LeMans 24 & HyperCar : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 4

LeMans 24 & HyperCar : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 4

 YouTube 

[ LeMans 24 & HyperCar

: Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 4 ]

1. Le Mans 24-hour crisis

The “FIA World Endurance Championship” began in 2012 and continues to this day.

Called WEC for short, the competition includes 24 hours of Le Mans.

By the way, the crisis came to the 'Le Mans 24 Hours' race, which will have a 100-year history in 2023.

That is, since 2018, Toyota is the only factory team that participates in the ‘LMP1 class’, the top class of Le Mans 24 hours, where sports prototypes compete, and other car manufacturers are no longer participating.

Automotive technology is developing rapidly from the internal combustion engine era of gasoline and diesel through hybrids to the electric vehicle era.

In line with this trend, Le Mans LMP1 class sports prototype racecars are now using hybrid power systems via gasoline engines and diesel engines.

However, most manufacturers thought that hybrid vehicles would disappear when the battery-related technology and charging infrastructure needed for electric vehicles were equipped, and they would only be a bridge between internal combustion engine cars and electric vehicles.

Almost every manufacturer's consensus was that the future of cars would not be hybrid cars, but electric vehicles(EV) or fuel cell electric vehicles(FCEV).

As a result, automakers began focusing their investments on electric vehicle technology rather than hybrid technology.

So, automakers naturally left the Le Mans 24 hour race and the WEC competition, where hybrid sports prototypes participated and moved to electric car racing like Formula E.

2. Le Mans 24 & Electric Vehicle (EV)

Even in Le Mans 24 hours, it was an issue that could be solved by using an electric car as a race car like Formula E.

However, in the endurance races such as Le Mans 24 hours, where the race runs for 24 hours compared to the sprint race that lasts about 2 hours, the single-charging mileage and the charging time of the electric vehicle caught the ankle.

The current level of electric vehicle technology is no matter how fast the battery can be charged, it is possible to drive around 62mile(100km) for 5 minutes charging and 250mile(400km) for 15 minutes charging.

In addition, although investment and research are focused on the development of battery capacity and charging technology, it is not developing as fast as people expect.

In Le Mans 24 hours, race cars run more than 3,107mile(5,000km) in 24 hours.
If an electric car is used as a race car, at least 3 hours out of 24 hours should be used as charging time.

In a race where 0.01 seconds is important, it was impossible to pit in periodically to charge for tens of minutes.

It was also discussed how to charge two cars alternately, or how to replace a used battery with a fully charged battery.

But in Le Mans 24 hours, where not only speed but also durability are competing, the continued replacement of the core components of the powertrain was not a way for the purpose of the endurance race.

3. Le Mans 24 & Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV)

Thus, an electric car but a fast charging hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles(FCEV) was discussed as a race car.

Fuel cell electric vehicle seemed to be a race car of the Le Mans 24 Hours because it had no battery charging problems.

However, manufacturers have different ideas about which electric vehicle or fuel cell electric vehicle will become the trend of the future.

Since more manufacturers were focusing on developing electric vehicles rather than fuel cell electric vehicles, even using a fuel cell electric vehicle as a race car seemed difficult to turn the steps of manufacturers who left Le Mans 24 hours.

Thus, the direction of the Le Mans 24 hour race was to be found in another flow, not an electric vehicle or a fuel cell electric vehicle.

4. Le Mans 24 & Hypercar

In response to human desires for higher performance super sports cars, automakers had to increase the performance of super sports cars.

Due to increased environmental regulations, by the early 2010s, it was almost impossible to increase the output while satisfying the emission regulations with the internal combustion engine.

So hybrid technology was incorporated into the development of super sports cars.

As a result, the company has developed cars capable of nearly 1,000 horsepower, called hypercars, beyond the super sports car.

In the late 2010s, in order to further enhance the performance of hypercars, the company began developing hypercars equipped with the world's most powerful car engine like the F1 race car engine or the hybrid engine of the Le Mans 24 hour sports prototype.

Le Mans 24 hours was interested in hypercars with race car technology

Instead of the traditional way of developing sports prototypes for races, If the hypercar, which is already developed for mass production, is converted to a race car, the cost of the race can be reduced by a quarter(25%) of what it was.

