- il y a 6 mois
1989 documentary 'The Leading Edge' about the 1988 IMSA Camel GT championship.
Catégorie
🥇
SportTranscription
00:00GT Motor Racing USA
00:26an arena in which the difference between winning and losing is less than a heartbeat.
00:34In 1969 the first IMSA race attracted a modest audience of less than 400.
00:40Today over 400 million around the world witness the contest on the track.
00:46But the real competition lies behind the glass in the minds of the designers and engineers
00:52who create the most powerful race cars in the world.
00:56Working at the frontiers of technology, restrained by the rule makers,
01:00motivated by the thrill of competition, each team strives to find the leading edge.
01:08It's always a combination, and that's what a car is, a combination between the chassis,
01:22the engine transmission, driver, team. Only a good combination can win.
01:26And racing does have a tendency to make things, make people do things a lot quicker,
01:32because there's a timetable and you gotta, I mean there's races you gotta go to,
01:36and there's competitors you gotta try and beat.
01:38And so it forces you into a sort of a high speed development mode.
01:42The GT series cars are capable of speeds in excess of 200 miles an hour.
01:48Powered by engines which can produce over a thousand horsepower,
01:53these are not engines specially designed for pure racing.
01:56They're based on production car engines, which in their showroom form
02:00produce perhaps only a fifth of the power.
02:03I think we offer a lot more.
02:05I think our cars are, first of all, they're identifiable in the sense
02:09they carry the characteristics that people deal with every day in their street car.
02:12They have headlights, they have tail lights, they have brake lights, they run in the rain,
02:15the doors open, they have windshield wipers, they have to race in all kinds of conditions
02:19for all kinds of lengths at speedway tracks, at airport tracks, at temporary tracks,
02:25at permanent tracks, and they're powered by an infinite variety of power plants.
02:29There's an infinite variety of car design, and it's basically a concept to allow creativity
02:35and freedom in design while everything else is more structured.
02:39And I think it's almost the last form of motorsport in the world that is,
02:43that gives the innovator the opportunity to innovate.
02:48Rulemakers IMSA, the International Motorsports Association,
02:52has been very successful in the USA in creating a balance between different engine technologies.
02:58They enforce a system of technical handicaps, which offsets certain design advantages.
03:04The aim is to provide the teams with the maximum design flexibility,
03:08and the audience with good spectator sport.
03:11The concept, particularly in GTP, which are the purpose-built racing cars,
03:16and the GTO and GTU cars being production-based versions are the same.
03:21The whole idea from the start was to provide formulas that again were attractive to as many possible interests.
03:27Within the rules set by IMSA, team designers are free to experiment with many different engine configurations.
03:34The manufacturers behind the teams offer the full range of production car engines.
03:39So just as in the showroom we find V6, V8, V12, flat 6, straight 4, and a range of add-on performance improvers,
03:48turbochargers, sophisticated fuel injection systems, multi-valve heads.
03:53Each combination has its own special characteristics.
03:57Having the right combination gives the advantage.
04:00Well, I don't know whether it gives us an edge, but at least it gives us a means to adjust the things,
04:05you know, the way like you want to, like we want to do it without going over Germany.
04:08Because it takes a lot of time and a lot of money.
04:10There are tremendous research facilities that the big car companies have.
04:14We can't really match.
04:15But on the other hand, we can move quicker than their internal organizations can in a lot of areas
04:20to bring something to bear to test.
04:23And it'll take them sometimes five years to bring new technology into production
04:28just because there are super long lead times and tooling and everything.
04:31Or what may take them two years to set up production for, I can do in a week around here.
04:37And so just we can move quicker and we can take advantage faster of new technology.
04:43But like Ford Lincoln Mercury says to us, their engineers are used to doing things on a year,
04:51you know, on a really long extended schedule.
04:54There isn't that, there isn't that sort of impetus to drive them faster and develop things quicker.
05:00And those guys come to the race team and work with us for a year on that fuel management system.
05:03And they go back and they have a whole new sense of how much quicker things can be done sometimes
05:08if you really need to do it.
05:10Previously, I've worked with an automotive company, one of the big three.
05:13And from the time that we clay modeled something till it got on the road was five years, three to five years.
05:19To see it done in three to five months is very satisfying.
05:23There is a significant interchange of ideas and technologies between the big manufacturers and the racing teams.
