MOTORING NEWS - Porsche, winner of the last three 24 Hours of Le Mans, even after falling to 56th place at one point this year, ended its World Endurance Championship LMP1 efforts at the end of 2017 and left Toyota as the lone manufacturer in that category.
However, a new innovation in hybrid technology is now making everybody else look slow. Porsche's Le Mans prototype group doesn't have to adhere to rules anymore - the company took one of its Le Mans racers out to Spa-Francorchamps. It lapped the circuit faster than a Formula One car.
Porsche describes how they took the 919 Hybrid from LMP1 legal to an earthbound rocket: "For the 'Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo' the entire hardware of the powertrain remained untouched. The 919 is powered by a compact two-litre turbo-charged V4-cylinder engine and two different energy recovery systems -brake energy from the front axle combined with exhaust energy."
The WEC efficiency regulations limited the energy from fuel per lap by using a fuel flow meter. At the 2017 championship round in Spa, in the Porsche 919 Hybrid's final season, it could use 1,784kg or 2,464 litres of petrol per lap. The V4 combustion engine's output back then was around 500hp. Freed from these restrictions and equipped with updated software, but running the regular race fuel (E20, containing 20% bio ethanol), the 919 Hybrid Evo delivers 720hp.
The amount of energy from the two recovery systems used in Spa 2017 was 6,37 megajoule. This was far below the systems' potential. On his recent record lap, Neel Jani enjoyed the full boost of 8,49 megajoule - the e-machine's output increased by 10% from 400 to 440hp.
Compared to the car in race trim, the dry weight was reduced by 39kg to 849kg. To achieve this, everything that isn't needed for a single fast lap was removed: air-conditioning, windscreen wiper, several sensors, electronic devices from race control, lights systems and the pneumatic jack system.
The new approach is part of a "919 Tribute" world tour Porsche will honour its Le Mans legacy. Porsche announced recently that its Le Mans-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid set a new record at the track that hosts the Belgian Grand Prix, running the 4,4-mile circuit in 1:41.77 minutes and beating Lewis Hamilton's record in an F1 car by nearly a second.
Source: Porsche
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