Many manufacturers were expected to return to Le Mans 24 hours if hypercars can significantly reduce the burden on the development and cost of racing.

Automakers can show off their skills through races, while at the same time naturally marketing expensive hypercars.
So it was evaluated as a way for each other to win-win.

As such, the WEC competition, which includes the Le Mans 24 hour race, is preparing to introduce the “Hyper Car Class” Since the 2020 season.

Toyota has confirmed its participation in the hypercar class,

Lamborghini,

Aston Martin,

Mercedes-Benz and many other carmakers are interested and are actively considering participating in Le Mans 24 hours.

As the electric car era approached, Le Mans 24 Hours faced a crisis
but finally found a solution and could write 100 years of history.

CARirang Talk 5-2

LeMans 24 & WEC : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 3

LeMans 24 & WEC : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 3

 YouTube 

[ LeMans 24 & WEC

: Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 3 ]

1. The beginning of 24-hour endurance race & sports car racing

F1 racing focused on who was driving faster on a fixed distance.
Just in time for the race, the race car had to run as fast as it could, so the f1 teams set up the racecars with all their resources focused on getting the car's performance to the fullest.
With such extreme performance to the limit, the engine often broke during the race and the racecar could not finish.
Even if the engine didn't break, it was natural to use a new engine in the next game after one game.
If you look at the F1 race, It is not difficult to see the scene where the car stops because of engine trouble.


In the 1920s, sports cars began to spread, and since the sports cars of that time were built with a focus on performance, such as zero to 60 mph and top-speed, engines often broke.
Even if it was a fast car, if the engine stopped, it would be useless to drive slower than a wagon.


So people naturally began to care about durability.
in other words, people start to wonder not only "Who can run a fixed distance faster?", but also "Who can run more distance at a fixed time?"
So in a 24-hour period, people competed for who was running more distance on the circuit as a sports car, which was the beginning of the 24-hour endurance race and at the same time the sport car racing.

2. World's top three endurance Races & World's top three car races 

from 1923 started in France
Le mans 24 hours,

From 1924, the year after Le Mans began started in Belgium
Spa 24 hours,

from 1962 started in the U.S.
Daytona 24 hours,

These three races are the most representative endurance races in the world called the world's top three endurance competitions.

For your information, the top three car races in the world are
Formula One Monaco Grand Prix (Monaco GP),
IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500 Mile Race,
and Le Mans 24 Hours Race.

3. Start of the world's sports car racing competition

Then, after World War II
in 1953
the World Sportscar Championships began,
and the sports car racing era began in earnest.
The World Sports Car Championship has raced in various circuits around the world,
including the European Le Mans 24 hours,
Spa 24 hours,
and the Americas' Daytona 24 hours.
So it was the world's best sports car racing competition.

4. Sports prototypes and mass production sports cars

The World Sports Car Championship was held in two categories:
Sports Prototype that is not very mass-produced
and mass-produced sports cars sold to the public.

Even if people had the technology to make the best sports cars, they couldn't mass-produce them without marketability or the money to have a production system.
That is why to create a category called Sports Prototype
that allowed sports cars with a variety of high-tech applications to participate in the race more freely.
And with so a lot of Sports Prototypes racing fiercely, automobile technology was able to evolve even faster

5. Endurance race type and difficulty

There are two types of endurance races.
The first is a "time race" of who was going to run more distances over a certain period of time, like a 24-hour endurance race,
and the second is a "distance race" of who was going to run faster on a distance of hundreds of miles, like 1,000 kilometers race or 500 miles race.

You may think that there will be a more relaxed race compared to the F1
because the racecars used in the endurance race are relatively slow compared to the F1 racecars (a little bit).
However, sports prototypes are the fastest racecars in the world, except for the F1 racecars
Although the lap time of a circuit is slower than that of the F1 race car,
Sports prototypes run 75 percent of the race in full throttle, with a maximum speed of over 300 kilometers.
Sports prototypes have to run hundreds of laps, not tens at that speed.
So The difficulty of the race is unimaginable

6. History of sports car racing

The World Sports Car Championship, which began in 1953, was held until 1992.


