Turkish GP this weekend
After the summer lay-off, in which there was no testing,
just frantic work being done back in the workshops, the
EffWun circus lines up again, this time in Istanbul.
The
Turkish GP is on this weekend in the Istanbul “otodrom”,
which as the old song went, “You can’t go back to
Constantinople, ‘coz it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople”.
This is another circuit designed by Hermann Tilke, and
everyone was amazed last year that it was very good,
especially when there had been many reservations expressed
before the first ever GP in Turkey a couple of years ago.
Herr Herman can produce a good F1 track. Places for passing
did occur and it is an interesting layout, with hills and
hollows. Also of interest from last year was the fact that
there appeared to be more than adequate run-off areas, with
nobody hanging their cars on walls.
The circuit is about 80 km east of Istanbul, and is 5.3 km
long and the theoretical top speed should be around 320 kph.
The race is over 58 laps and expect lap times down around 1
minute 24. Racing is anti-clockwise, and for much more than
that you will have to watch the TV as I do. Renault will
have the controversial dampers back in, I believe, and
Alonso will be very keen to show that he is still the
champion-elect, despite the fact that Lewis Hamilton, the
new kid on the block is every bit his equal. Raikkonen will
be hoping that Ferrari are quicker in qualifying than they
were in Hungary. He needs pole position! We will also see if
Honda really has come in out of the cold. I personally doubt
it, but we’ll know by Sunday evening.
The GP should be at 7 p.m. Thai time, but check your local
feed to confirm this. I will be watching as usual from my
perch at Jameson’s Irish Pub on Soi AR (next to Nova Park),
and we watch the South African feed which has some decent
commentators and no adverts! Join me for a meal and a natter
first.
The driver standings at present are:
Lewis Hamilton 80
Fernando Alonso 73
Kimi Räikkönen 60
Felipe Massa 59
Nick Heidfeld 42
Robert Kubica 28
The Constructors Championship is
McLaren-Mercedes 138
Ferrari 119
BMW 71
Renault 33
Williams-Toyota 20
Red Bull-Renault 16
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I wrote that in 1901 an
enterprising British manufacturer built a four wheeled car
with one wheel at the front and one at the rear and one on
each side. I asked what was this car called? Clue: think
Japan! The answer was a Sunbeam, and the connection with
Japan was that the manufacturer of the Sunbeam marque, John
Marston, started off making enamel and tinware goods (called
‘japanned’ in those days). The lozenge layout was not
successful!
So to this week. Look carefully at this car. What is it?
Clue: 1978, so it is not a smart.
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email automania@pattayamail .com.
Good luck!
Hyundai Santa-Fe
Following on the news that Hyundai is returning
to Thailand, and that the Santa-Fe SUV will be in the
line-up, I researched this model through GoAuto in
Australia, who began their test writing, “The new 3.3 liter
V6 Santa Fe provides more evidence the South Korean brand
must be taken seriously.”
Hyundai
Santa-Fe
On its own, the 3.3 Santa Fe is an impressive machine. This
engine is a big step forward from the 2.7 V6, which will
meet the needs for many on a budget, but effectively has
power and torque levels of smaller capacity four-cylinders
which use less fuel. The new 3.3 works well with the
standard five-speed automatic, with subtle gear changes
going largely unnoticed.
The 3.3 engine is very quiet at idle and remains quite
composed even when revved fairly hard. The 3.3 Santa Fe we
tested at last week’s launch also rode and handled quite
well. It provided a quite comfortable ride and although it
will never be confused with a sportscar, didn’t lean too
much in the turns either. Steering is well-weighted and
there is no sign of rack rattle that can sometimes spoil a
front-driver.
Santa-Fe
rear
The seats are comfortable and supportive and there is plenty
of head and legroom, though it is quite cramped in the
optional third row of seats, which Hyundai advises are best
only used for pre-teens.
All in all, this looks as if it could gain a sizable
following in this country; however, it will be up against
the Chevrolet Captiva, which has been around now for the
past few months and does have a head start. There is also a
diesel engined version of the Santa-Fe and I think it would
be a good move to bring this one in as well. The Fortuner
diesel variant has shown the popularity of the diesels as
the price of petrol continues to go up.
