short on coolant to protect the engine from further overheating. 2005 WRC Mexico, on losing a rear wheel altogether, driver Sebastian Loeb could only make his car reach the next service park because his co-driver Daniel Elena used his bodyweight to maintain car balance by hanging to the passenger window frame with most of his body outside the car.
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As innovative as the above use for co-drivers is, they weren’t introduced into the motorsport for this purpose. The monumental number of track features such as bends, crests and troughs are near impossible to memorise. This is traditionally where co-drivers come in. From a set of notes called ‘Pace notes’, the co-drivers read out information on the upcoming twists and turns such as their curvature, altitude changes and more, which the driver would need to know to nail that corner. Driving at speeds of over 100kmph, all this information for the driver needs to be more compact and understandable. Hence, a unique shorthand language is used to communicate. For Example, R5>cr 100 ! L2 written in pace notes would be spoken as: “Right Five Over Crest, One Hundred, Caution! Left Two”. This means: There is an easy right turn over a crest in the road, and then in 100 metres the road will turn into a hard left.
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Sebastian Loeb, 2005 WRC Mexico Here the curvature of bends is rated on a scale from 1 to 6 where one indicates the highest curvature (similar to a hairpin bend) and 6 indicates the least. ‘+’ and ‘–’ signs are used to indicate any turn between two consecutive numbers. The crests and valleys describe the altitude changes before,
IIT BOMBAY RACING
Thierry Neuville, 2014 WRC Mexico during or after a turn. Proper communication and concentration are essential as a variety of interesting outcomes including but not limited to, falling into trees, driving through vineyards, getting lost and losing all fuel, may occur otherwise resulting in retirement from the race.
Overall, Rally never ceases to entertain with its own dash of brilliance emerging through the chaos. A chase for perfection through intense concentration and effective communication against a world that drifts by at over 100kmph. Fast, exciting, colourful and the ultimate test of machine v/s Nature, Rally is a tune-in must for your recurring dose of adventure. 26
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Racecars for the Road?
E
ver wonder why it is that you don’t see NASCAR or Formula 1 cars out there on the streets battling traffic just like any other automobile? For F1 cars, the answer is simple; if they were on the streets, they wouldn’t last a day. They aren’t built for the road!
Maybe not F1 Cars but, what if we could actually bring racecars to the road?! This is even more common than you think, and we have Homologation to thank for this.
The Wikipedia definition for Homologation in motorsports is the type of approval process through which a vehicle, a race track, or a standardized part must go for certification to race in a given league or series. Basically, it is a way to decide what is allowed in a race and what isn’t. It is a straightforward 27
by Vidyut Balaji “...rally racing’s primary purpose was to create a brand for many car manufacturing companies.” concept used almost everywhere, even in events like the Olympics. In motorsport, the most well-known use case of homologation rules is around rally cars. For several decades, rally racing’s primary purpose was to create a brand for many car manufacturing companies. They wanted to demonstrate that their vehicles had strength, speed and durability, and hence it made sense to buy a car from them. I have personal experience with the Mitsubishi Outlander, which carries, as its underpinnings, the basic platform and most of the 4WD transmission from the Lancer Evo VIII homologation rally special. However, some companies started cheating the system and bringing production cars with racing
IIT BOMBAY RACING
Mitsubishi Outlander
“Most homologation rules claim that you need to produce around 2,500 production cars...”
the Group A. The purpose of this was to prevent automakers from building supercars solely for the races and instead promote racing with modified road cars. These cars met minimum production requirements and maintained similarity to the original vehicles in chassis dimensions, suspension design and engine characteristics. One A-Group series known as the German Touring Car Championship is why revolutionary cars like the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 Evolution and the original BMW M3 exist. Another fantastic example of Homologation is the creation of the Subaru Impreza WRX in the 1990s. This was the car that gave Subaru its name on the rallying front and on the roads.
engines or other technology (not approved for production purposes) to these races, making it seem like their vehicles are the better ones in the market. This is where homologation rules were introduced, creating an approval system so that cars can’t be unnaturally tinkered with. Homologation rules in rally racing forced the company cars to follow production norms and produce a certain number of these race cars’ production versions for public use before being allowed to race.
“The purpose of this was to prevent automakers from building supercars solely for the races...” Most homologation rules claim that you need to produce around 2,500 production cars or even higher, after which the company can race. These numbers used to be a lot higher until the rules become a little relaxed in the 1990s. In these cases, companies would rarely ever try to beat the system as it would be a far more expensive affair, and companies would tweak their cars well within the norms to compete. One of the best-known examples of Homologation was introduced by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) for a special race series called
(Top to bottom) Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 Evolution, BMW M3 E30 and Subaru Impreza WRX STI, some of the most iconic mass-produced homologation cars. 28
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“This gave companies an incentive to push the limits of production norms...”
had the opportunity to make race cars into road cars. They are made in just high enough numbers to qualify as production cars even though they are entirely built for competitive rallying. For example, the Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion (1996 - 1998) was created for the highly competitive GT1 category. Only 23 of this car was built to qualify into the races.
