Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielVieceli
As you can see, there will be a variety of cars racing in P1, with the grid dominated by the Metalmoro JLM AJR. This is not by chance, as the AJR is the current car to beat in Brazil, This car is the result of a development made by Juliano Moro, former F3 driver and JLM Racing team principal. Taking advantage of the design freedom of the P1 class, the team had the aero development conducted by British firm Dynamic Flow Solutions, while the chassis and all the manufacturing was done in house at Metalmoro, traditional Brazilian race car and go-kart manufacturer, owned by Juliano’s father, Ademar Moro. Ever since it was launched, the AJR captured the pole position in every race it participated, and is a car that accepts a wide range of engines. In summary, the AJR is a tubeframe prototype with a carbon fiber body, using a Xtrac P1152 LMP3 gearbox and LMP2 spec carbon brakes, while the chassis allow a wide range of engines to be used.
The first ever car used a Honda K20 Turbo engine, but reliability really appeared when the car received a Chevrolet LS3 V8 similar to those used in the Brazilian Stock Cars. These engines are based on the Camaro powerplant, and can produce up to 550 HP in qualify trim, being limited to 450 HP in races to keep reliability and fuel consumption at hand. With the revamp of the rules in 2019 allowing more fuel per stint, the teams started to seek ways to improve power of the V8. Some migrated to Motorcar Racing, a famous engine tuner in Brazil, while Giaffone Racing (the company responsible to build and run all Brazilian Stock Car, engine included) developed an evolution engine called Gen2 for the Endurance Racing. Now power levels range between 600 HP to 700 HP in qualifying trim, with the more powerful car believed to be the #65 car from NC Racing, which uses a custom built LS3 V8 with the displacement enlarged to 6.9 liter and tuned by Motorcar Racing.
Other engines in use/used were:
Audi 2 liter turbo engine in the #46 car of Mottin Racing (now they are expected to bring a Chevy LS7 7 liter engine);
Honda K24 Turbo on the #11 car from Emilio Padron (for 2020 he will switch to a Chevy LS3 by Motorcar);
Nissan VQ35 V6 from the Power Imports Racing Team, initially naturally aspirated and now equipped with a Vortech supercharger;
Chassis wise the AJR received numerous updates, especially in 2019, with the introduction of a new new front wing design, DRS and various aerodynamic bits added throughout the season.
I highly encourage you to read the blog post below (only in Portuguese, but soon to be translated), were I go more in depht through all of the AJR history, technical updates and race results:
https://nivelandoaengenharia.com.br/...lmoro-jlm-ajr/ |
So, keeping up with the P1 Class cars overview, next we go to the Sigma P1. This car was developed by engineers Pedro Fetter and Evandro Flesch, former students of UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), that at the time had a go-kart manufacturing company called Sigma Kart, and provided technical support to the MRX prototype of Felipe Bertuol. They had a long dream of building a prototype, but without enough funding to build the first car, they had a hard time finding someone to fund the project. Eventually, they managed to convince Felipe Bertuol and Jindra Kraucher, who provided funds for the development.
Originally, the car most distinctive feature was the powertrain: inspired by Michael Schumacher's drive at the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix, they planned a car without a gearbox, with an engine (Audi 4.2 V8 Turbo) with a very flat torque curve and electric motors providing extra torque for low speed situations. The concept, although feasible, proved to be handful to develop, with an unexpected issue emerging after other was solved. In this configuration the car run only the 2016 12 Hours of Tarumã.
Then, the team decided that it would be too expensive to try to develop the hybrid concept, reverting to a conventional lay out. The Audi 4.2 V8 was retained (now producing around 550 HP) with a Xtrac P1152 gearbox to match. With this changes the car made it's debut at Endurance Brasil in 2018, managing a 6th place in the 2018 3 Hours of Santa Cruz do Sul.
That woud be the cars only race in 2018, returning in 2019 starting from round 2. Compared to 2018-spec, the Sigma P1 received new bodywork panels, a low mount dual elemente rear wing with a 3D profile and revised cooling. However, the car proved to be still lacking compared to the AJR and Ginetta G57 in the P1 class.
Starting from round 5, the team choose to register at P2 class, as the Sigma was built prior to 2018. Without the need to keep up the pace of the AJRs, the engineers could work to solve the small issues that affected the car's reliability, and even running only half season managed to capture the runner up position in the championship. This however, does not mean development was frozen, as the Sigma received updates after being entered in P2, including a rear wing DRS system. At the season finale, the 6 Hours of Curitiba, drivers Aldo Piedade Jr and Jindra Kraucher suffered issues during the qualifying sessions, starting at the back of the grid. However, they decided to go with a more agressive turbo set up, and not only managed to keep up with the AJR, but even to run as high as 4th place. Eventually an issue had them losing some time in the pits, as well as being forced to run a more conservative set up, but neverthless the Sigma team managed a 6th place finish, not only winning P2 but also being the better placed prototype, in a race that proved to be challenging to the P1/P2 cars.
Following the link below you can view a more in depht review of the Sigma P1:
https://nivelandoaengenharia.com.br/...03/sigma-p1-2/