It currently builds the gearboxes for IndyCar, NASCAR, Supercars, all LMDh cars, most LMH cars, several in Formula E and more. In recent years, Xtrac has diversified into the high-performance automotive sector with electrification projects and boasts an impressive factory in the UK. Racecar recently went to Thatcham to find out what 40 years of progress looks like.

Xtrac: Origins

The first Xtrac headquarters were as humble as you like: a small workshop around the back of a Chinese takeaway in Wokingham, a small town west of London. Endean built transmissions and related components in small quantities, mostly for off-road motorsport. The name Xtrac only emerged after Endean’s G4 gearbox had started racing in 1983. The story goes that Endean light-heartedly told the revered British motorsport commentator, Murray Walker, that his as-yet-unnamed firm could be called ‘Mr X’s Traction Company’. Walker then ran with it, going onto the broadcast and shortening it to ‘Xtrac’. The impromptu, catchy moniker stuck and Endean, together with his wife, Shirley, established Xtrac Ltd on June 15, 1984.

Building on its success with Schanche, Xtrac gained more off-road customers, particularly manufacturers building cars for the Group A regulations. As it gained more work, Xtrac moved to a new 9000ft.sq factory at Hogwood Lane, having moved out of the cramped workshop behind the takeaway.

‘We were bringing in one new person every two to three weeks,’ recalls Peter Digby, Xtrac president and one of the company’s earliest employees. ‘We couldn’t afford to buy machines because we were so small, so we would go to these [car manufacturer] customers and say, if you want to have that gearbox, we need this much up front for design, tooling etc.’

As the company grew in the late ’80s, bringing more processes such as heat treatment in-house, it branched out from rallying and set its sights on Formula 1. It had made a few F1 parts in the early days, for the likes of Penske and Haas Lola (where Digby was previously managing director before joining Xtrac) but not an entire transmission. That changed in 1989 when Onyx contracted Xtrac to develop a transverse gearbox for its F1 car.

‘Then we were approached, almost at the same time, by McLaren,’ recalls Digby. ‘Pete Weismann had designed them a new, revolutionary gearbox and they were making gears, but having some issues. McLaren decided to do a back-to-back test. Allegedly, ours lasted longer.

‘So, overnight, we had a massive order in from McLaren, which was a real challenge. Then, within a couple of years, we had six Formula 1 teams that came to us. Nearly all of the work was bespoke at that point. We had Benetton, McLaren, Tyrrell, BAR, Williams and Jordan on the books. That was probably our peak of Formula 1.’

Xtrac is still involved in F1 today, supplying torque-carrying steel internal gearbox components to ‘a number of successful teams’. The company pushed in the past for F1 to adopt a single gearbox supplier, as other series have done, but that didn’t materialise.

Sole supplier success

However, single-supply contracts in other categories are where Xtrac really accelerated its growth heading into the 21st century. In 1999, IndyCar enquired about a standardised gearbox to try and prevent development wars and reduce costs for teams. After convincing the series that it could bring the cost per unit down, Xtrac was signed as the sole supplier.

‘Overnight, we had to go and build 100 gearboxes very quickly with all our own money, before we sold one,’ says Digby. ‘We were bursting at the seams.’

The huge increase in workload had Xtrac searching for a new factory location. It eventually landed on a 13-acre site in Thatcham and enlisted Ridge & Partners, the architect for most F1 team headquarters in the UK, to put a 88,000ft.sq facility in place for staff to move in by the summer of 2000.

Three years later, Xtrac opened its first American outpost in Indianapolis to service the IndyCar transmissions (the other one serves NASCAR in North Carolina). However, this rapid expansion, which included buying new manufacturing machines, came with a financial cost. HSBC Private Equity (later called Montagu) took a 25 per cent shareholding, the first of three times that Xtrac has worked with an external investor to finance its growth. Its first major structural change occurred in 1997, when Digby led a management buyout that saw Endean step back from his duties.

The IndyCar supply deal came after Xtrac had already expanded into other areas of motorsport. It created its first complete 24 Hours of Le Mans transmission for the Peugeot 905, developing a six-speed sequential manual for the first time. It went on to supply other winning cars including the McLaren F1 GTR, Bentley Speed 8 and LMP1 machines from Audi and Toyota. In parallel, Xtrac was building front and rear sequential transmissions for several BTCC cars, and eventually moved to a single-supply contract for the series that it still holds today.

‘We then decided to take sequential to rallying,’ says Digby. ‘Most of the drivers said they didn’t want that, but we built a gearbox mock-up to show them that you could go from sixth to second as quickly as you could on an H-pattern, but without blipping the engine. It was transformational at that point. Nobody looked back after that.’

Covering various categories and adapting the gearbox technology to suit different vehicles’ demands helped increase Xtrac’s reputation across motorsport. Its products were often not the cheapest option, but its selling point has been reliability with the aim of being cost effective in the long run.

Automotive Expansion

Despite hailing from motorsport, Xtrac has ramped up its high-performance automotive (HPA) business in the last two decades. According to company CEO, Adrian Moore, years of working on hard and fast motorsport deadlines enabled Xtrac to be agile in reacting to road car projects which tend to be more fluid from a timing perspective.