Sometimes categories deliberately set these production numbers to be lower (around 200). This gave companies an incentive to push the limits of production norms and create racecar hybrids. Typically, companies would tweak road cars to get race cars for the series. Here, however, companies
All these cars are aptly called Homologation specials. Some of the sportiest cars to ever hit the road, and even most luxury cars can’t stack up against them. Some of the most beautiful homologation specials are the 1969 McLaren M6GT, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, and the 1993 Dauer 962 Le Mans.
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IIT BOMBAY RACING Homologation has brought many innovations and excitement into the design and drivability of modern-day automobiles. Having said that, the new-age electric and self-driving cars are no longer governed by the rules of sport. Homologation of racecars and rally technology for commercial use may soon become a thing of the past as the world increasingly adopts digital transportation philosophies.
The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Strassen Version (left) and Porshe 911 GT1 Strassenversion (left below), widely considered to among the best homologation specials ever produced.
The Ferrari 250 GTO homologation special (below) is the most expensive car in the world, with one of 36 specimens fetching $70 million in a private sale.
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But what exactly is -
Forced Induction? T
o all the motorheads out there, the most satisfying experience of running a super-car is the grunt noise that it creates. Just one ‘Grr’ and all our neurons start firing up copious amounts of adrenaline. And, Oh MY! Doesn’t it warm our hearts inside-out. After-all this is what makes the car chases in hollywood movies so fun to watch. The experience is so profound that some supercars are specifically known for their grunt exhaust notes! Be it a Lamborghini, Corvette, Pagani, or a Jaguar, If you know your exhaust notes, you sure do know your cars too. These notes are truly representative of what goes on under the hood; a combination of
“Forced induction involves delivering extra compressed air to increase pressure, temperature, density of the air.” 31
by Yash Mitkari
shockwaves generated from hundreds of explosions occurring per second in an engine, a wonder that internal combustion engines are known for. But for the curious minds out there, these notes are just a gateway into the mechanism of this machine. For if the sounds are so breathtaking, what DOES actually go on in the car to create these notes. And why don’t our usual cars give this sort of an experience? It’s time to put on our thinking caps, it’s going to get techy-tech-tech from here. The answer to this question lies in a 19th century technology: Forced Induction. At its heart, this technology works on a simple notion; re-using the compressed exhaust gases and extracting its power back from the engine. Forced induction involves delivering extra compressed air (which comes from the exhaust gases) to increase pressure, temperature, density of the air. More air in turn uses more fuel and thus yields more power. In simple terms, this is just looping the exhaust system. And as far as the noise notes are considered, this high pressure air release is what owes us the pleasure.
IIT BOMBAY RACING
Diagramatic representation of the stages of a common 4-stroke internal combustion engine
“But this also lead to a low fuel economy, paving the way for forced induction to showcase it’s prowess.” Before we get into the specifics let us discuss why is this ‘boosting’ needed in the first place. This calls for understanding how an engine works. First up, air is taken up in the intake/induction stroke, which also includes the intake of fuel and then they both are compressed. This compression ignites the fuel (sometimes accompanied by a spark plug) and causes the piston to move down or increase displacement powering the car. The burnt up gases are then let out in the exhaust stroke. Initially, our usual cars didn’t have much power and fuel economy, and the only
way to increase these factors was to increase the size of the cylinder i.e displacement of the piston which gave rise to a famous motoring adage, ‘There is no replacement to displacement.’ These simple engines are known as naturally aspirated engines, since air is taken up as usual without any added mechanisms. But this also lead to a low fuel economy, paving the way for forced induction to showcase it’s prowess. Now there are two ways this air can be fed back to the system; turbocharging and supercharging. So let’s gets into the depth of these two: Turbocharger This system makes use of a compressor to make the exhaust gases denser which are then fed back to the engine, enabling more air intake. When this pressure exceeds the sea level pressure, this compressor essentially becomes a turbocharger.