05:30But not in the direction their relative sizes might lead you to expect.
05:35We have several parts that we've developed for the Mercure engine that are now being prototyped and fit to new prototype Ford Motor Company engines as well as Chrysler engines.
05:46There are several other things that we're doing in the area of the carbon fiber body work for our race cars that we're exploring the possibility of trading that back into production car technology to build lighter, more aerodynamic production cars.
06:01Certainly the aerodynamic work we do in the wind tunnel for our race cars is already seeing its effect in the production car technology.
06:10The large manufacturers recognize the effectiveness of small dedicated teams being prepared to adopt a hands-off policy.
06:17Nissan team manager Don Devendorf sees this from the perspective of the aerospace industry.
06:23I'm a chief scientist at Hughes Aircraft and a lot of the technology programs, most of that work is carried on by a very small group of people that do a lot of these advanced concepts and make some of the first prototypes and prove the feasibility of various concepts.
06:42And it's really amazing if you have a very, very talented small group what that can accomplish relative to a huge group with tremendous resources and very often the managing of that huge resource is such a problem, it's very difficult to be efficient.
07:01Very often these things can spend, you know, five, ten times as much and not even achieve, you know, what the smaller group has done.
07:09And that's common, I would say, throughout any kind of the normal industries.
07:14And so, you know, if you apply the right people with the right philosophies, have a positive attitude about, you know, solving problems and, you know, you always find a way, you know.
07:25If you start off and say, that can't be done, you know, you'll, you know, they'll never accomplish it.
07:33Each team has its own approach to obtain what they see to be the right combination of engine, aerodynamics and handling.
07:41Hopefully the winning car.
07:43You have to consider the whole car, not just the engine, not just the support systems, not just the charge system or the turbocharger.
07:52It's a complete package that you have to consider.
07:55Drivability is a huge part of the program, probably even more important than absolute horsepower.
08:00The catch word you see in all the television telecasts is turbo power.
08:05Now it's bowling over the normally aspirated cars.
08:08Again, you see some of those camel-like cars just being overrun by these tremendously powerful boat cars.
08:13Little staff on the brakes, now he'll be back under full boost and trying to use all of the ports of horsepower.
08:17Look at this, closing, closing, closing. Here comes the pass.
08:20Down the inside, use that blade brake and you get a clean pass.
08:23And gets past the number 52 of that Corvette.
08:26Last lap at 114 miles per hour with a leader.
08:28She's up on the Buick now.
08:30Look at it, take a couple of shots and try to get the car through there.
08:33And finally, Lewis has to go to the outside, let it through.
08:39For a number of years, Porsche have dominated GT motor racing in the USA.
08:44But others now seem to have a better combination.
08:48What we're trying to do is like, how can I give an example?
08:54If you have some running shoes and they're two numbers too small.
08:57And we try to, you know, widen them out with some devices.
09:01What we need is a new shoe.
09:03And that is, you know, like as long as we had no real competition.
09:07It wasn't really shown, but as soon as Jaguar showed up, their chassis is far superior.
09:12And of course the Nissan, their chassis is good too.
09:18Despite the fact that they could go through the spill.
09:21Could you look forward to the Sahaja at the top of the coffee?
09:23When you get it, you don't know
09:23So that's a lot of people, you know?
09:24Can you look forward to it, you know?
09:25You know, that's a lot of people.
09:26They've been looking forward to it.
09:28When you are dying to ward the door.
09:30So I told you about them, you know?
09:31I told them about you, you know.
09:34That's a lot of people that have been helping you.
09:37So you know it is.
09:38I love you, like.
09:40I love you.
09:41It's a lot of people.
09:41I told you, you know?
09:43Oh, I told you about it.
09:45If you have been?
09:45Oh, I told you.
09:47We'll try and I told you in the next step somewhere.
09:47When you look at how many moving parts there are in a typical automotive engine, I mean,
10:16if you didn't have an automotive engine out there running and you thought to yourself,
10:19well, jeez, now I could build something like this.
10:21It's going to have pistons going up and down at this rate of speed,
10:25and it's going to have a crankshaft spinning.
10:27You're going to have a controlled oil system.
10:28You've got to seal the compression system between the oiling system with sliding rings.
10:32I mean, you couldn't do it if you just tried to think of it without it having been done over the years.