‘The core of the business is still motorsport,’ he says. ‘It gives us the customer focus, the reaction time and the ethos.’

However, the automotive side is growing – it currently takes up around 40 per cent of the projects and Moore projects it will be as big as motorsport in a couple of years. The expansion has been supported by Xtrac not just selling gearboxes: it also builds turnkey packages that incorporate control systems, gearshift mechanisms and clutch actuators.

Since its first electrified powertrain project for a Tesla prototype in 2006, Xtrac’s EV and hybrid workload has increased and is set to overtake internal combustion. According to Moore, the split last year was about 65 / 35 in favour of IC, but now they are on equal terms. Hydrogen has also recently emerged as an option and Xtrac has started developing transmissions for hydrogen combustion engine prototypes, such as the Alpine Alpenglow HY4.

‘As legislation changes, we’re still small and agile enough to react to that,’ says Moore. ‘As well as IC, our capability is transmissions for those three [hybrid, electric and hydrogen propulsion systems]. We’re ambivalent as to which way the regulations go, it just depends on what the customers want.’

Extensive Factory

Xtrac produces a quarter of a million components annually – that’s almost 5000 weekly, or 685 daily – at its Thatcham facility.

Before any part is manufactured, it is conceptualised in the design office. There are 90 engineers working in this department, with about a third of them on motorsport projects and the rest on high-performance automotive. Downstairs sits the production office, where manufacturing plans and quality control are directed.

Unsurprisingly, the manufacturing area utilises the most space. It is constantly evolving, with new machines regularly being introduced or re-positioned for efficiency. A wide walkway runs along the length of the factory floor and serves as a gateway between the offices and machinery on the other side. Along the walkway, project timelines are laid out on whiteboards.

On the manufacturing floor, gear-cutting machines stand like towers above a network of narrow walkways, through which technicians and engineers commute between the different stages of manufacture – turning, milling, gear cutting and heat treatment. Once a part is designed in CAD, its first step towards manufacture takes place in the turning department. This consists of nine Okuma CNC lathe machines, which receive inputs from a turning program.

‘We’ve got multiple coordinate measuring machines, which are used to measure our parts,’ says Xtrac principal engineer, Nick Upjohn. ‘They validate that the program is machining the part how we want it. That way, if you’ve got an error in the program, you can correct it and account for any discrepancies in your next turning operation. It’s a nice, closed-loop system. A lot of work will be done here before any issues present in our manufacturing support office.’

Next is the milling department, where over a dozen mills cut and remove material to define the part’s shape, be it a bearing retainer or a gearbox casing.

‘We have a huge array of mills,’ says Upjohn. ‘Anything from small, three-axis manual mills for simple parts, all the way up to five-axis machines that can accommodate a one metre cubed work piece.’

Cutting Teeth

Once a blank part has been made, it is taken to the shaping department where teeth are cut into it by up and down movements. It takes about 15 minutes to produce a spline of 30mm diameter. Some gears can have as many as 150 teeth, and there are different cutting methods employed, including broaching and hobbing machines, which use rotary cutting tools.

‘Our Klingelnberg G30 CNC spiral bevel gear grinding machine was the first in the UK,’ says Upjohn. ‘We dress the form of the tooth we would like onto the wheel, and it then form grinds the material away. It’s an abrasive process, as opposed to a metal chipping one.

‘We then take it to our inspection department and a probe will measure where it’s incorrect vs the true perfect form. It will then send that information back to the first machine, which will administer corrections to make it the perfect shape. It’s a closed-loop system, right back to the original design data, which enables our engineers to refine the design for optimum strength, wear, efficiency and, for automotive applications, low noise.’

Once the gear has been produced, heat treatment realises the intended material properties of hardness, ductility and strength. Xtrac uses two types of heat treatment furnace technology, both of which use electrical elements to heat to the correct temperature: a seal quench furnace (of which the company has three) and a low-pressure carburising furnace.

The heat treatment process creates a reaction in a gaseous environment that produces carbon, which infuses into the gear’s surface when the heat is raised up to around 1000degC. The low-pressure carburising furnaces are newer to Xtrac, having only been introduced within the last six years, and can provide a more precise process than the older, but  proven, sealed quench furnaces through their gas quenching process, rather than the oil quench of the older equipment. There are currently two in operation, all feeding off a dedicated electricity substation.

After heat treatment, most parts, including gears, are processed through shot peening to improve their fatigue resistance and prolong their lifespan. This aerospace process involves firing tiny shot pellets at the gear surface and creating surface tension.

Test and Build

Heading back out to the main walkway, greyed-out windows on the office side signify the R&D department. Of course, this most interesting of rooms is strictly off limits to outsiders, but we are told it contains testing apparatus, such as a four-square rig, a gimbal rig and a quasi-transient differential test rig (QT-DTR) that customers and Xtrac both use. The factory also houses two fully loaded, transient powertrain test rigs, and multiple rigs used for end-of-line gearbox testing.

Next door is the Xtrac Academy: a practical training area for level two and three apprentices with manual and CNC machines for making non-production parts, plus computer-aided engineering (CAE) training areas. Xtrac takes on around 10 apprentices per year, and a high proportion go on to stay with the company. As an example, Xtrac’s first apprentice from the 1990s, Simon Short, is now head of its Indianapolis build shop.

