Flybrid-Hope-Lehmann-Oreca LMP1

[nobster]

allready mentioned on the Le Mans thread...

[GTfour]

Can't be mentioned often enough, if one asks me.

Lammers is back !

[gwyllion]

According to http://www.oreca-racing.com/en/racin...cturer-2/lmp1/ the Lehmann/VAG 2.0 liter turbo engine produces 520 bhp and revs to 7200 rpm.

[Victor_RO]

lemans.org says that the car has been withdrawn from Spa as well due to technical reasons...

[nobster]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

lemans.org says that the car has been withdrawn from Spa as well due to technical reasons...

That doesn't sound good, but still haven't read the news elsewhere so....

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by nobster

That doesn't sound good, but still haven't read the news elsewhere so....

The article is very clear. There are issues with the KERS flywheel because of the engine vibrations. These vibrations are caused by resonance when the engine is mounted in the chassis, but they did not occur on the test bench.

[GTfour]

Can anyone provide me with an e-mail adress to contact this team?

[GTfour]

Originally Posted by nobster

That doesn't sound good, but still haven't read the news elsewhere so....

http://www.planetlemans.com/2011/05/...t-to-miss-spa/

[ss_collins]

The problem with the Flywheel KERS should be resolved for Le Mans, I was there the other day and its a minor thing. Just needed a spot of machining

[gwyllion]

More good news from Hope.

Interesting Hope Racing line-up as Casper Elgaard joins Jan Lammers and Steve Zacchia. They hope the ACO will allow them to race in June.

source: http://twitter.com/#!/planetlemans/s...39104124309504

[gwyllion]

Hope Racing hybrid confirmed

[Victor_RO]

http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...ance-7251.html

Endurance-Info's article about the car passing its hybrid homologation test also mentions the chassis' provenance; it is the same chassis that finished 4th at Le Mans last year.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...ance-7251.html

Endurance-Info's article about the car passing its hybrid homologation test also mentions the chassis' provenance; it is the same chassis that finished 4th at Le Mans last year.

I bet they would kill to finish there again!

So did they get the vibration issue worked out?

[Senna-F1God]

Well... I know we all hate green racing, but here we go:

If this car is about to save 20% fuel per stint and this year the top flights would have to pit around the 13-14 lap gap...considering the 15-20 seconds per lap deficit, where would end up finishing this brave effort in the 2011 LeMans race IF ideal reliability???

Powered by a conventional 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline turbo engine modified by Lehmann Motorentechnik AG and badged as Swiss HyTech, Hope Racing’s prototype will double as a flywheel-based hybrid, capable of revving to 60,000 rpm to store kinetic energy from the car’s braking phases. That energy, still in kinetic form, is then transmitted directly back to the drivetrain, bypassing the need for electric motors.

It’s a system which Flybrid calls CFT, or clutch flywheel transmission, in which team engineers claim results in no loss of energy when transmitted from the wheels to the flywheel storage and then back to the wheels.

“With battery systems, you always struggle to get energy in and out of the battery quickly,” explained Tobias Knichel, lead engineer for Flybrid’s LMP1 program. “Where the mechanical system, it basically all depends on how quickly you can decelerate or accelerate the flywheel. That determines at what rate you store the energy.”

Knichel explained that the more energy stored, the faster the flywheel will spin. Compared to the flywheel on the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid, which revs at 40,000 rpm, Flybrid’s system could end up producing larger amounts of boost, although exact numbers have not been disclosed.

While the ACO limits the amount of energy recovered to 500 kilojoules per two braking phases, it’s a massive increase over the previously allowed 400 kilojoules per lap in Formula One, where Flybrid developed its first-generation system for Honda F1 over two years ago.

“Obviously there are a lot of braking phases at Le Mans,” Knichel said. “We’re really thankful for the ACO to write the rules as they are at the moment. They allow very powerful KERS systems, which is not possible in Formula One. I think that’s one of the reasons why you don’t see any mechanical systems [in F1] and why it was not met with a lot of enthusiasm.”

“There is a strategy that we’ll use and Steve is going to be very busy in the cockpit,” said Hope Racing technical director Andrew Sayer. “To drive it only on KERS, we have to have the gearbox engaged, but the engine de-clutched. So he’ll have one or two things to do, but he’s going to be trained for that.”

Hopefully Jan Lammers will put this car on its pace well before the race, as in the tests they were slower than the LMP2 Oreca´s...hopefuly!

Will will this technology survive the 24h test? Has the Fly-wheel anything to do with Williams F1´s system?

[Victor_RO]

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...=127036&page=2

Merge?

[knighty]

Originally Posted by Senna-F1God

Well... I know we all hate green racing, but here we go:

If this car is about to save 20% fuel per stint and this year the top flights would have to pit around the 13-14 lap gap...considering the 15-20 seconds per lap deficit, where would end up finishing this brave effort in the 2011 LeMans race IF ideal reliability???
FONT]

yes it should be merged.....but there is nothing new above.......@ SennaF1God......sorry, we do not all hate green racing, for me quite the opposite actually, if someone likes green racing it does not mean they need to sell their soul to a massive battery pack and an electrical motor which is near silent, green racing is far more sophisticated than that......this mechanical flywheel system is quite likley to show the flaws and very poor conversion efficiencies with battery-traction motor hybrid systems, typically they have an overall system efficiency of only 30%......the mechanical flywheel system efficiency is 70% - thats a big difference......yes, if the Hope LMP1 lasts the distance I think it could raise some significant eyebrows around the world, not to mention the pit-lane, best of luck to them me says.

[NaBUru38]

Story on BBC News

[skycafe]

thanks for the link!