“Now there are two ways this air can be fed back to the system; turbocharging and superchanging” 32
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Diagramatic representation of how a turbocharger is connected to the engine (above), as well as the internal mechanism (above right)
As can be seen in the image, the heated exhaust air gets the turbine rolling which in turn powers the compressor section and well, compresses the ambient air which is eaten up by the engine. This compressor revving up is what causes the much-liked noise notes of a supercar.This air is passed through a cooler (since the compressed air might get heated) which compresses the air even more and then fed back to the engine to generate more power and go vroom vroom. A blow-off valve also exists to let the air into the atmosphere and keep the flow unidirectional.
“...this also increased the lag that the charger might create, which was solved by the use of a sequential turbocharger.� But this is not all goody goody, since the hot air running the turbine might take time to actually feed the compressed air to the engine and feel the boost, known as lag among motorists. This restricts us to increase the size of the turbocharger beyond a certain
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extent. This is solved by the use of 2 turbochargers, fondly known as twin turbochargers. This was demonstrated first in the Maserati Biturbo in 1981. Amongst them, parallel and sequential turbocharging rule this regime. In parallel turbocharging, each turbocharger compresses air to one cylinder, thus harnessing more collective power. But this also increased the lag that the charger might create, which was solved by the use of a sequential turbocharger. This turbocharger uses a larger turbo to generate a higher amount of power and a smaller turbo to account for the increasing lag and thus reduce spool time. These are connected via precise bypass valves, to control the rev range of both these turbos, thus reaping us better and powerful engines.
IIT BOMBAY RACING
Turbochargers can be found on all kinds of cars, from small hatchbacks like the Hyundai i10 Nios Sportz (left), with its 100 bhp turbocharged 1 litre 3-cylinder engine, to the fastest and most expensive hypercars, like the Bugatti Chiron (left below), which produces close to 1,500 bhp from its quad-turbocharged 8 litre W16 engine.
Turbocharging is also seen throughout motorsports, including Formula 1, where all of the current breed of cars have been turbocharged since 2014. The Mercedes AMG F1 team (below) has dominated this turbo-hybrid era, in no small part thanks to producing the best turbocharged 1.6 litre V6 engines on the grid
However, turbocharging has a much longer history in the sport, which can be traced back to the 1977 Renault RS01 (right bottom), which, with its turbocharged 1.5 litre V6, became the first car to participate in a Formula 1 Grand Prix with a turbocharged engine
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MILESTONE Supercharger Unlike the turbocharger which directly uses the exhaust gases to compress the incoming air, a supercharger connects to the main engine via a mechanical linkage i.e a belt which then runs the turbine. Such kind of superchargers are usually known as centrifugal superchargers. The succeeding mechanism is similar to that of a turbocharge, more air -> more fuel ->more boom. At a higher rpm, these work exceedingly well since the turbine compresses a huge amount of air to churn out more power. But at lower rpm, these fail to give a zing. Enter, positive displacement superchargers. These bottle up air at the intake valve to increase displacement. This is done by 2 interlocking screws which increase the pressure of the incoming gas. This gas is let into the intercooler and then into the engine to increase the amount of air at the intake valve. Now that we’ve seen what forced induction is, and gotten into the depths of turbochargers and superchargers, I’m pretty sure you’ll be more perceptive of the noise notes these supercars create, and understand that it encompasses a century worth of innovation and evolution of the automotive industry.
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Diagramitc representation of the internal working of the interlocking screws (above) inside a positive displacement supercharger
IIT BOMBAY RACING Superchargers are most commonly associated with American muscle cars, such as the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody (right), which has a 797 bhp supercharged 6.2 litre HEMI V8 engine
The placement of a supercharger on top of the engine can often leave it sticking out of the bonnet. This has led this trait to even be embraced as an aesthetic statement
Supercharging is a very common practice in drag racing to make massive gains in power. The linear power curve of superchargers is more desirable in this sport
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WHAT MAKES A RACECAR GO FAST?
GEARBOX
Nikhil Challapalli
If the engine is the heart of the car, I would best
describe the transmission as the spine. Well, that sounded better in my head. But it’s very accurate nonetheless. You could have a brilliantly designed chassis and a thousand horsepower. But a lousy transmission is all it takes to bring it down to its knees. The faster and more reliable your transmission, the faster you accelerate, and the better your chances of smoking your opponents.
What is a Transmission? F1 is sticking to combustion engines, at least for the foreseeable future. Well, you never know what’ll get into them. Can’t trust anyone as long as Lewis is around with his vegan lifestyle.
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Someone with not much automotive knowledge might question, “Why not directly connect the engine to the wheels?” Well, construction issues aside, there are a ton more. The job of the transmission is in its name itself. It ‘transmits’ power from the engine to the wheels. Firstly, IC engines are inefficient. Their maximum efficiency is achieved in a very narrow rev range. For an ordinary road car, it’s somewhere between 6k-8k RPM. For an F1 car, on the other hand, it’s a monstrous 19,000 RPM. That is, you get the peak power in a small range near 20k RPM. RIP my ears. (For the nerds out there, yes, peak power is somewhat lower than the redline).
