[BTCC] BTCC 2022 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Evantra

And the Cupras in white look as aerodynamic as a brick wall! Didn't seem to get that many laps in either - Taylor Smith there but not on the timings?

Neither of the Cupras set a time during the morning session, but in the afternoon Goff managed only 11 laps and was at the bottom of the timings, whilst Taylor smith managed 53 laps setting a time of 1:09:946 that saw him 12th in the timings just 0.274 off the fastest, Turkington, at 1:09:104.

[porsche962fan]

could this be Turkington's fifth title ? he said they focused a lot on mechanical grip

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

could this be Turkington's fifth title ? he said they focused a lot on mechanical grip

Too early to say I reckon. I wouldn't bet against Ash Sutton, but on my past record...

[Sodemo]

I think they need to look at mechanical grip, but also why the bmw seems to lunch it’s rear tyres more than it should. I appreciate that the beemer probably would have slightly more rear wear over a race distance, but at times the wear seemed excessive.

[antnee]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Neither of the Cupras set a time during the morning session, but in the afternoon Goff managed only 11 laps and was at the bottom of the timings, whilst Taylor smith managed 53 laps setting a time of 1:09:946 that saw him 12th in the timings just 0.274 off the fastest, Turkington, at 1:09:104.

Going off instagram stories - I think HARD only got the hybrid kit last week and have been putting in very long hours to even get 2 cars to the track.

[Jiiiiiiim]

Originally Posted by antnee

Going off instagram stories - I think HARD only got the hybrid kit last week and have been putting in very long hours to even get 2 cars to the track.

As did most of the teams! It’s been a very tight turn around for most on the grid.

[BobJones]

Originally Posted by Evantra

https://bit.ly/3iLA3TJNew front aero for the BMW's makes them look a tiny bit 'gopping' to me

Probably. But, WSR, most professional team on the grid to have the foresight to change not just the font bumper, but the bonnet and rear side windows for this season and have three cars all running and liveried by the first test.

Always in awe of Dick

[crmalcolm]

There was a mix of cars with and without Hybrid running at the test.

e.g. Morgan was running a non-hybrid car, whilst Gamble was in a hybrid version.

'All teams were in attendance at the Leicestershire venue as a total of 23 cars hit the track, however not all of them ran the new hybrid system as some are still awaiting the installation of parts.'


Plato and Collard were also referred to as 'alongside the confirmed drivers, two familiar faces carried out testing duties for BTC and Speedworks'.

[TR4racer]

looking at the lap times from the TCR UK cars media day at Brands Indy the other day suggests that they are not that far off the BTCC FP 1&2 times from last year...

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by TR4racer

looking at the lap times from the TCR UK cars media day at Brands Indy the other day suggests that they are not that far off the BTCC FP 1&2 times from last year...

From memory, I think TCR cars are a bit lighter (20-30kg?) and Brands Indy isnt really a power circuit. I think the old Clio lap times are only about 2-3 seconds slower at Brands than the BTCC.

Originally Posted by BobJones

Probably. But, WSR, most professional team on the grid to have the foresight to change not just the font bumper, but the bonnet and rear side windows for this season and have three cars all running and liveried by the first test.

Always in awe of Dick

I stuggle to tell the difference with the front bumper / splitter. I can see the bonnet vents (what do they do?) and the rear window vents (again, what do they do?).

[S griffin]

TCR and NGTC are quite similar to be fair and the difference would be less noticeable at a circuit like Brands. It's always a lot closer round the Indy circuit in times

BTW a bumper is what all cars have, the splitter is an aero aid. I'm sure the bonnet vents help with cooling, like the rear window ones, but in different ways

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by S griffin

TCR and NGTC are quite similar to be fair and the difference would be less noticeable at a circuit like Brands. It's always a lot closer round the Indy circuit in times

BTW a bumper is what all cars have, the splitter is an aero aid. I'm sure the bonnet vents help with cooling, like the rear window ones, but in different ways

I read somewhere that Cleland used to adjust the rear windows up or down as it used to change the aero properties of the car. Is this something similar?

[Robin Marriott]

The NACA duct in the rear window is probably for cooling for the hybrid system, the slotted vents will be to draw the hot air out of the cabin without creating as much drag as having the window open.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by BobJones

Always in awe of Dick

No comment!

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

The NACA duct in the rear window is probably for cooling for the hybrid system, the slotted vents will be to draw the hot air out of the cabin without creating as much drag as having the window open.

the optional naca ducts and slotted vents have been in the rules and on some btcc cars for a couple of years for driver cooling. nothing to do with hybrid.