[Canada ALMS fan]

Originally Posted by skycafe

thanks for the link!

x 2. This is one of the best looking cars at Le Mans this year IMO. It is also supposed to be doing the rest of the ILMC which means we`ll see it at Petit!

[knighty]

How did the Hope car do in the end?.....I couldnt see much what with all th hoopla about audi's 2 big crashes and the remaining battle......did the car show any glimmers of good performance or perhaps good fuel economy???.....hopefully the latter.......my wife gave birth to our 3rd child today at 1am, a bouncing 8 pound boy who we called Leon

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by knighty

How did the Hope car do in the end?.....I couldnt see much what with all th hoopla about audi's 2 big crashes and the remaining battle......did the car show any glimmers of good performance or perhaps good fuel economy???.....hopefully the latter.......

Pretty much neither I think, too many technical problems. 115 laps and retired at 4:55 AM on Sunday with a fire according to the ACO stats (link).

[skycafe]

Knighty, congratulations and best wishes to you and your growing family!

[knighty]

cheers skycafe!......turns out there is a detailed report on the flybrid website, here is the link.....http://www.flybridsystems.com/News.html

heres the blurb cut and pasted below, shame they had a misfire, but I guess thats whats happens with a new engine programme, but isnt this the old LMP675 engine that the ROC boys ran???......lets hope they can run a few more races and prove something worthwhile.......it does seem that turbo gasoline engines are very tempremental in the LeMans type races, something that never seems to affect the NA V8's......hey ho, AER always had gripes about quoted versus actual fuel specs......I shall keep my ear to the floor regarding any potential fuel saves, I guess the only yardstick is the 5% that audi saved when they introduced GDI on the R8, but thats hardly an apples-apples comparison.



History in the making 11th June 2011

Today the Hope Racing LMP1 car fitted with its Flybrid CFT KERS is set to become the first hybrid car ever to race in the 24 hours of Le Mans.

After months of hard work and late nights the start line is in sight and we all look forward to making history today.

Flybrid have three engineers and a technician in the pits supporting the Hope Racing team and they have been kept busy in the run up to the race as the car has run in free practice and qualifying sessions. The very latest specification of system was driven out from Flybrid's Silverstone factory on Thursday and fitted to the car on Friday ready for the big day.

Diary of today - Saturday the 11th June 2011

09.00 - 09.45 Morning Warm up
The car ran well this morning with no signs of the misfire that had dogged the car during final qualifying. We have a new engine today and all seems good. The Flybrid CFT KERS is working well and the driver likes the feel of the power boost - especially out of the Mulsanne corner which follows a particularly hard braking zone so the boost lasts longest here.

13.15 Car goes to the grid
The car is pushed out to the grid and lines up in 24th position - in the front half of the 56 car grid for this famous race.

14.30 Car completes parade lap
The car completes the parade lap and pits to brim the fuel tank ready for the start of the race. Driver Jan Lammers will start the race in the car and is fact the most experienced (polite way to say oldest) driver on the grid. Nice chap too!

14.50 Mechanics leave the grid
As the 5 minute board is shown the mechanics leave the grid and the atmosphere in the garage hots up. Everyone is very tense waiting for the start. French airforce fly past is quieter than the grid of cars as they start the engines.

15.00 They are off!
The pole sitting Audi leads the grid round behind the safety car as they all line up for the rolling start and they are off! The flywheel is spinning and the first ever hybrid car to race at Le Mans is the Hope Racing LMP1 with Flybrid power!

15.45 Leading the Michelin Green X Challenge!
Now the first round of pit stops is complete the live timing shows the current positions in the Michelin Green X Challenge and Hope are leading! The scoring for this award is done using an Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) which is calculated by dividing the average speed of each car, excluding time spent in the pits, by its average fuel consumption during the race.

17.30 Loads of data!
Flybrid get a chance to swap the data card in their on board data logger which gives us the first look at proper high resolution data for the flywheel system. The car has telemetry but coverage is patchy around this 13.6 km circuit and the data rate is low. In high resolution the data confirms everything is running exactly as it should with the Flybrid system.

18.20 First sign of engine troubles
The car pits for the first of many visits as the team battle to overcome an engine misfire problem.

20.08 It could be much worse
As Steve brings the car in for the next fuel stop the Hope car passes the number 15 Oak Racing Judd-Pescarolo for 12th in class LMP1. The Oak car is stuck in the pits and it serves as a reminder just how hard this race is. In fact we are now 12th of 17 starters in LMP1 and the official retirements now include both Aston Martins, the crashed number 3 Audi R18 and the Zytek of the Quifel-ASM Team.

22.23 In for another long stop
The car returns to the pits for another series of stops as the team try more solutions to the persistent misfire problem. Virtually the whole fuel system and the whole ignition system have been methodically replaced but it won't go away.

03.00 Half time report
By the half way stage in the race the car has completed 101 laps but has fallen over 60 laps behind the leader with a succession of long pit stops.

04.45 All over
Steve Zacchia radios in to say he thinks that something has gone wrong with the car. He can smell something burning so stops at the side of the track. The car catches fire but is quickly put out. In all the car completed 115 laps - over 1,500 kms - but well short of a full race distance.

So a disappointing end to the debut for a hybrid car at Le Mans but we will be back next year better prepared and ready for the challenge. As the sun rises over La Sarthe we are packing up but we will be back.

[skycafe]

No word on what caught fire? I too thought the engine was the same as used by ROC, which I believe twice won 675 class (VW block), and indeed Lammers is a nice chap, hope to see him back.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by skycafe

No word on what caught fire? I too thought the engine was the same as used by ROC, which I believe twice won 675 class (VW block), and indeed Lammers is a nice chap, hope to see him back.

According to a story on EI, it was oil getting into the Turbo and igniting that started the fire. The team is investigating the source of the oil leak.