A Formula One car is easily recognizable in this day and age, but what lies ahead for the sport will quickly change the look and feel of these vehicles faster than we can say, "regulations suck." The FIA has already stated that these vehicles need to utilize a 1.6-liter turbo engine starting in the 2013 season and teams will also need to reduce their fuel consumption by 35%. So what happens to these cars when they have to be nipped, pulled, tweaked, and downsized?
Former Executive Director of Engineering of the Renault Formula One team, Pat Symonds, wanted an answer so he took it upon himself to design the 2020 Renault Formula One car. The car is being featured in Issue 179 of F1 Racing Magazine and offers up some unenthusiastic power figures. The design is characterized by low-profile tires on bigger wheels, the return of ground effects aerodynamics, Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) that produce 250bhp, and a standard, non-downforce rear wing. We may have glazed over the 250bhp rather quickly, but that’s because we aren’t too jazzed about the decrease in power. However, these changes will need to be made in order to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
"Taking into consideration all the variant motivators that drive regulations, I expect that the F1 car of 2020 will demonstrate much more change than has been seen over the past 10 years. A few simple assumptions can determine the basic architecture of the car. By the time we add a few changes, such as larger wheels and low-profile tires, we start to get a fairly clear picture of what the car might look like."
"The illustrations we’ve produced are certainly an artistic impression, but they capture the essential characteristics of a car that will be contesting the Formula 1 World Championship in 2020."
We have a feeling that unless some major changes are made, the thrill of Formula One will start to vanish soon. Let us know what you think about this in the comment section!
Even high performance models like the ones from the AMG division of Mercedes have to obey the new emission and consumptions regulations and, in order to pass these regulations, Mercedes says it will include hybrid technology, as well as stop-start and energy recuperation devices, in the future high performance vehicles.
Our first reaction to this news was a collective shaking of our heads at the diminishing of vehicles with true power, but reading a little further, we discovered that Mercedes plans to go the hybrid route in a completely different direction than that of other auto brands. Mercedes’ main priority will be to improve fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions, but still offer true performance vehicles.
"In the future AMG will still offer high performance models, but there will be hybrids there. AMG needs to reduce fuel consumption," said Daimler’s head of future mobility and advanced engineering, Herbert Kohler in an interview with AutoCar.
He also said that AMG would not be following the same strategy Porsche did with the 918 Spyder: "Hybrids can boost, but AMGs will use stop-start and recuperation technology."
So how "hybrid" will these hybrid AMGs be? That’s a question will have to wait at least a year or two to answer.
Should we really be surprised that the Bugatti Veyron has been given the distinction of being the worst mileage offender in the US market? No? Yeah, we didn’t think so either.
The superduper car, the current record-holder of fastest car on the planet, came out of the Environment Protection Agency’s study with a mileage rating of just eight mpg – 29.4 liters/100 km – in city driving and 15 mpg – 15.5 liters/100 km - on the highway. Ouch.
On the opposite end of the spectrum and grinning mightily is Toyota’s venerable hybrid car, the Prius, which scored a mileage rating of 51 mpg – 4.6 liters/100 km – and 48 mpg – 4.9 km/100 km - thereby staking claim to EPA’s mythical crown of being the most fuel-efficient vehicle on US soil.
EPA’s study only confirmed what a lot of us already know by now. The Bugatti Veyron is one of the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive cars in the world, so you can pretty much expect that it doesn’t care so much when it comes to guzzling down fuel. After all, the people who have these cars are also those that can afford to buy their own gas stations. On the flip side, you’ll never mistake the Toyota Prius – and other Toyotas and Hondas, for that matter – as a car that can outrun law enforcement officers in the highway. The car’s calling card is efficiency, a word that doesn’t exist in Bugatti’s dictionary.
The journey towards developing alternative fuel sources took another step after two Audi A3s successful traveled 1,000 miles by using a new synthetic diesel fuel. Pretty impressive, if we do say so ourselves.
The two 2011 A3 TDI models were using RenDiesel, a synthetic fuel that’s made from organic compounds and green waste that are most commonly found in landfills. The fuel, which supposedly produces less volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions than regular diesel fuel or ethanol, is being produced by RenTech in Rialto, California. RenTech, together with Audi of America and Green Car Journal, managed to successfully fuel the two A3 TDI models from Eureka, California all the way to San Diego, California – a distance of somewhere around 1,000 miles.
This project not only proved that the new type of synthetic diesel fuel is capable of fueling a car at great distances, but it also was able to boost up the A3 TDI’s mileage rating at 42 miles per gallon – one car was able to average 43 mpg while the other A3 TDI scored 39.7 mpg.
This latest development may not hit home to a lot of people, but the development of a clean-burning synthetic diesel fuel like RenDiesel is one way to make the purchasing of diesel vehicles more worth it. After all, in a world where fuel-efficiency is of paramount importance to a lot of people, the development of a synthetic diesel like RenDiesel could pave the way for more diesel cars to be enjoyed out on the road.
Ethanol content in commercially available fuels from 10% to 15% for 2007 and newer model cars has been met with mixed remarks.