After that, in Europe, the sports car racing had been divided into FIA Sportscar Champion, which the Sports Prototype participated
and FIA GT Champs which mass-production sports cars participated.

And again, The European Le Mans Series champions, which combine sports prototypes and mass production sports car categories, had been held.


And after a competition called the InterContinental Le Mans Cup, the FIA World Endurance Championship began in 2012 and continues to this day.
Called WEC for short, the competition includes 24 hours of Le Mans.

CARirang Talk 5-1

IndyCar & Formula-E : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 2

IndyCar & Formula-E : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 2

 YouTube 

[ IndyCar & Formula-E 

: Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 2 ]

1. Beginning of the American version of F1

Meanwhile, across the sea, the Indianapolis 500 race started in the United States in 1911.

It's called the Indy 500.

It was the same open-wheel racing competition as the European Grand Prix.

Since 1979, the Champ Auto Racing Teams (CART) was established to run the competition.

And the Indy Car Series has been running since 1996.

2. Two Differences from F1

The IndyCar series, which is the American version of F1, has two main differences.

The first difference is that the engine for the racecars can be selected by a team, but all racecars must use the same chassis.

This makes little difference in the performance of the racecars, so the driver's ability is a priority.

Therefore, money is relatively less influential than F1.

The second difference is that unlike F1, which only races on high-corner road courses, there is also a race that turns the long oval-shaped Oval Track in one direction. 

In the case of Oval track competition, there are fewer gear shifts or brakes than in F1, but the gravitational pull on the driver is much higher because it turns only one direction, so the race difficulty is never lower.

3. Starting Electric Vehicle Racing

As environmental regulations on automobiles are getting tougher day by day, the race for electric vehicles called Formula E Champship(FormulaE) began in 2014.

Because of the low noise and pollution of electric car racing, the competition is held on public roads in major cities in terms of emphasis on the pro-environment.

Proceeding from the city center, the accessibility is good and its popularity is rising day by day.

And because electric cars can not be fueled during the race, in the early days, the race was played in a way that changed the race car.

4. Features of Electric Racecars

It's called an open-wheel electric vehicle, but unlike F1, the wheels are not fully open.

In fact, the reason for using the open wheel in F1 is that it follows the tradition of the Grand Prix, not for performance.

Compared to the open wheels, encoded wheel shapes such as Formula e reduce the flow of air from the wheels, making it more advantageous for the car to run at high speeds.

And to solve F1's 'money' problem, all racecars, like IndyCar, use the same chassis, and only electrically powered systems can be selected by team.

The performance of the racecar is similar, so it's a very tight race.

5. The reputation of being the best in the electric vehicle era

Considering the global trend of transition from the electric vehicle era to the electric car era and the current level of technology capable of producing electric cars with more than 1,000 horsepower, Formula E race cars will evolve day by day and eventually become race cars faster than F1 race cars.

Then the title of world's best motor sport will also be passed from Formula One to Formula E.

In the era of internal combustion engine cars, Ferrari gained the reputation of being the best car by winning several of the world's best motor sports.

And the reputation of being the best in the new era of electric vehicles will go to the manufacturer that holds the Formula E championship, as Ferrari did in the era of internal combustion engines.

So, many car manufacturers, including BMW, Audi, Jaguar, DS, Nissan and Mahindra, are competing for Formula One championship titles, and Mercedes Benz and Porsche are expected to join in the future.

Which manufacturers will be the best in the electric vehicle era?

CARirang Talk 4-2

Formula 1 / F1 : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 1

Formula 1 / F1 : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth 1

It is hard to talk about cars without motorsports.Human's constant hunger for faster speeds has advanced the technology of cars, and in that fierce competition of motorsports, cars have become faster and stronger.Let's see what kind of motorsports are on the planet.

 YouTube 

[ Formula 1 / F1 : Auto Race Motorsports in the Earth ]

1. Start of car racing

As cars were developed and driven on the road,

people naturally began to wonder which car was faster and better.

Thus, in 1906, the Grand Prix motor racing was held in Europe

in the form of a national competition.

The Grand Prix race car was a single-seater race car

with an engine, chassis, and wheel protruding.