IIT BOMBAY RACING These engines idle somewhere around 6000 RPM. If I want the top speed to be a very reasonable 300 km/hr, a few simple calculations yield a gear ratio of around 8. Now, if I decide to use a single-speed transmission, even when going at, say, 100 km/hr, my engine would be running at 6000 RPM, which is the idling range! That’s hugely inefficient. At lower speeds, it’d stall and come to a stop. Hell, you can’t even start moving. So practically there’s a tradeoff between high torque to the wheels for acceleration and higher speeds. This is where gearing comes into play. You’d use shorter gears at lower speeds (and hence more torque) and shift to taller ones at higher speeds (larger multiplier for the RPM). For the uninitiated, taller gears are the ones with low gear ratios and vice versa.
Good old Manuals Manual transmission is where it all started and is probably the simplest and most elegant of them all. You have the engine connected to the flywheel, which is in turn connected to the input of the transmission via a clutch (this is what you press on).
“Nothing compares to the sheer rawness of a gated manual coupled with a naturally aspirated V12.”
A typical stick shift manual transmission
“If not for the gearbox, it would be a tradeoff between high torque for acceleration and higher speeds.”
The input of the transmission is coupled to its output with a set of gears. These are the gears you select when you play around with the shifter. The way the gears get selected is pretty elegant. They make use of what’s called a synchronizer. The synchronizer locks one of the gears to the output shaft, thus locking in the ratio. While the stick shift is the closest bond between man and machine, it wasn’t the fastest way to get it done. It was only time before we moved on. 38
MILESTONE even the most experienced drivers. This just wasn’t good enough. This led to the rise of sequential manuals. There wasn’t a risk of shifting to the wrong gear anymore. You could only go one up or one down, and it was fast. But you still had the issue of the clutch. This led to the end of the stick and the beginning of the era of paddles. It all began with Ferrari in 1989 Ferrari 640. It used hydraulic actuators for the shifts and the clutch. While the essence remained the same, subsequent advances like drive-by-wire refined the technology significantly. While Ferrari started the revolution, it was Williams who made it work in ‘92 with both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships. While there was debate over banning semi-autos, it turned out a significant fraction of engine failures occurred due to human error. Semi-auto ftw, then?
Semi-automatics – The New Age Yes, manuals are the best. Nothing else compares to the sheer rawness of a gated manual coupled with a naturally aspirated V12. But the fact of the matter is, manuals aren’t fast enough. Let’s take the case of F1. These cars did not have power steering until the mid-90s. Now imagine going around a corner at 100 kilometres an hour, steering one hand and changing gears. The shifts were too slow - around 250ms for
While there are many other types of transmission, especially in road cars, we don’t care about them, do we? If it ain’t race-spec, it ain’t for us.
“...this led to the end of the stick and the beginning of the era of paddles.” What lies ahead with the advent of electric cars?
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The Doom With the world switching to electric power at an uncomfortable pace, this discussion wouldn’t be complete without looking into the future. Unlike combustion engines, electric motors have a much much higher top end with a broader rev range. As a result, you effectively get the same amount of torque from standstill to, say, 20000 RPM. Essentially, there’s no issue with stalling the motor, as is the case with an ordinary IC engine. By using a single gear, there is a tradeoff between acceleration and the top-end speed. Now, you could have multiple gears, taking care of both acceleration and top speed. Such is the efficiency of a single-speed gearbox that the efficiency losses aren’t worth the performance enhancements. And add weight to the equation too. Look at Formula E, for instance. Almost all the teams have shifted to a single-speed transmission. Even if you decide to have multiple gears, it doesn’t make
much sense to have more than 2-3. Audi, until its exit from Formula E, used a 3-speed gearbox. This could benefit the teams, especially at the start and around slow corners where acceleration comes into play. Either way, don’t expect a manual or even a semiautomatic EV down the road. With only a handful of gears, there’s no question a computer would be better off shifting gears than any human. The driving experience, as we’ve grown to love, is DEAD. While people are still dreaming of an EV with a manual, it just doesn’t make sense. With the way an electric motor works, there just isn’t a need for a clutch. With the existence of regen, there’s no question of revmatching anymore. The third pedal is all but dead. Enjoy while it lasts, my friends. Cherish it before it’s too late.
