Cars entered into the Le Mans P1 event have hybrid systems that use regenerative braking to capture energy when the car slows down. One of which is the Porsche 919 Hybrid. In 2017, Porsche is returning to the top class to defend its title as FIA WEC World Champion from 2015 and 2016 with the 919 Hybrid.
Porsche’s fourth-generation 919 Hybrid is powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder, two-liter petrol engine delivering almost 500 hp that drives the rear axle. Its ally is an additional electric motor delivering more than 400 hp to the front axle. The latter is fed by two energy recovery systems. Converted braking and exhaust energy is temporarily stored in a liquid cooled lithium-ion battery. Porsche is gaining key insights for series production have been obtained from the LMP1 prototype project: examples include the cooling for the battery and electric motor, the connection
technology for extreme high voltage as well as the battery management and the systems’ design.
With the 24 Hours of Le Mans around the corner, we thought we’d delve into the event and check out the cars in detail and see how they’re made in order to deal with this grueling race. We also find out how Guido Van Der Garde prepares for Le Mans 24 Hours and the difference between Le Man and Formula 1. We’ve also thrown in a few tips if you’re going to attempt to watch the full 24 Hours without falling asleep.
There have been pollution monitoring sensors and stations for a while now, which measure particulate matter, ozone, NO2, carbon monoxide, and a few other hazardous emissions. You can view global pollution data readings in real time, and that is great news if you are sensitive to toxic air. However, there is a very big drawback to the ways these numbers are collected. Geography, wind, buildings, proximity to traffic all add a lot of variability to readings. The air at the top of a US embassy building might be fair, but the air at the intersection down the street among the buses, diesel delivery trucks, and street vendor stoves can be absolutely noxious. Height of the sensors is extremely important, especially when gases tend to settle low in avenues and streets, among the bikers, commuters, and baby strollers. Air quality sensors have been a topic of debate in Delhi, India, as the uniform height mandates caused the true level of pollution in the city to be underrepresented and misunderstood.
The map shown above is part of Google’s recent project to show the air quality right down to the block you are standing on in Oakland, California. The project is in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Aclima, a pollution sensor startup it has been working with to map environmental changes in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Los Angeles since 2015.
Google strapped Aclima sensors to its StreetView cars shortly after it began working with the company and its maps can now give you street-level data in areas with higher amounts of nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and black carbon particulates — all pollutants coming from car exhaust, all very hazardous to lung tissue and carcinogenic.
The project was able to identify local hot spots of pollution, which was critical to modelling what how intersections, congestion patterns, and street setups affect the air that we actually breathe every day. They also plan to correlate the data to medical histories of asthma attacks to better understand how pollution afflicts sensitive lungs.
One good example of how the map can help environmental scientists in the Bay Area is the ability to track higher pollution due to cars speeding up near the Bay Bridge to cross under or merge onto I-80, which is a freeway with frequent traffic congestion that goes beyond just rush hour and can sometimes even be affected on the weekends.
In a Google blog post, out today, Google claimed its pollution data set to be the largest ever published, “With nearly 3 million measurements and 14,000 miles captured in the course of a year,” and said it could apply the data to other cities in the future.
Hopefully, this data will provide even more incentive to invest in clean transportation solutions. Whatever your feelings on climate change, protecting the air that we actually breathe in our city streets, stores, and homes should be a national and global undertaking. It’s nice to see Google assuming a leadership role.
Some say that the BMW i8 is the future of motoring, and have even favored it over an M3, but can it really stack up against the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde?
Before answering this question, we have to consider a number of facts, the most important being the German sports car’s age, as it’s getting ready to blow four candles this year.
Secondly, the i8 uses a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder twin-turbo petrol engine, rated at 228 horses and 236 pound-feet (320 Nm) of torque, but it’s backed up by an electric motor providing an extra 129 HP and 184 lb-ft (250 Nm) of torque.
The combined system output is 357 HP and 420 lb-ft (570 Nm) of torque, which allows it to sprint from rest to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 4.4 seconds, and up to an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph (250 km/h).
On the other hand, the Alfa Romeo Giulia QV is powered by a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 engine, said to have been cooked up with Ferrari’s expertise, rated at 505 HP and 443 lb-ft (600 Nm) of torque. Going from naught to 62 mph (100 km/h) takes 3.9 seconds, but give it enough space and it will eventually reach 190 mph (305 km/h), always according to the manufacture.
