INDUSTRY NEWS UPDATE WORLD SERIES BY RENAULT New car is DRS’d to impress
The new for 2012 World Series by Renault (WSR) car is to be equipped with an F1-style DRS wing and a brand new full race spec engine, the latter courtesy of Zytek, but will retain its current Dallara chassis. WSR, which is also known as
Formula Renault 3.5, occupies a rung between Formula 3 and GP2 on the drivers’ ladder to F1, and the third version of the car has been designed by Renault Sport Technologies in conjunction with
Dallara. A decision to stick with the existing Dallara T08 chassis has been made to to control costs, but 60 per cent of the car is still to be remodelled.
Headline changes include the
move to a Zytek V8 engine which has been specifically designed for the car. The 3.4-litre V8, code named ZRS03, will generate 530bhp at 9250rpm, 50 more bhp than the current Solution-F prepared Renault production- based V6.
The new Dallara built World Series Car will race next season
John Manchester, Zytek Engineering operations director, said: ‘Zytek is extremely privileged to have been chosen as the engine manufacturer for such a high profile racing series. To have the opportunity to form a partnership with such a respected brand as Renault is indeed an honour. Zytek has over 16 years of experience supplying engines for single-make racing formulae and we are sure that we can make a contribution to help make what is already a very successful racing series even more successful.’ Other notable aspects of the
car include a radical ECU built by XAP Electronique which does away with the need for a battery – it’s claimed it’s the first single seater to run without one. There’s to be an anti-stall system fitted to make up for
the lack of a starter. To encourage overtaking the
NASCAR UPDATE The 2013 Ford takes shape
The racing world will get an idea of how the new-for-2013 Ford NASCAR Sprint Cup racer will look very soon – even though the car will not make its track debut for 17 months. That’s the word from Jack
Roush, co-owner of Ford-running Roush Fenway Racing, who says the new car will have a definite and recognisable Ford identity, thanks to NASCAR’s efforts to allow the cars to be designed around ‘hard points’ – where each manufacturer’s chassis needs to be to the same dimensions to ensure aero parity – yet still retain their manufacturer’s DNA. Roush said: ‘For instance, it will be a common roof even though the quarter windows will be different. It will be a common deck lid configuration
even though the rear fascia will be different. The side-panels, the door sides and quarter-panels and fenders will be brand identifiable, but the areas around the wheel wells and the areas around the front and rear fascia contacts will be exactly the same.’
He added: ‘I think there has been a great effort made to give as much room as possible for the manufacturers to show the brand identity things that are of interest to them, while at the same time maintaining parity in regard to performance.’ Roush said that the first ‘marketing and image’ versions of the 2013 car should be rolling out of the body shop within the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, mobile phone company Sprint is in talks to
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www.racecarengineering.com • August 2011 FORMULA 1 Minnows up aero effort
Two of Formula 1’s newer teams have taken steps to move up the grid by changing their approach to aerodynamic development. Both Team Lotus and Virgin
Racing have made changes recently, the most drastic being the latter’s split with Wirth Research and its eponymous boss Nick Wirth. The breakup comes after a review by former Renault director of engineering Pat Symonds – who is currently a consultant at Virgin. Wirth’s approach had been to
rely totally on CFD rather than wind tunnel development, but the team has failed to improve its performance following a disappointing first year in 2010, and has now been left behind, in performance terms, by fellow new team Lotus. It’s rumoured that Virgin is looking for a technical tie-up with McLaren, similar to that which Force India currently enjoys, but in the meantime it will now start a wind tunnel programme. For its part, Team Lotus has
car will be fitted with an active gurney, which will serve to reduce aerodynamic drag, in the same way as the Drag Reduction System (DRS) in Formula 1. At the press of a button the driver will be able to activate this system on the straights to achieve gains of up to 12mph. The car’s new aerodynamic
package, in particular its new front and rear wings, could gain 34 per cent more downforce, claims Renault Sport, while other changes include a new 6-speed gearbox and pneumatic gearshift. Michelin has developed brand
new tyres for the formula, too, which with the engine and aero updates should see the car lapping most circuits as much as two seconds faster. Running costs are expected to increase by around 60,000 Euros per season over the current 600 to 800,000 Euro budgets.
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