XPost: rec.autos.sport.indy

PORSCHE'S RULE-OBLITERATING 919 HYBRID EVO OUTRACES F1'S FASTEST CARS

Porsche's engineers cut the 919 Evo's weight by dumping useless frills
like the windshield wipers, lights, air conditioner, electronic race
controls, and the pneumatic jack.TIM UPIETZ/PORSCHE
IN MOST MOTORSPORTS, the engineer's cruelest foe isn't the rules of
physics or the driver's inability to wring every crumb of power from
their vehicle. It's the rules. Rules laid down by overbearing governing
bodies, imposing limits on weight, dimensions, power output, tire
choices, aerodynamics, braking, and whatever else they can think to
control. Usually the point is to keep the drivers safe or make racing
more entertaining with evenly matched machines, but that doesn't mean
the engineers like it.

So when Porsche gave its people the chance to break free and show what
their machines can do, they overdelivered. They started with the 919
Hybrid, the car Porsche used to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans the past
three years. Then they did everything that could make the car faster,
the things that would break the rules for the rest of the time. They
call the result the 919 Evo.

And then they took it to Belgium's Spa Francorchamps, the legendary
Formula 1 track that's home to what may be the toughest corner in
motorsports. The Evo lapped the course in 1:41.77 minutes, 12 seconds
faster than the race-legal 919. In a sport measured by the millisecond,
that's a stupendous improvement. It even beat the all-time track record,
set by Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, by 0.783 seconds.

“The 919 Evo is brutally impressive,” says Neel Jani, the driver who
lapped Spa. “It is definitely the fastest car I ever drove, the grip
level is at a fully new dimension for me, I couldn’t imagine this amount beforehand.”


The Evo carries the same two-liter, turbocharged V4 engine as the Le Mans-winning car, minus the fuel flow meter that limits how much
gasoline goes kaboom.PORSCHE
Turns out, when you get to ignore the rules that govern the World
Endurance Championship (which includes Le Mans), there's a lot you can
do to go faster. Porsche's engineers cut the weight of the carbon fiber
and aluminum car by 86 pounds, to 1872 pounds, by dropping useless
frills like the windshield wipers, lights, air conditioner, electronic
race controls, and the pneumatic jack. They also tweaked the exterior aerodynamics, generating 53 percent more downforce, the all-important
stuff that keeps the car stuck to the pavement when it's clocking jumbo
jet takeoff speeds. They upgraded the suspension and tires to deal with
the extra loads.

The Evo carries the same two-liter, turbocharged V4 engine as the Le Mans-winning car, minus the fuel flow meter that limits how much
gasoline goes kaboom. Combined with a software tweak, that upped its
output from 500 horsepower to 720 horsepower. The car uses two energy
recovery systems, generating electricity from braking and the exhaust.
That’s stored in a liquid-cooled lithium ion battery, and then used to
drive an electric motor on the front axle while the engine drives the
rear, for maximum all-wheel-drive acceleration. Without imposed limits,
that motor now adds another 440 horsepower (as much as the total power
of a BMW M3), up 10 percent.

This record setting lap is part of a farewell tour for the Le Mans
winning car. Porsche is pulling out of the World Endurance Championship
so it can focus on all-electric Formula E racing. Next stop for the 919
Evo is what Porsche is calling a “demo lap” at the legendary Nurburgring
in Germany. Porsche previously set a race car record there in 1983 with
its 956, which still stands. Then it’s on to the Goodwood Festival of
Speed, and the Festival of Porsche at Brands Hatch, in the UK, before
coming to California’s Laguna Seca in California.

Like so many retired folks, the 919 is finally ready to ignore the rules
and have some fun, on its terms.

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#MOTORSPORTS#PORSCHE#FORMULA 1

https://www.wired.com/story/porsche-919-hybrid-evo/

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