10:38So I think it's a matter of just development, and a turbocharger is a much simpler system than an automotive engine,
10:43but I think that's where the turbocharger manufacturers like Garrett are.
10:47They're developing that technology right now and getting it to the point where it has the durability that you want.
10:53Los Angeles-based Garrett Automotive supply over 50% of the world turbocharger market,
10:59and an even higher proportion of the turbochargers used in motorsport.
11:03Garrett claim the reason for their success in motorsport goes beyond the reliability and performance of their product,
11:09extending, they say, to effective applications engineering.
11:14There's no doubt that turbocharger technology has been a factor enabling smaller engines to compete
11:20and often outperform the larger and heavier rivals.
11:23The turbo offers such an incredible advantage because you can lower your total package weight and size
11:32and then make up for it with the turbo,
11:34and then because you've got low inertia of the total motor package
11:39and you've got a small amount of surface area,
11:41your thermal efficiency goes up and you can do better fuel economy-wise
11:45with a small turbocharged engine than you can with a bigger engine.
11:49Your amount of oil cooling it takes and water cooling it takes is all reduced because the engine package is small.
11:55The amount of power the engines in these cars develop
11:58is dependent on the amount of air and fuel that can be burnt in the cylinders.
12:02More power requires more air and more fuel,
12:06but the engine only has a certain cylinder capacity,
12:09and this limits the total power available.
12:12A turbocharger is a device which compresses the air-fuel mixture
12:15and so increases the amount that can be burnt in each cylinder.
12:19This helps the engine develop more power without increasing its size.
12:24The turbocharger is a simple device with a few moving parts
12:27which takes energy normally thrown away in the engine exhaust
12:31and uses it to drive a compressor.
12:34The turbo's outer casing contains a single shaft with a wheel at one end.
12:39Hot exhaust gases from the engine pass through the casing and around this turbine wheel,
12:45causing the shaft to rotate at very high speeds,
12:48as much as 200,000 RPM.
12:50A second wheel is attached to this shaft which draws air in from the atmosphere,
12:56compresses it, and pumps it into the engine.
12:58You know, the turbo technology has really come along,
13:01and I know just in the short time that I've been driving a turbo car,
13:05which was last year,
13:05we've made some pretty great strides, I think.
13:10Turbocharging in both Formula One and GT racing is often blamed for engine fail,
13:15without good reason.
13:16I would say that it's like a little excuse of the press,
13:20because they're not maybe investigated enough to find out really what happened,
13:24and if the sea blows smoke, it's right away the turbo.
13:27And I can say the majority of it is not the turbo,
13:30or the turbo fails, like I said before, because the engine failed before.
13:34So now, the turbo reliability these days is pretty, pretty sophisticated, pretty good.
13:40You know, I think last year we had one engine failure,
13:42which was a broken rocker arm, and with that kind of reliability,
13:46you know, you just, the turbo technology certainly isn't hurting it at all.
13:51Because the turbo is driven by the engine's exhaust,
13:54there can be a delay of a fraction of a second before the turbo takes full effect.
13:59This is known as turbo lag.
14:01In the latest turbo cars on sale in showrooms around the world,
14:05turbo lag has been virtually eliminated by improved design, materials, and electronic controls.
14:11Motor racing, on the other hand, suffers from turbo lag of a different car.
14:16The position today is that we would like to see more improvement on the turbocharger,
14:22and that, of course, can only come from the manufacturer.
14:25We cannot do that.
14:26And what I would like to see is what is already today on the market is an adjustable turbo,
14:33it adjusts itself on the exhaust side,
14:35and, of course, the ceramic vehicle.
14:38You know, the lighter it is, the more, less inertia,
14:41better it's a boost builder.
14:42Because our biggest problem, obviously, is the lag.
14:46And that is where we have to work on.
14:48It takes a lot of money to develop stuff like that,
14:50to make it race-ready.
14:51I'm sure maybe for passengers, they have it already, get it.
14:55I mean, it'd be lovely to have no throttle lag at all.
14:57It seems, I mean, it's almost instantaneous now.
15:00But it would be nice, when you back off, as I did once,
15:03and with rather low revs, to have picked up and got the, you know, the, got torque lower down.
15:07A couple of times, I thought, my goodness, I must be in fourth of that second
15:10when I had to slow down for other traffic.