So, ready to see how the two potent machines stand against each other in a half-mile drag race? Just hit play below.
On Vox Borders this week, I couldn’t help but think of a quote from Scarface,”Don’t get high on your own supply.”
Journalist Johnny Harris described Norway as “full of Teslas”. While he doesn’t know much about the popular electric plug in, “0-60 in like… 5 seconds”, he does bring up an interesting observation about environmental and economic policies working together to affect change. In 2014, Tesla broke a record for number of cars sold in a month for a single model, of any kind of car, not just electric cars. In America, we’ve all seen the occasional electric vehicle, but in Norway, other Scandinavian countries, and Iceland, electric vehicles are becoming omnipresent on all city streets. This is partly due to forward thinking politicians, and their fortunate access to renewable resources to generate electricity, like geothermal generation. This renewable electricity makes electric vehicles much more beneficial over internal combustion cars, so it makes more sense to go all-in on a plug-in transportation future.
In 2016 in the United States of all the new cars that were purchased about 1% were electric, more like 0.9%. In Norway it was 29% and that trend is only speeding up: in January this year[2017] the share was like 37% or something of all the cars purchased being electric.
Many countries are adopting policies that make it cheaper for someone to buy a Tesla or any other electric car than to buy one in the United States. In Norway, you get free parking if you drive an electric car, you get access to the HOV Lane, which has way less traffic, you don’t have to pay registration fees, you get tax deductions on your income tax, and perhaps the biggest incentive of all is on the business side: companies like Tesla don’t have to pay sales tax for selling in Norway.
Furthermore, you don’t have to pay for gas to drive an electric car in Norway, and you don’t even have to pay for electricity because that is on the house. It’s all payed for by the sovereign wealth fund, which is comprised almost entirely of oil and gas money. Norway’s a huge producer of fossil fuels and they sell that to other countries.
While some might disparage Norway for funding their sustainable, clean future with dirty money, when you look at the situation objectively, they are still reducing their carbon footprint and fueling their own economic good compared to a business as usual approach. Using profits from older fossil fuel resources to improve the environment and wellbeing of their citizens is possibly the most beneficial way to spend tax dollars in the long and short term.
An most Norwegians are simply unapologetic for this caveat of their economy. And why should they be? If somebody else will pay their oil and natural gas, the Norwegian economy is much obliged to take their dollars, bitcoins, or yen and invest it in their transportation projects. If it worked for Tony Montana, it works for Norway (I don’t remember the full plot to Scarface).
Richard Hammond thankfully survived a pretty horrific supercar accident in Switzerland over the weekend. While the TV show host was demonstrating the power of the 1,224-horsepower Rimac Concept One, he appeared to under-steer on a curve of Hemberg Hill Climb, causing him and the electric supercar to tumble down the grassy hill. The vehicle burst into flames and Hammond was able to escape before the fire brigade extinguished the car. Hammond suffered no serious injuries.
Richard Hammond is a British presenter that became most popular as the endearing little host nicknamed the Hamster on Top Gear. In November 2016, Hammond, alongside the co-presenters of The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson and James May, launched the automotive social media website DriveTribe. This is not the first time Hammond has had a close encounter with death in a vehicle. During filming of a Top Gear segment at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York on 20 September 2006, Hammond was injured in the crash of the jet-powered car he was piloting.
The crash brings up questions about the whether the instant torque of a 900 kW electric supercar with four electric motors at each wheel is reasonable for even the most skilled drivers. Companies continue to push the envelope, looking to create the fasted production vehicles that are reaching low 2 second 0-60 mph times. Hammond was driving a special edition Remac Concept One boasting a 2.4 second 0-60. At what point will we reach the limits of human capability to control such power?
During Tesla’s first quarter financial results meeting, Elon Musk gave a sneak peak of the upcoming Model Y, which will be a fully electric crossover SUV on a completely new drivetrain/battery setup. A crossover is meant to be a mixture of a sedan and a full size SUV, so the Model Y will likely take a lot of stylistic influence from the Model X, including the falcon doors. Other than that, really not much is known yet about this upcoming vehicle, but it will likely be released around 2020 at a price point slightly above Tesla’s economy model that will start rolling out later this year, the Model 3. Add in Tesla’s longest running legacy model, the Model S, the four electric vehicles in Tesla’s fleet coincidentally spell S E X Y. Not sure if that is Elon Musk being cheeky, or complete serendipitous fortune.