Upstairs from R&D and the academy is Xtrac’s motorsport build area, where gearboxes are put together. Five years ago, it was the assembly shop for all products, but the increased automotive workload has correlated with a significant investment into a dedicated assembly line located in a different area. At the time of our visit, sportscar gearboxes are being built for Le Mans.

Also visible is a huge, 3D-printed casing built for the 932kW Czinger 21C electric hypercar (an industry first as most gearboxes use L169 aluminium). This makes a fitting bookend to the G4 layout encountered at the top of our tour. Gearbox technology has come a long way since Endean’s first, successful product and Xtrac has been a key part of furthering reliability and performance in many categories during that time.

As motorsport looks to other powertrain and fuel solutions for the future, Xtrac is well positioned to remain at the forefront of transmission design.

CLICK HERE to read the full version of this article in the July issue of Racecar Engineering!

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The post Xtrac at 40: From Back of a Takeaway to Gearbox Giant appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

To the layperson, GT3 and GTE cars may look very similar, if not the same. But the former has traction control and anti-lock braking, plus more weight and slower lap times by around four seconds at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The GT3 top speed is also 15-20km/h less than in GTE, whilst the GT3s will be doing much shorter stints. In most series, it is common for GT3 cars to do one hour before pitting, but at Le Mans they are expected to complete only around 40 minutes or 10 laps. This means that cars will be pitting more, likely in excess of 30 stops, whereas last year’s winning GTE-Am car completed 24 stops.

GT3 cars at Le Mans have a limited amount of energy (measured in MJ) they can use during a stint. This number is defined in a Balance of Performance table. Saving energy is key because it means less time spent replenishing at pit stops. Teams calculate how much energy they can use per lap and instruct the driver to reduce the consumption rate, using familiar tactics such as lift and coast. Energy can also be saved during a safety car, when the pace is reduced. Fuel and energy consumption rates typically correlate on a standard racing lap, but in safety car conditions, more fuel is used than energy. The 40-minute stint estimation is based on Le Mans being an energy-intensive circuit, due to its long straights. When a car pits to replenish its energy allocation, it will still have fuel left in the tank.

‘Everything is done on energy, not fuel,’ says Aston Martin Racing head of performance, Gustavo Beteli, who has engineered both GTE and GT3 entries at Le Mans. ‘There is mileage in the energy – getting the best lap time for the least amount of energy is key. Whereas before, you would just run to the fuel and go again. Now, the energy varies a lot. In safety car laps, you use a very small amount of energy, so you can extend your stints. You try to do that the whole race, to minimise your pit stops.’

Torque sensors are a new technology in the GT ranks at Le Mans. These devices are fitted to the driveshaft and collect torque data that determines the car’s power output and energy consumption. Sudden increases in said data are investigated and can be penalised. As is the case in Hypercar, not breaching the car’s prescribed power curve is essential in LMGT3. Most teams give themselves a margin underneath the curve to ensure they are not running exactly on the curve all the time, because that would inevitably register limit-breaking spikes through the torque sensor, which can happen in several ways. Common causes include running over kerbs or bumps, shifting gears and wheel slip. This was never a consideration in the GTE category.

‘Back in the day, we had air restrictors [whereas] the standard BoP now is a [torque sensor] power controller,’ says Manthey racing division manager, Patrick Arkenau. ‘Ambient changes will have a less significant impact on power than the air restrictors did. In the past, we had some cars which have been very powerful in some stages of the race and others have dropped a bit. All that will be gone, which takes something out of the race, but makes it more equal.’

Although most of the LMGT3 teams are experienced hands with GT3 machinery, the mandatory torque sensor is new to all of them. It has been an extensive, and costly, exercise to integrate and understand them, in cooperation with the car manufacturers.

‘It took a lot of development and testing last year,’ adds Beteli. ‘You have to be as close as possible to the power target to get the best lap time. It’s very difficult to get there… because it’s very sensitive. The engine is always changing that target power too much. You get the power from the torque meter and the engine is varying all the time, being constantly on the limit. It’s tricky to know that you’re not overshooting and getting a penalty.’

In the latter years of GTE, it became more common for teams to attempt Le Mans without changing brake discs and pads. Meanwhile, it is common for GT3 cars to do so during the other major European 24-hour contests at the Nürburgring and Spa. Beteli reckons this could continue to be a battleground in LMGT3 and is confident that the updated Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO can go the distance without changing brakes.

‘It will be, for sure, because a GT3 is 100kg heavier than a GTE was,’ he points out. ‘It increases the temperature of the brakes. It’s still going to be a challenge here. The target, for everyone, will be to try and do it without changing. If it will be possible or not, we will find out on Sunday.’

An adjustment to the safety car rules could open a window for GT3 teams to sneak in a brake change without substantial time loss. Le Mans uses three evenly spaced safety cars due to the long length of the track. A new rule for 2024 is that a car pitting during a safety car phase will need to wait until the next safety car train has passed it before rejoining the track.