The past and future of automobile transmission
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Deep Dive: The Four Points Determining Motion! A
fter a series of deadly corners and challenging circuits, one might be curious about what exactly drives the car through all of this. There might be a lot of words running across your mind, well the right one is the study of dynamics or Vehicle Dynamics specifically. Vehicle Dynamics is studying the motion while going around all those noodle-like corners, acceleration, deceleration or even the regular ride of the vehicle. What aerodynamics is to the design, vehicle dynamics is to the motion of the car.
“Vehicle Dynamics is studying the motion while going around all those noodle-like corners, acceleration, deceleration or even the regular ride of the vehicle.” Best part? All it takes to understand it is the analysis around the four points. The only four places where one beast of a vehicle touches the ground, the only four areas that make or break your ride to victory! 41
by Manisha Kopuri
Vehicle Dynamics is a huge branch in itself, and here we’ll take you through the simplest of VD parameters and how we can optimise them.
“...weight transfer calculations will tell you whether you’ll skid and crash at the corner or pull across a cool manoeuvre!” Cornering Loads aka Weight or Load Transfer Thanks to the many films made on space travel, we all can imagine the amount of exertion the astronauts endure. The figures are somewhere close to 3g’s: acceleration due to gravity Now double the acceleration (6g!!), that is what F1 drivers go through at every corner that they go around! The exorbitant amounts of heat that such high physical exertion generates also results in a weight loss close to 4kgs after every race!! Such high lateral accelerations are caused by what is known as weight transfer due to cornering. To picture why the transfer happens every time we corner
IIT BOMBAY RACING
imagine a weighing balance with weights under each wheel of the car. To keep the balance straight when we turn right, we need to add weights to the left pan! The car in itself is a vast mass, and given the speeds at which cornering takes place, there are considerable changes in the load and hence the grip. Simply put, weight transfer calculations will tell you whether you’ll skid and crash at the corner or pull across a cool manoeuvre! The higher the weight transfer, lower is the grip. Hence the main work of any trackside engineer is to try and reduce the amount of weight that is transferred.
One of the surprising ill effects of high weight transfer is wheels lifting off the track, while the car corners. Some rolls are so significant that you can put your hand where the wheel would be expected to be and the car will still go around, right above your epithelial cells, without causing even a minute
“All this weight transfer and wheels lifting off the ground is a massive threat to the overall stability.”
“...you can put your hand where the wheel would be expected to be and the car will still go around, right above your epithelial cells, without causing even a minute scratch!” Some quick physics, the amount of weight transfer is directly proportional to the height of the Centre of Gravity(CG), and this, you guessed it right, is the real reason why all F1 cars as designed to have a very low CG. To put some figures, for a rough 1:4 CG to wheel separation, a staggering 113 kgs of transfer takes place for just a unit acceleration!
Wheel lifting demonstrated in the still of the Renault R25 from 2005 42
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scratch! Fun Fact: All this weight transfer and wheels lifting off the ground is a massive threat to the overall stability. Too much rise above the track can lead to toppling, more so if the CG is low. To avoid this, F1 cars are generally designed to be much lighter than that is set by the rule book and an additional ballast (gravel or other heavy materials) of about 120 kgs is used to provide further motion stability. Some drivers even use a few sandbags inside the cars for the same! Steering Geometry That was a lot about corners and stability, one more exciting thing about the turning is the positioning or the geometry of the steering. The need for a defined geometry arises because the wheels on the inside and outside of a turn needing to go around in circles of different radii. 43
“Ackermann geometry is des need for tires to slip sideway path around a curve. The slip of the difference in turning ra One of the most famous and regularly used geometries is Ackermann Geometry. Ackermann geometry is designed to avoid the need for tires to slip sideways when following the path around a curve. The slip happens because of the difference in turning radii. The geometrically feasible solution to this is for all wheels to have their axles arranged as the radii of just one circle, that is, they have a common centre point. This centre point must lie on an extended rear axle line as the rear wheels are fixed.
IIT BOMBAY RACING Vehicle Dynamics is a highly evolving and changing subject. There are always some extremely cool innovations that help drivers get the edge and end up getting that near dear win; At the end of the day, Michael Schumacher did win with a margin of 0.174 seconds! A recent, short-lived development that got a lot of attention was the Dual-Axis Steering (DAS) developed by the Mercedes AMG F1 team. In addition to operating like normal steering, it also allows the driver to pull the steering wheel towards or away from them to decrease or increase the toe angle of the front wheels. Although used only to warm up the tyres more easily during out laps, formation laps and safety car periods, they were allowed to run it only for the 2020 season, and will be banned for future seasons.
Diagramatic representation of Ackermann steering geometry
signed to avoid the ys when following the p happens because adii.�
CENTRE OF TURNING CIRCLE
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