Besides the plethora of pumps that are already present in gas stations across the US, one is very soon going to need a PhD in chemistry to figure out which fuel is best for their car. The introduction of E15 will now take the number of fuels at gas stations to more than 5 (without taking into consideration different octanes of “normal” gas and where you live).
There is no denying that oil derived gas has many negative connotations; it’s largely imported, non-renewable, and the pollution aspect is enormous, which is why we need a cleaner renewable energy source – albeit without having to confine all our current cars and trucks to the scrapheap. It’s simple on paper, but quite complex when trying to implement it in the real world - especially with hidden agendas and the greed for money and power thrown into the mix.
Hyundai’s fleet of cars and SUVs will all have a combined fuel economy rating of 50 miles per gallon minimum by 2025. At least that’s the goal Hyundai is trying to attain by that time. They are already close, as Hyundai has had one of the best fleet fuel economies of any automaker in the United States.
"We don’t know specifically how to get there, but we do have a roadmap," said Hyundai Motor America top executive John Krafcik at the 2010 CAR Management Briefing Seminars, according to published reports.
The Hyundai Sonata has a combined economy rating of 26 miles per gallon and it can even get 40 mpg on the highway if driven carefully. The car is only offered with a four-cylinder motor and it’s selling like hotcakes.
“If we had the capacity in our Alabama plant, we think we could be doing 20,000 Sonatas a month,” Krafcik said.
The step by Hyundai is much larger than the government’s mandatory 35.5 mpg rating by 2016. It should interesting, if we are all still around at that time, to see how they do it.
Now that the States may be receiving a diesel variant for the ol’ Porsche Cayenne, it’s fitting that we take a look at a tuning package for the luxury SUV. As of right now, Americans may not be all too interested in a diesel from Porsche, but things change rapidly and we want to be prepared for it. The new tuning package comes from Lumma Design, who recently prepared a monstrous cosmetic package for the petrol version of the Cayenne.
For the diesel variant now being sold in Europe, Lumma Design has opted to not only give it a cosmetic makeover, but an engine makeover as well. A D-box plug and play kit has been added that increases the Cayenne’s horsepower from 240 to 276. The torque also gets a jump from 550 to 630Nm. This change allows the SUV to get noticeable savings in fuel consumption. Who doesn’t love that? And if you want to add a little flare under the hood as well, then Lumma can also provide the consumer with an engine optics package. This package consists of red-coated covers and a crest logo made of metal.
Hit the jump for the full story plus the press release.
The Chevrolet Volt has been the center of news recently and to be honest, we’re a bit tired of it. Alas, one more piece of news has just come to the surface. It seems that owners of the Volt, after they have traveled the 40 miles or so on the electric batteries, will need to fill their cars up with premium petrol.
That’s right, premium. Drivers must pay at the pump in order to be a part of this Earth saving movement. So, not only are you paying a massive amount for the car itself, you are paying more at the pump. It seems odd to us that the small 1.4-liter 80 horsepower motor would need the high-grade juice, but we’re sure there’s a reason.
Really though, is this a big deal? Premium petrol isn’t all that much more and it shouldn’t cost owners that much extra to fill the car up. Not to mention you won’t have to visit the petrol stations that often, hence the reason for the Volt.
It should be interesting to see how the Volt will work on a daily basis once it’s released.
For those of you racking your brains on what the next source of fuel is going to be, you might just want to skip all of that brainstorming and head on over to your nearest convenience store to scoop up a bottle of Coke and a pack of Mentos.
Okay, it’s not really an answer to fuel-efficiency, but it sure sounds like a fun thing to do.
Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz - two dorky scientist names, if there ever were two - experimented with the new Coke/Mentos fuel combination and walked away with some pretty amazing results. What they did was attach a rather sophisticated-looking PVC pipe crate on their customized tricycle, poured 108 two-liter Coke Zero bottles and dropped 684 tablets of Mentos. The result, as you can see in the videos before and after the jump, is one that all of us ought to try in an empty parking lot one of these days. Like we said, it may not be all that economical, but it’s sure going to be one heck of a ride.
Traditional gas is going to be a thing of the past if General Motors has a say in it. And guess what? They do. General Motors has teamed up with Hawaii’s major gas energy provider, The Gas Company (TGC) to provide hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles in that state. Currently, Hawaii utilized imported petroleum for about 90% of their energy according to Charles Freese, executive director of GM Global Fuel Cell Activities, and pilot project with General Motors will hopefully dramatically decrease that number soon.
TGC currently produces hydrogen and synthetic natural gas and flows it along the utility gas stream. This process already in place will allow for a smooth transition into providing local fueling stations with hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles.
“This is the type of enabler that a hydrogen transportation infrastructure needs because it addresses both the source of the hydrogen and a feasible way to deliver it for fuel cell vehicle use,” said Freese. “The Hawaii infrastructure could eventually support tens of thousands of fuel cell vehicles.”
Check out full story and the slide show from the presentation of General Motor’s hydrogen collaboration project with The Gas Company of Hawaii after the jump.