[crmalcolm]

The cooling elements for the hybrid system are mounted below the headlights and behind the front bumper. Two units, one for the battery whilst the other supports the motor and its control unit.

Since at least 2013, the NGTC regulations have permitted the following for bonnets:
'Two cut-outs, symmetrical about the centre line of the bonnet, with a maximum combined surface of 1050 cm2 are permitted for the two louvres. The maximum height of the louvres above the original shape of the bonnet is 15mm and must be fitted from underneath the bonnet. These must not protrude into the engine bay more than 20mm from the upper bonnet surface.'

[Robin Marriott]

The radiators for the water cooling of the system may well be but I’d be very surprised if additional air cooling wasn’t also being used.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

The radiators for the water cooling of the system may well be but I’d be very surprised if additional air cooling wasn’t also being used.

Air cooling of what? The only part of the system that generates any real heat rear of the bulkhead is the battery pack in the passenger footwell.

Cosworth:
'We provide custom designed PWR cooling systems for both battery and motor to ensure they are kept within operating temperature parameters. The custom radiators dedicated to the hybrid system components manage cooling for E-Motor | Inverter/Motor controller | Battery pack | Temperature sensors and coolant pressure pumps report back to the Antares 8 VCU. In turn, control strategies are communicated to electric coolant pumps to safely manage system temperatures and pressures.'

'For us, the difficulty comes with the location of the coolers,” comments Andrew Parker, operations and customer support engineer at PWR. “There’s always a trade-off there between packaging space and the cost of the technology that you choose; because of the vulnerable location right at the front of the car we didn’t want to use anything that would be particularly costly to replace, but that in turn increased the packaging volume that we’d need.” The stakes are quite high here, he points out, because the electric motor also acts as an alternator supplying the car’s 12-volt system through a DC-DC converter that’s driven from the high-voltage battery. Given the BTCC drivers’ sometimes robust driving styles, it was critical that the motor could continue to function as an alternator even if the cooling system was damaged and the hybrid side was disabled. “The cooling system is quite critical on something like this where you’re regularly charging and discharging,” comments Simon Dowson, managing director of Delta Motorsport. “We adopted a cooling system that we’d worked on with PWR previously that runs through our battery system to maintain the cell temperature. After we built the first pack, we carried out load testing in parallel with Cosworth’s verification of the motor and the control system.” The danger was that a cooling system that worked more effectively in a particular installation could convey a performance benefit. Delta Motorsport evaluated a range of different circuits and deployment strategies to identify the worst case duty cycles and ensure that the battery would perform consistently over the whole of that range. As it is, the cooling portion of the hybrid system will be supplied as an identical package for all installations. Part of the reason for this was to prevent a ‘cooling war’, Parker notes: “We’ve already seen how much some of the teams spend on optimising their engine cooling and we didn’t want the better-funded outfits to have more options for their hybrid system. We also didn’t want a situation where the first person to pull out of the slipstream got penalised. As a result, we’ve specified a system that’s probably 10 per cent larger than it would need to be for perfect thermal conditions every lap.”
'

[Robin Marriott]

Ok in that case I’m not sure what the naca ducts would be for. I was guessing.

[Mike Harte]

Another guess would be for rear brake cooling.

[Pdh]

Ducts in the rear windows are only allowed to be used to cool the driver

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

Ok in that case I’m not sure what the naca ducts would be for. I was guessing.

like I said. its just an option for driver cooling thats been allowed for about 3 years

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Another guess would be for rear brake cooling.

I think the NACA ducts being referred to are those above the driver's name:



Cooling for the rear brakes is permitted, as detailed:

'At the front and rear, ducts to bring the air to each wheel are allowed, these ducts must not have any function other than to deliver air to the front and rear of the disc, the calliper via the specified calliper cooling duct and the wheel. A maximum of two air ducts per wheel are permitted.
For all Race Cars; circular flexible ducting from existing holes in the front of the Race Car or from the authorised holes in the front aerodynamic device are permitted. The maximum diameter of this flexible ducting is 100 mm. Alternatively a composite duct with a maximum dimension of 100mm in
any direction may be used.

For Rear Wheel Drive Race Cars; rear circular flexible ducts to bring air to the brakes of each wheel are permitted, the maximum diameter of the flexible ducting is 100mm. Alternatively a composite duct with a maximum dimension of 100mm in any direction may be used. These air ducts must not
protrude beyond the perimeter of the Race Car seen from above and the air intakes must be situated within the rear half of the wheelbase of the Race Car.'

[redshoes]

I wonder if we can fit ducts to this forum. Might help to reduce some of the hot air

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by redshoes

I wonder if we can fit ducts to this forum. Might help to reduce some of the hot air