‘If you pit under safety car, you have to [drop back] one safety car,’ explains Arkenau. ‘You open up a window where it will be, not easy, but manageable to do a brake change without significant time loss. If you have a safety car in the last three hours and we go to a sprint race, it can be an advantage to have fresher brakes and not monitor your brake wear and input on a high level, in order to make it to the end. I believe the A plan would be to change brakes.’

The important number for teams is the time lost by changing brakes under a safety car, but this can vary.

‘It will depend on which safety car you are in and where you are in the queue,’ adds Arkenau. ‘How big is the queue behind the next safety car you have to drop to? There are some options where it will be manageable to only lose the mandatory one safety car by doing a brake change.’

On the tyre side, GT3 teams only have one slick compound available from the single supplier, Goodyear. The GTE era had a tyre war until Dunlop exited after the 2017 WEC season and Michelin went on to supply all teams. In the final season of GTE-Am last year, Michelin brought three slick compounds, plus a ‘drying’ wet tyre and a full wet. The French supplier’s wet range from GTE lives on at the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

The LMGT3 allocation of 15 sets (or 60 tyres) for the 24 hours is the same as GTE-Am last year. It means double stinting will be necessary for most of the race. Goodyear is confident that its tyre could even manage four stints. This is based on it observing four-stint capabilities on some tyres during the WEC pre-season test in Qatar, and double stint race data from the early rounds of the championship and the European Le Mans Series.

‘Four stints do sound like a lot, but those stints are only 40 minutes now, instead of an hour,’ highlights Beteli. ‘So a triple is the same as a double before. It sounds bigger, but it’s not a massive challenge. It depends on where you are in the race, when you start to do triples or quadruples. It is a trade-off [between] how much time you lose in the fourth stint against the pit stop to change tyres.’

So far, teams and drivers have been complimentary of the Goodyear LMGT3 tyre for its limited degradation over multiple stints. Le Mans is a low-energy track, meaning it will produce less degradation than the previous WEC round at Spa, where teams faced the toughest test so far to maintain tyre performance over a double stint.

‘I think tyre degradation is still a question mark,’ suggests Arkenau, when asked if teams will be pushing to do four stints. ‘We will get the most accurate numbers during the race. Anything before could be an indication, but not the final number. Track evolution is a big topic at Le Mans as the track rubbers in a lot, which has a significant effect on tyre degradation.

‘Tyre pressures will definitely have an impact on how many stints you do, especially when track temperature is changing [through different parts of the day]. The tyre pressure rule is quite strict, depending on how much margin you want to take. You also have to take into consideration how the track temp evolves through a triple stint. This could have an impact on how you drive your first stint against the last stint.’

On the sporting strategy side, there is little difference between GTE and LMGT3 at Le Mans. The driver rating criteria remain unchanged, so each lineup still requires one Bronze and one Silver-rated driver. The pace of the non-professional Bronze driver is often the differentiator, considering the skill gap between drivers reduces as you get to those who race for a living. Teams will be watching for weather changes, and for long safety cars, to see how they can most efficiently burn through their Bronze’s minimum driving time of six hours. It is one of the fundamentals of GT race strategy at Le Mans, and is unlikely to change any time soon.

So whilst there are some differences to how the LMGT3 race will run, there are also some similarities. The teams that can handle the slight differences better than their opponents are poised to gain an all-important edge.

The post The Key Battlegrounds in the New GT3 Class at Le Mans appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

We delve into all the key technical trends for this year’s race, including the new BoP system and how torque sensors work. We also assess the newcomers in Hypercar, check in with the tyre suppliers and look at how vehicle control units can unlock performance.

All this and more in our BUMPER 43-page special issue! To access, please sign up to the Racecar Engineering newsletter.

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The French manufacturer has equipped its hybrid-powered LMH prototype with a rear wing, abandoning the ambitious and unique wingless concept that turned heads when it arrived on the grid in 2022.

The original 9X8 relied upon underfloor downforce generation and a front weight bias. It was designed to extremes, taking full advantage of regulations that made the aerodynamic target relatively easy to hit, while also using a powerful front hybrid system and, by regulation, front tyres the same width as the rears. That combination enabled Peugeot to take a bold decision and forgo having a rear wing. Even before it raced in anger, it gave the biggest endorsement to the LMH rules regarding their ability to foster distinctive designs.

Although eye-catching, the car rarely lived up to Peugeot’s lofty expectations on the track, recording just one podium in 11 outings. It had a strong run at last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, holding the lead for several hours until a crash, but that was counteracted by disastrous races elsewhere such as the 2023 rounds at Sebring and Fuji. At those tracks, it was far off the pace as the narrow rear tyres provided inadequate traction in the low-speed corners. Its performances largely relied on circuit characteristics, compromising its ability to be a WEC title challenger.

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Technical rule changes during the 9X8’s development compromised the wingless concept and led to Peugeot conforming with the conventional winged Hypercar designs (although it has retained much of the original car’s flavour). Toyota was the other manufacturer to develop an LMH hybrid during a turbulent period from a regulation perspective, when the requirements for LMH machinery were changed to accommodate the arrival of the oncoming LMDh platform. This was to ensure the healthy grid that the WEC enjoys today.

