technology
We all know how vocal FIA boss Max Mosley has been about bringing more real-world fuel efficiency to Formula One. Doing that, the theory holds, will allow F1 to regain the top of production-car technology development. In fact, the FIA has already defined the
amount of energy recovery it will allow for the 2009 season, which is 400 kilojoules per lap, translating into an extra 80 hp over a period of 6.67 seconds. Now, several companies' worth of prop heads who've been futzing with brake regeneration for Formula One cars are getting an award for such a scheme. They call it the F1 Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) — the they in question being British companies Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac. It's a
flywheel system that's more than twice as efficient as hybrid cars in storing energy. The award is Engine Innovation of the Year, and it'll be presented at the Professional MotorSport World Expo Awards ceremony held this week in Cologne, Germany. The system stores braking energy using the inertia of a flywheel as kinetic energy, by Flybrid, along with gearbox technology from transmission specialists Torotrak and Xtrac. Mechanical engineering geeks can get their equasional fix
here.
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