IndyCar will take part in the 105th Indy 500 race this weekend. Things have changed since the first race at The Brickyard was held on May 30, 1911. Cars were rough beasts at the time. Today, these are sophisticated machines that represent the pinnacle of internal combustion technology. Some innovations, such as the Andy Granatelli turbine car, have been banned by the sport, but the shift from front-to-rear racing engines, launched by Colin Chapman and Jim Clark, has survived.
Car races are at the fork. At a time when more and more people are recognizing that the era of fossil fuels needs to end, does it make sense to continue with a series that celebrates the miracles that happen when gasoline explodes indoors?
Formula 1 has been using hybrid drives that have been combining a petrol engine with an electric motor for 7 years. Now IndyCar plans to introduce hybrid powertrains in 2024 (a decade after Formula 1). They will use a 2.4-liter twin turbo petrol engine that produces 800 horsepower, paired with an electric motor that adds another 100 horsepower.
Will fully electric race cars follow? Team owner Mike Shank, whose Meyer Shank Racing won the Indy 500 last year with Helio Castroneves behind the wheel, says Autoblog, “As our world goes, it seems to be moving in that direction. When it comes to electrification, the hybrid is definitely a low-hanging fruit. These are not just hybrids, but pure electric cars. What we are trying to do as a team is to prepare for it. Technology is moving fast and it’s such an important hot button for all OEMs that we all know where it’s going. “
The sound of silence
Is the world ready for quiet racing cars? Mike Hull, CEO of 14-time IndyCar Series Champion and four-time winning Indy 500 team Chip Ganassi Racing, says Autoblog, “Sound is a generational thing, but the generation that will set the future for the generations to come will grow up accustomed to a different sound from us.” Hull imagines a person standing near turn 1 in Indy while an electric race car quietly passes at a speed of 230 mph. “You’ll think in your mind, ‘A car going so fast shouldn’t sound like that, but it will.
IndyCar driver JR Hildebrand says electric race cars can’t race in the Indy 500, which he calls top speed, the accelerator to the floor from start to finish, with only deceleration and braking happening half a dozen times when drivers search for fuel and tires. There isn’t nearly enough time for regenerative braking to charge the battery, he says.
“To be able to go an average of 180 miles per hour for 500 miles, we are far from existing technology to be able to do that. Looking at a top motorcycle sport, having an electric car competing with an internal combustion engine, the Indy 500 is among the hardest to do, ”he says. Hildebrand is more than a driver. He is an assistant lecturer in the vehicle dynamics program at Stanford and is involved in STEM programs when not racing.
Bring It!
If he was in charge of IndyCar racing, Hilldebrand says: “I would start thinking of ways to integrate almost the style of X-Prize – come and just show me what you have – a kind of mechanism where electrification would be welcome right on the speedway in the context of IndyCar racing.
“You can imagine that working at the qualifying level of the pace will come long before you can work at that speed for 500 miles. If you have left it completely open to say that anyone who qualifies with any of these technologies will enter the race, that is a little too open. You could quickly have cars that qualify, but you don’t have a job competing for 500 miles. The point of racing is to show different ways of working. It is my opinion that the Indianapolis 500 is a place… where in the past it has been allowed to explore things like this. ”
Formula E is the premier series of open racing wheels for electric cars, but it runs much shorter races. The cars for that series are nowhere near competing for 500 miles.
‘Because of its history and because it’s one of the hardest places for anything but an internal combustion engine to be good, Indy is like the perfect place to say,’ Okay, bring it! ‘ There is no risk in that. There is a possibility that, by doing that, it will become a place where everyone goes to see how this happens. Thinking about how crazy it was for a car with a turbine to appear in 1967, imagine how completely crazy people would go crazy to have electric cars that qualify at the same time as cars with an internal combustion engine, and there’s this crazy award. Think about the degree of unpredictability of that in relation to what we are dealing with now. The enormity of this circumstance cannot be overestimated. “
Electrical engineers are wanted
Mike Hull says Autoblog that racing teams are already looking for young electrical engineers in the world who want to get involved in races. The Ganassi team is working closely with Indiana University and Purdue to encourage young engineers to get involved in the future of racing.
“We encourage all students to get involved in the racing program in some way, even if they volunteer with the racing program on the weekends. This is to get their hands on it, to understand that it equates a textbook with the practical aspect of driving, ”says Hull.
The next phase of development for racing will be hybrid technology, because street vehicles do that, he adds. “Engineering ability needs to turn in that direction quickly. Today, we search the world to try to find young, bright engineers who want to be able to work on vehicle control that focuses on hybrid and electric technology, because that’s the next thing we’re going to race on. Universities around the world are working on it, and we will work on it, if not today, then very soon to keep up. ”
Racing Goes Green
Races are more than race cars. Teams travel with hundreds of tons of equipment, spare parts, mobile facilities and people. Today, transporters transporting Indy cars and equipment from race to race run on biodiesel. Electric vehicles are becoming more prevalent on the speedway this month, from two-wheeled scooters that many drivers use to travel to electric mobile trucks.
Firestone, the only tire supplier for IndyCar, has delivered all the racing tires to be used at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month in trailers towed by Freightliner eCascadia electric tractors. Firestone has also developed an environmentally friendly alternative tire, made from natural rubber from guayula shrubs, to be used on race cars in Friday’s pit-stop competition. The first race on that tire is scheduled for August in Nashville.
Formula 1 may be a few steps ahead of IndyCar in its “green” racing pretensions. The nature of the tracks on which it runs provides plenty of opportunities for regenerative braking to recharge the batteries in race cars, but it is still one of the biggest polluters in car racing.
The bigger question is whether the races will be relevant at all in the future? It depends on whether the cars will remain relevant in the years to come. If they do, racing has always been a way to improve the breed. “The point of going to races is to show different ways of working and that some things are better than others in certain conditions. That’s why we show up to compete, ”says JR Hildebrand.
The legitimate question is whether the world can continue to produce tens of millions of private cars every year. It doesn’t make much difference whether they are powered by gasoline, electricity or the moon’s rays. However, no one will be interested in watching robot taxis compete. Changes are coming, but what exactly that means for motorcycle racing is far from clear.
Appreciate the originality of CleanTechnice? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, support, technician or ambassador – or patron at Patreon.