For example, the FIA and ACO castrated the four-wheel-drive element of the LMH hybrids, introducing a minimum speed at which the electric motor would activate. They also mandated open differentials and introduced adjustable anti-roll bars. Toyota and Peugeot started with the same width tyres at both ends of their cars by requirement, but the former switched to the narrow front, wide rear option in 2022. This window was opened when the rear-wheel-drive LMDh platform was formed, although Peugeot did not take up the offer due to the complexity of changing its radical concept at short notice. The 9X8, using same size tyres all round, made its debut in a 31 / 31 tyre configuration at Monza in July 2022. Four-wheel-drive LMH cars homologated after 2022, such as the Ferrari 499P, must use the 29 / 34 tyres that Toyota and Peugeot have now adopted.

With the 2024 update, Peugeot has moved the 9X8’s weight distribution rearwards and reduced its reliance on underfloor aero by introducing the rear wing. The rear tyres are wider than they used to be, which Peugeot hopes will alleviate traction and wear issues.

The team achieved these updates while retaining the same tub, engine, gearbox and hybrid system, which helped keep development costs down to an estimated €10m. However, Peugeot WEC technical director Olivier Jansonnie claimed that around 90 per cent of the car’s surface was changed, as more air was put over the top to feed the rear wing rather than under it and through the ground effect tunnels.

‘The idea was to try to use the new opportunities in the regulations,’ said Jansonnie.

‘[With] the 29 / 34 tyre size, very early in the process we identified that potentially had more performance than the 31 / 31 design. At the time, in 2022, when the decision was taken to open this opportunity, we couldn’t re-design the car. It was too late for us since we wanted to have a car ready to race at Monza [in July] 2022.

‘Now we have this opportunity, and actually in testing we found that it has even more potential than we had expected from the simulation, which was a surprise to us. Then we adapted the aero to match this new tyre dimension so, basically, changing the weight distribution on the car to be much more rearward than the previous version, and changing the aero balance as a consequence.’

From a heavy reliance on underfloor performance on the original 9X8, the rear wing now needs to be fed, so the splitter must send more air over the car than before. Jansonnie stated that the 9X8 retains a strong element of underfloor-generated downforce, but its relationship to the rear wing necessitated an extensive re-design.

Peugeot believes its updated car will be easier for the FIA and ACO to balance against the other Hypercars. One of its targets, according to Jansonnie, was to ‘get rid of the dependency’ on the Balance of Performance and rely more on the traits of its design rather than circuit layouts. That is an unsurprising priority considering the original Peugeot 9X8 blew hot and cold at different tracks.

‘We have proven that in low-grip conditions the car was performing better, but we just wanted to put the car back to a more average window and a more similar condition to what our competition is doing,’ added Jansonnie. ‘In Qatar, for instance, we were in what I call a corner of the BoP, which means maximum power and lowest weight, but then you cannot move from that corner. Now we expect to move to a more average position.’

The full version of this article will appear in the next issue of Racecar Engineering, available on 5th April. Subscribe today!

Additional reporting for the web version by Daniel Lloyd

The post Peugeot Bows to the Inevitable with 9X8 Rear Wing appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Key industry figures and decision makers will take part in a range of forums and meetings to drive conversation about the future steps for mobility and motorsport.

Round table discussions will consider topics such as how motorsport is a powerful technological accelerator; multi-material additive manufacturing; hydrogen as an energy carrier of the future, and electric vehicle life cycles from production to consumption. Personalised one-to-one meetings are another key aspect of the IBDLM and are designed to instigate business collaborations.

Product showcase demonstrations will take place in the Additive Manufacturing Village, while start-up pitches for new companies and a job fair aimed at engineering students cater for the next generation of professionals. Tech talks with engineers from Le Mans tyre suppliers, Michelin and Goodyear, and guided tours of the paddock, are also on the agenda. Finally, a trackside dinner during the night practice session completes the schedule.

The first IBDLM convention took place in 2008 and the event typically attracts more than 120 attendees, including race teams, parts suppliers, manufacturers and service providers. Representatives from aeronautics, rail and road are also involved.

Confirmed participants so far include Angst & Pfister, ARRK LCO Protomoule and TMD Friction, who specialise in technical assistance, rapid prototyping and friction material manufacturing respectively.

The IBDLM24 conference will take place in the Technoparc du Circuit des 24 Heures on the Wednesday and Thursday of Le Mans race week, putting industry at the heart of one of the world’s largest motorsport events.

The post International Business Days Conference Returns to Le Mans appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Images of models based on simulations, published in the latest issue of Racecar Engineering, show plans for a revised aerodynamic package that was drawn up to be ready to use in last year’s FIA World Endurance Championship.

The upgrades were mainly aimed at enhancing stability under high downforce conditions, increasing airflow to the underfloor and reducing the power of the cooling system.

Podium served as the lead technical partner for the Glickenhaus 007, building the car and operating the factory race team that competed in the WEC’s top Hypercar class over three seasons. The updates were not applied in the last of those seasons due to budget and timing constraints.

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‘If you look back to our programme, it’s clear that in the last two years, the car was strong in terms of reliability and performance on high-speed, low-downforce tracks like Monza and Le Mans,’ said Luca Ciancetti, Glickenhaus Racing team principal and Podium’s head of automotive and motorsport.

