MOTORSPORT
six cars were separated by just a few seconds
after 1000 km.
"Part of the new rule changes for 2019 is the
use of a single linear spring rate spring in the
suspension,” says Burgess. “Since the last release
of the rules in 2013, there have been several
attempts to improve the dynamic performance by
using multiple springs around the damper.”
Linear here is a reference to the dynamic
performance of the spring where the spring force
varies linearly with displacement. The multiple
spring configurations effectively produced
progressive or variable rate springs where the
spring force varied in a non-linear fashion as the
spring was compressed.
Although with only 15 races, the season is quite
short in comparison to the F1 race programme,
they are run in different locations in Australia and
New Zealand, so there is significant travel involved.
In order to make the cars more ‘maintainable’ the
move to a single spring is in an effort to simplify
the suspension setup, which reduces the cost and
makes them simpler to run. It makes it a little bit
cheaper, but the main motivation for this simplification,
is to reduce the amount of labour involved in
setting up the car.
“The multiple spring systems are very labour-intensive
and complicated,” says Burgess. “This will
tend to help the teams further down the grid, but
it shouldn't upset the 'normal' order of things at
the top end. Those teams successful in 2018 are
more than capable of adjusting to the new rules.”
Similar sentiment governed the choice of the Xtrac
transaxle for 2019, which is fairly robust and is
designed to minimise the frequency of routine
maintenance. “The Xtrac units should be able to
do 5000 km and more, without the need to open
up the gearbox,” says Burgess. The decision
to move to Xtrac was to reduce the amount of
servicing required. The ultimate objective is to
go racing with fewer people in order to provide
significant overall savings for every team.
“Like every sporting endeavour or racing series
worldwide, we have to make sure the costs don't
spiral out of control as teams seek competitive
advantage by throwing money at the problems.
Keeping the budgets of the teams to a sensible
level is part of the governance responsibility of the
Supercars organisation.
“We've got a great product which puts on a great
show for the fans,” says Burgess. “We want to
keep it sustainable by managing it in such a way
that we don't adversely affect the show. We want
the racing to be as competitive as it is, but save cost
where we can, to help everybody stay in business
and to keep providing the same level of entertainment
for our supporters.”
There is a new ECU for 2019 which has a Lambda
Controller built in, which seeks to control fuel
usage by checking exhaust gas quality, instead
of mandating in-line fuel consumption devices or
sensors as is the case in F1.
"We are trying to help the teams protect themselves
from themselves by introducing Lambda control,”
says Burgess. “All the teams try and run the engines
as lean as they can in order to maximise the distance
between fuel stops, while still maintaining as much
power as possible. They make all sorts of expensive
remedial kit in order to cope with the consequences
of running a large V8 as lean as possible.”
When the engine runs lean it runs hot, so the teams
are spending a lot of time redesigning radiator cores
and developing oil spray systems to cool the pistons
down. They are spending a lot of money trying to
stop the pistons and cylinder heads going soft, at
these higher temperatures. When the engines are
running lean, engine parts get replaced on a far
more regular basis. And the extra 3 or 4 bhp gain
Transaxle crown wheel
Crating queue
Xtrac personnel crating up the Supercars transaxles
Transaxle casing
46 May 2019