In 'Circuit' where the starting and ending points are connected,

the race was contested 'who started at the same time and drove a set distance faster.'

This was the beginning of car racing.

After World War II, the Formula One started in 1950,

racing fiercely in various circuits around the world and continues to date.

2. Reason that is the best motor sport in the world

F1 is called the world's best motorsport,

not simply because the F1 is the best in terms of commerciality and size,

but because the F1 race car is the fastest car in the world.

F1 race car's circuit lap time shows that

it is overwhelmingly faster than other race cars.

3. Meaning of winning F1

In the '80s and '90s, it is said that

80% of racecar performance and 20% of driver performance
are combined to win the F1 title,

but now 95% of car performance and 5% of driver capacity
are combined to win the championship.

In other words, while the ability of the driver is important,

the performance of the car is what determines winning or losing.

So winning the F1 is 'making the fastest car in the world,'

which means the team has the best technology.

4. The most important thing for winning F1

And in order to have that great technology, there's one thing that's most important.

It's money.

Of course, because of the limitations of the technical specifications
in developing the racecars,    

you can think of it as having no money influence.

But to make an F1 race car,

one team usually needs more than 10 million dollars for parts alone.

Without money, it's hard to assemble and complete a racecar.

But if an F1 team has a lot of money,

the team can invest that much more money
in the development and setting of the racecars,

and that's what makes the racecars even better.

And if the team spends a lot of money to create an outstanding racecar,

and win the championship, it will earn a lot of money.

And again, the fund creates a virtuous circle
in which the team can develop better racecars.

In the opposite case, the vicious circle is bound to repeat itself.

Of course, it's not 100% impossible,

but it's almost impossible to invest less money
and develop a better performance racecar. 

It's a typical professional sports world,

like professional football or baseball,

and it's similar to the world we live in.

But what's impossible is happening in the world of sports,

so people enjoy sports.

And Our lives are also similar to the world of sports

so that we can live our lives so powerful today.

CARirang Talk 4-1

Major Car Brands in the Earth by Vehicle Manufacturing Group

Major 59 Car Brands in the Earth 

by Vehicle Manufacturing Group

 YouTube 

[ Major 59 Car Brands in the Earth by Vehicle Manufacturing Group ]

(1) Vehicle Manufacturing Group

01.  VOLKSWAGEN GROUP – 8 car brands

02.  BMW GROUP – 3 car brands

03.  DAIMLER AG - 4 car brands

04.  GEELY GROUP – 5 car brands

05.  TATA GROUP – 3 car brand

06.  Mahindra GROUP – 2 car brand

07.  Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance – 6 car brands

08.  PSA GROUPE - 5 car brands

09.  FCA(FIAT CHRYSLER AUTOMOBILES) - 9 car brands

10.  GM(General Motors) – 4 car brands

11.  Ford GROUP – 2 car brands

12.  TOYOTA GROUP - 3 car brands

13.  HONDA - 2 car brands

14.  HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP - 3 car brands

(2) CAR BRAND

Ferrari / Lamborghini / PAGANI / FIAT / ALFA ROMEO / MASERATI / LANCIA / ABARTH / McLaren / ROLLSROYCE / BENTLEY / ASTON MARTIN / LOTUS / LAND ROVER / JAGUAR / VAUXHALL / MINI / Koenigsegg / VOLVO / polestar / BUGATTI / RENAULT / ALPINE / PEUGEOT / CITROEN / DS / SEAT / SKODA / PORSCHE / Mercedes-Benz / Mercedes-MAYBACH / Mercedes-AMG / BMW / Volkswagen / AUDI / OPEL / smart / FORD / LINCOLN / CHEVROLET / BUICK / Cadillac / GMC / DODGE / CHRYSLER / RAM / Jeep / TESLA / LADA / TATA / Mahindra / HYUNDAI / GENESIS / KIA / SSANGYONG / GEELY / LYNK&CO / CHANGAN / DFM / BAIC / TOYOTA / LEXUS / HONDA / ACURA / NISSAN / INFINITI / MAZDA / SUBARU / MITSUBISHI / SUZUKI / ISUZU / DAIHATSU

CARirang Talk 2