‘In general, we were probably lacking aero performance in terms of downforce and, mainly, in terms of downforce stability. To be able to use the aero platform in a wider window with different set-ups, that was really the key lack of performance of the car as we were already at the minimum weight and maximum power.’

Ciancetti added that the changing face of the LMH regulations, which saw power levels raised to accommodate the Aston Martin Valkyrie and then reduced when the British manufacturer initially pulled out, left Glickenhaus with an overly powerful cooling system from the outset.

‘Removing some air flow from the coolers gave us some freedom to manage the downforce better,’ he said.

After several years of fielding GT cars at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, Glickenhaus became one of the first manufacturers to commit to the LMH regulations that replaced LMP1. The non-hybrid 007 made its debut in the second round of the 2021 season at Portimao.

Spearheaded by American film producer, financier and petrolhead Jim Glickenhaus, the programme enlisted the services of Podium and legendary sportscar team Joest Racing to go up against much larger OEMs. Glickenhaus took his team to the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times and achieved a third-place finish in 2022, which marked the high point in terms of results.

Towards the end of last year, Glickenhaus confirmed that he would not be filing an entry for the 2024 WEC season, signalling the end of his Hypercar adventure for the foreseeable future. As the grid expanded dramatically with Ferrari, Porsche and Cadillac joining, the chances of further Glickenhaus podiums rapidly diminished. By 2023, the 007 was seen as a car that was reasonably reliable, but could have done with some performance upgrades to be competitive.

As it turns out, those upgrades were actually conceived at Podium’s headquarters in Italy. But with Glickenhaus choosing to focus on other areas of his business rather than keep pushing to fund an expensive LMH effort, they never sprung out from the computer screen.

‘This “Evo” was actually designed and CFD tested last year, before the 2023 season,’ explained Ciancetti. ‘But mainly for budget and timing constraints – at least when we had the budget for races – it was too late to integrate it, so it was never finalised in terms of development. However, the results from the simulation were really promising.’

For more images of the Glickenhaus 007 update package and the full story, check out the March issue of Racecar Engineering. Available now!

The post The Unused Glickenhaus 007 LMH Upgrade Package appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The ACO and GreenGT’s Mission H24 project first bore fruit in 2018 with the launch of the LMP2HG prototype, which turned demonstration laps and utilised hydrogen refuelling technology. It also appeared in two rounds of the Le Mans Cup series, sharing the track with LMP2s, LMP3s and GT3s but racing alone in the Innovative class.

Lessons from the LMP2HG fed into the H24, also based on an ADESS LMP3 chassis, which was introduced in 2021 and sported upgraded transmission and braking systems among other updates. The H24 also ran in the Le Mans Cup but always at the rear of the pack.

However, the third-generation Mission H24 concept, the name of which is open to public suggestion, is designed to push the boundaries of hydrogen powertrain performance with the goal of matching GT3 machinery that will start racing at Le Mans next year.

Power comes from electrochemical reactions in the stack of Symbio hydrogen cells that convert the fuel’s chemical energy into electricity, as well as heat and water by-products.

The car will have two Plastic Omnium fuel tanks each capable of storing 3.9kg of hydrogen at 700bars of pressure for a total weight of approximately 100kg. The intention is for this to last around 25 to 30 minutes in racing conditions, compared with the 40- and 50-minute stints that LMP2s and Hypercars typically do at Le Mans.

TotalEnergies is working with the ACO to develop the hydrogen refuelling infrastructure required for Le Mans. Under the Mission H24 project, the French company developed the world’s first mobile hydrogen refuelling station to be used at racetracks.

Power delivery at the rear wheels has been refined from two electric motors to a single electric motor, shedding 18kg since the H24. The future prototype will have a maximum output of 650 kW, higher than today’s Hypercars, while the motor will have a power density of 20 kW/kg.

Widening the operating range of the motor enables a single unit to be used. A 400kW lithium battery, 12kg lighter than the H24’s equivalent, will recover the car’s braking energy and provide some power to the motor.

German constructor ADESS will continue to provide the chassis for the third-generation hydrogen prototype. The cockpit will be centrally positioned with the cell stack, fuel tanks and motor all situated behind the driver. Render images show the windscreen extending far along the front of the car, with cooling vents on either side.

A maximum weight of 1300kg is targeted, removing 150kg from the weight of the H24. Hypercars are not allowed to be under 1030kg but their final weight is usually higher depending on Balance of Performance.

The general design of the hydrogen prototype is expected to be finalised by March, potentially enabling a mock-up to be ready for presentation at next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

All-important power unit bench testing is then projected to begin from October 2024, followed by the car assembly and maiden shakedown in early 2025.

‘Thanks to MissionH24, hydrogen technology has stood out in the competition world,’ said project technical director Bassel Aslan.

‘Now the time has come to prove that this technology can offer an alternative to fossil fuels with the same efficiency and zero CO2 emission.

‘This new car will be for those involved the real symbol of the future of motorsport in line with the energy transition.’

Mission H24’s third-generation car will continue the trend of testing hydrogen fuel cell technology, although the ACO has opened its future hydrogen racing class up to vehicles powered by hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engines.