The Wankel story
When Dr. Felix Wankel began his development of his
revolutionary rotary engine in 1951, he was not to envisage
the lasting effect his engine would have in world engine
technology history. From passenger cars, to racing cars,
planes and motorcycles and even snowmobiles, the Wankel
rotary has made its mark. However, even though he was the
originator, he was not the one to make it work.
Dr.
Felix Wankel
Dr. Wankel began development of the engine at NSU, where he
first showed his rotary engine in 1954. The first working
prototype was running on February 1, 1957 at the NSU
research and development department, and despite this head
start, NSU were not the only manufacturers to use it. In
actual fact, the number of manufacturers that have used
rotaries will amaze you.
In 1959, Curtis-Wright in the US started building Wankel
rotaries under license, but the development was slow,
because the market did not immediately take to this
departure from conventional design. In Britain, in the
1960s, Rolls Royce Motor Car Division at Crewe, Cheshire,
pioneered a two-stage diesel version of the Wankel engine.
Also in Britain, Norton Motorcycles developed a Wankel
rotary engine for motorcycles, which was included in their
Commander and F1. However, it was Japanese motorcycle
manufacturer Suzuki which is most remembered for a
production motorcycle with a Wankel engine, the RE-5. In
1971 and 1972 Arctic Cat produced snowmobiles powered by
303cc Wankel rotary engines manufactured by Sachs in
Germany. John Deere Inc, in the US, had a major research
effort in rotary engines and designed a version which was
capable of using a variety of fuels without changing the
engine. The design was proposed as the power source for
several US Marine combat vehicles in the late 1980s.
However, returning to the automotive market, it is often
thought that the first mass production vehicle with Dr.
Wankel’s engine was the NSU Ro80 in 1967, the car that
really finished NSU! The Wankel engine did everything it was
supposed to do, as far as smoothness and power was
concerned, but it was hopelessly unreliable, compared to a
normal reciprocating engine. In most instances, it was the
rotor tip seals that gave way, and the Ro80 sank into
obscurity, and sank NSU as well, with NSU being gobbled up
by VW in 1969.
What happened with the Wankel engine was that the tip seals
would wear, thus lowering the effective compression, just
like very worn piston rings do in a normal reciprocating
engine. This was occurring around 25,000 km, with owners
complaining of lack of power and difficulty in starting and
then becoming very smokey. NSU did honor their warranty and
supplied new engines as the seals wore out. Popular rumour
has it that when Ro80 owners saw each other, they didn’t
wave, but held up fingers to indicate the number of engines
they had replaced. NSU built 37,204 Ro80’s, and goodness
knows how many engines!
There were other cars and manufacturers as well, including
Citroën with the M35 and GS Birotor, using engines produced
by Comotor, and abortive attempts by General Motors and
Mercedes-Benz to design Wankel-engine automobiles (including
the record breaking C111 concept), but the only company that
really took the Wankel and made it work was Mazda. In fact,
Mazda brought out their rotary Cosmo sports car in 1966,
before the NSU Ro80, despite that popular notion that NSU
were the first.
Mazda progressed with the design and in 1991, the Mazda four
rotor 787B made motor sport history when it became the first
Japanese car to claim victory at the Le Mans 24 hour
endurance race. In recognition of this outstanding
technological development, the FIA promptly banned rotary
engines from competing at Le Mans! So much for the level
playing field approach!
In 2003, Mazda introduced the RENESIS engine with the new
RX-8. The RENESIS engine relocated the ports for exhaust and
intake from the periphery of the rotary housing to the
sides, allowing for larger overall ports, better airflow,
and further power gains. The RENESIS is capable of
delivering 250 hp from its 1.3 liter nominal displacement at
better fuel economy, reliability, and environmental
friendliness than any other Mazda rotary engine in history.
In fact, Britain’s specialist technology magazine, Engine
Technology International, awarded the RENESIS its coveted
International Engine of the Year award in 2003 as well as
successive awards for its engine class in 2003 and 2004, to
show its high regard for this engine.
The twin rotor Wankel designs are now becoming very popular
in the private aviation field, with small aircraft which
used to use reciprocating engines, such as the ubiquitous
VW, turning to 12A and 13B Mazda rotary engines. It was the
pilots of the rotary engined planes that dubbed the piston
engined flyers as ‘reciprosaurs’!
Dr. Felix Wankel certainly gets the kudos for the original
design, but it took Japanese technology to make the thing
work!