The ACO, which organises Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship, is one of the key players in the adoption of hydrogen technology in motorsport. Its aim of introducing a new class in the coming years gained momentum when Toyota revealed a hydrogen fuel cell prototype concept at this year’s 100th anniversary Le Mans edition.

However, the ACO could be pipped to the post in terms of introducing a competitive hydrogen racing class if the FIA Extreme H Championship makes an on-time 2025 debut.

‘After introducing hydrogen to the racetrack, MissionH24 is now entering a new phase: bringing hydrogen to competitive racing,’ said ACO President Pierre Fillon.

‘This new prototype clearly intends to rival the other forms of energy in the field. Hydrogen technology is safe, reliable and can perform.

‘The ambition is now to provide the first zero-emission winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.’

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The last Ferrari to battle for top honours in the crown of endurance racing was the Ferrari 312PB, some 50 years ago in 1973. Although, the brand has been represented successfully in GT racing by the Squadra Corse arm of the company for over 20 years, in partnership with Amato Ferrari’s AF Corse team. This relationship will continue as the new cost controlled Hypercar regulations introduced in time for the centenary running of the Le Mans 24 hours, was enough to draw the prancing horse back to the elite of sportscar racing.

The Ferrari 499P Prototype has seriously impressed during the 2023 WEC season. Finishing on the podium at Sebring, Portimão, Spa Francorchamps and Monza, the red hypercar also claimed victory at this year’s historic Le Mans 24 Hours. The dominance of Toyota in recent years in WEC highlights how special this achievement is for Ferrari. So how did the Italian manufacturer take the fight to Toyota with minimal experience in modern prototype racing?

A brave new era of hypercar regulations

Ferrari had previously stated they would not enter another category of motor racing until it had fixed the issues within the struggling Formula 1 team, without championship success since 2007. The long-waited hypercar class, born from the coming together of the ACO and the FIA was the turning point. A set of cost sensitive regulations, with cars eligible in both WEC and the American run IMSA sportscar championship enticed a number of manufacturers back to the category.

The hypercar class is made up of Le Mans Hypercar (LMH), and Le Mans Daytona Hybrid (LMDh). Although similar in appearance, there are differences beneath the styled aerodynamic surfaces. A balance of performance would ensure a level playing field however. More importantly, the new aero regulations specify that the car has to be designed to hit a certain point on the lift/drag graph, which is relatively easy to achieve, allowing the cars styling to represent a manufactures identity, without risk of aerodynamic disadvantage.

These regulations, perhaps coupled with the recent cost-cap rules introduced in Formula 1, made the timing right for Ferrari to enter the new hypercar class.

Powering to victory

As is tradition for Ferrari prototypes, the name 499P is a nod to its engine capacity. 499cc is the displacement of a single cylinder of the V6 layout. The engine itself was based of the architecture of the 296 GT3 engine, a V6 3.0-litre, with the turbo’s mounted within the 120-degree vee banks, making it a “Hot V”. The significant difference is the requirement of the engine to be a fully stressed member, with the gearbox and subsequent rear suspension loads running through the engine. It was therefore a ground up design.

‘There is no reward for using a production-based engine [from regulation or performance perspective],’ explains Ferdinando Cannizzo, head of Ferrari Attivita Sportive GT. ‘It is an engine derived from production, so it shows that the technology in the road car is already looking like it is ready to race. We had a quick look at a bespoke engine, but we never considered it in terms of reality.’

Despite significant differences between the LMP and GT3 engine, Cannizzo is keen to feedback the lessons learntfrom the reliability testing and application of the hybrid system back into the road car department to improve reliability.

The hybrid system

An area of change for the new hypercar regulations was focused on the hybrid system. The combination of the cars from WEC and IMSA categories required a levelling out of the hybrid rules to ensure parity. The impact of the four-wheel-drive system from the previous top tier of sportscar racing has therefore been vastly reduced.

Regulations dictate that an LMH car can still carry a front axle mounted MGU-K. The deployment speed of the hybrid however has been raised to 190km/h, effectively removing any advantage offered during cornering. This allows a more level playing field with the LMDh cars, with the hybrid element mounted on the rear axle by regulation.

> How the ERS and 4WD work on the Ferrari 499P LMH

Design of the 499P hybrid utilised the experience of the Ferrari Formula 1 team as explained by Cannizzo. ‘The battery is collecting the experience from Formula 1, but the system is completely different. We have four-wheel drive with one electric motor, and Formula 1 is different. But in terms of controlling the electronics, yes, there is a crossover.’ With the drive for reliability from the off, Ferrari opted for the proven sportscar experience of Bosch on the electronic systems, over its usual technical partner Magneti Marelli.

The combination of both engine and hybrid systems approaches a possible maximum of 1000bhp (700kw) of power, 200kw of which is delivered from the hybrid. ‘The FIA WEC’s technical regulations, however, require us to limit the power delivered at any one time to around 500kW overall, a distribution that maximises performance when the four-wheel drive is activated,’ explains Lucio Calogero, Ferrari’s Endurance Race Cars Power Unit Design and Development Manager.

Transmission

At the concept phase of the 499P, Ferrari considered the use of an existing gearbox in the search for reliability. This notion was soon dropped to meet the regulation enforced minimum weight of 75kg. It also avoided compromising the rear suspension design by constraining the inboard pick-up points to an existing design. This allowed the suspension kinematics to be optimised for the new aero regulations, and for the wide range of tracks in both the WEC and IMSA championships.

‘The main reasons for making a new gearbox were to have proper pick-up points for the suspension to optimise the kinematics,’ says Cannizzo. ‘The second was the packaging of the suspension, and the third was matching the gearbox with the engine. Everything required a different gearbox specification. We were forced [to do this]. Initially, we tried to start from an existing transmission for reliability. Not GT3, because it is a different specification. We used the experience of the GT3, but were forced to make changes, first of all because of the suspension.’

Ferrari turned to high performance transmission manufacturer Xtrac for the subsequent 7-speed gearbox, and front mounted MKU-K differential. A sensible choice, with Xtrac’s wealth of endurance racing knowledge, and many Le Mans 24 victories to their name.

Aerodynamics

The most striking thing about the 499P, is it looks like a Ferrari. This is in no small part due to the regulations requiring manufacturers to target a point on the lift/drag curve. This allows designers to explore more unique solutions such as the Peugeot 9X8 and gives more freedom to incorporate styling from a marques range. Gone are the days of low drag bodywork for tracks such as Le Sarthe, with the regulations calling for the aerodynamics to be homologated for 5 years in a drive for cost reduction. A successful prototype built to the current regulations requires the ability to perform at a wide range of circuits, and this was an important target for Ferrari.

The aerodynamic team worked closely with Ferraris in house styling department, Centro Style Studio to give the appearance of a Ferrari, but that’s not to say there isn’t attention to detail within the aerodynamics of the 499P. The front nose resembles that of an F1 car with a series of wings, ahead of a tea tray extending forwards from the monocoque. A number of purposeful strakes on the nose, front wheel arch, mirrors and roof, coupled with a large tail fin and wing endplates all point to the efforts of Ferrari to keep the car stable in yaw, and likely contributing to the overall aero package.

‘If you analyse the performance window, the range is not that big, so what is important is to minimise as much as possible the aero sensitivity and how it is in the corners,’ says Cannizzo. ‘Of course, we have to guarantee the aero stability. As long as you are constraining the efficiency of the car, that is the most important thing.’

The wide vee angle employed in the engine allowed more freedom for aerodynamic innovation in the underfloor region.  A lack of typical cooling entry points along the tightly packaged side pods would suggest a large portion of the cooling flow is coming from the floor.

Tyres

Another change in the new LMH format was the tyres. Regulations dictated the 499P had to take the narrow front/wider rear option. As part of the FIA’s drive for carbon neutral status, a tyre roadmap was introduced for the 2023 season, banning the energy sapping practice of tyre preheating. The LMH tyre supplier Michelin also developed the tyre to contain a higher bio content. The aim was to remove the energy consumed in pre-heating and increase the time penalty for taking on new tyres to encourage teams to reduce the tyre used throughout a race.

The ability of manufacturers to develop custom tyres was also removed. It was therefore important Ferrari understood the tyre characteristics during the development phase of the 499P, as explained by Cannizzio. ‘If you have tyres that you can develop, you can have a higher degree of freedom to play with. Now [with this regulation] you need to match your design to the existing tyres. One of the most important jobs, then, was to ensure the model used for simulating the tyres in the simulator was correlated with the track. That was our first priority, to clarify, and for now the results are interesting. We then started testing and feeding back, tuning our simulation.’

High profile crashes, including the Ferrari 499P driven by Fuoco at the WEC Spa 1000km, ahead of Le Mans were attributed to a lack of tyre warming. The weekend was the cold and damp, conditions often associated with the night at Le Sarthe. The ban on tyre warming was subsequently lifted but only for the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Testing

The car first took to the track for a shakedown on July 6^th 2022, unsurprisingly at the Ferrari Fiorano test track. What followed was an intense testing program at Barcelona, Portimão, Monza, and an endurance test completed at Aragon. A final test saw the durability of the 499P put through its paces over the bumps at Sebring, ahead of the cars debut race at the 1000miles at the same venue.

The track testing was only a part of the rigorous development phase. Ferrari’s in-house facilities for both the chassis and engine were utilised to give the car the best hope of competing against its more experienced sportscar counterparts, Toyota.

‘Its performance and reliability were developed on the testbenches of the road cars factory,’ highlights Calogero. ‘We started from the dynamic benches, on which the performance and controls were calibrated, then moved on to reliability, a fundamental aspect in endurance racing to which we dedicated around 1,000 hours of development. At that point, work continued on the dynamic workbench we have in Maranello and the refinement of performance on the track.’

Developing the 499P

The Toyota GR010 has largely dominated WEC again so far in 2023, with the painful exception of Le Mans. The ability of Ferrari to win in its first outing at Le Mans, after an absence of 50 years in the top class will go down in history as one of the greatest victories of the famous Circuit de la Sarthe. A popular win across the globe, and an attendance of 65,000 people at the subsequent Monza 1000km, shows how significant this victory is for the world of sportcar racing. The future of the hyperclass looks exciting and varied as the new crop of machines continue to go head to head – and long may it continue.

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