15:12I think that the leading edge of technology, as far as engines are concerned,
15:16turbocharging is concerned, and engine control systems are concerned,
15:19I think that that is definitely true.
15:20I think that the leading edge is coming towards sports car racing,
15:23as in our Miracourt here.
15:26I think that you'll see more and more development going on
15:29as far as turbocharging and engine control systems.
15:32Because, like, in our XR4 TI, we're running the exact same system
15:35that's in the Formula One car.
15:37And then from that, we will redefine it for electronics to go back
15:40and make it better and better and better.
15:42And so the leading edge of technology would be here,
15:46the turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
15:54Ian Norris explains what the IMSA series means to Jaguar.
15:58It's a new challenge.
15:59We want this team to be like our road car owners.
16:02They're Americans who buy a Jaguar and run it in America.
16:06This is an American team running a Jaguar in America in American racing.
16:10And there's a real strong American accent.
16:13I got an English accent because I came over here to cheer them on.
16:17Or perhaps by the time it's all over,
16:18we Americans will know how to properly pronounce Jaguar.
16:21Because of the standard preparation, the way this team operates is second to none.
16:28And the car is well designed and properly engineered
16:33and properly looked after by the mechanics.
16:36This professional approach has helped Jaguar score notable successes,
16:40including the top three places at the prestigious Le Mans 24-hour race.
16:44The similarity in the specifications of the Group C and IMSA series
16:49has helped Jaguar mount a formidable presence in both classes.
16:53Well, of course, we've got two teams here.
16:54We've got our U.S. IMSA team with their two cars and then three cars from here.
16:58So it's a relatively simple effort for us in that we can use both racing teams.
17:05Five cars has to be better than three.
17:07It is a lottery.
17:08There are all kinds of difficulties occur in this 24-hour race.
17:12It's a very punishing race.
17:14And the more cars, the better.
17:16The IMSA GT series features a wide variety of surfaces and distances,
17:21which influences the way the driver approaches each race.
17:24The main difference is in the method of how you get through the race.
17:31In a 1,000-kilometer race, in fact, that's a sprint event for us.
17:35We drive on the limit for 1,000 kilometers.
17:38Here at Le Mans, we obviously have the conservation of the car in mind.
17:44So I wouldn't say that we drive very far off the pace,
17:50but we certainly drive maybe eight-tenths instead of ten-tenths.
17:55It's just so good to be involved with a team like Jaguar
17:58because it's not just a car.
18:01It's England is down here trying to win.
18:03Andy for the green flag.
18:04Back on the way.
18:04The Jag makes an immediate move and does not get through.
18:08Now, here's where experience is going to play a major part.
18:11Again, these fellows are back on cold tires once more.
18:13We saw it.
18:14Now, there's the Jag.
18:15It's a good indication of what's happening.
18:18The Jaguar commitment is obviously a serious commitment.
18:22They're here to win, and they will do whatever they can to win.
18:24And that forces them to push themselves for success as well.
18:28For a long time, Porsche has been the dominant force
18:31because of their commitment to motorsports worldwide.
18:34In the quest for even higher performance,
18:37the Porsche team acknowledges that in the modern racing engine,
18:40electronics are playing an increasingly important role.
18:44Electronics are just about taking over everything.
18:46You know, we've got rented cars out here.
18:48I can't believe the electronics that are on them.
18:49They're brand-new cars.
18:50And they'll take over in racing just like everything else.
18:53At this minute, our fuel management system is all controlled.
18:56The ignition timing is all electronically controlled.
19:00All Porsche racing engines are prepared in California
19:03by racing specialists and I.
19:07Each engine is run in a test cell on a dyno,
19:10which measures its power output.
19:12This information is used in the programming of the EEPROM chips
19:16in the electronic engine management computer.
19:18Founder of Amdile, German-born Alwin Springer, explains.
19:25So actually what we do is we go to the dyno and run some values.
19:29You know, some improvements.
19:31Maybe it needs more gas, maybe it needs less gas,
19:33more timing, less timing.
19:34That's basically what we do in a dyno.
19:36And our computer programs enables us to go
19:39and reprogram the EEPROM programmer
19:41and then again the EEPROM.
19:43So if I would do that by hand,
19:45if I have to change a lot of stations,
19:48it would take me maybe an hour, two hours,
19:50and like that it takes me five minutes.
19:52Advantage of the computer.
19:54So let's say we want to change the value of an injection
20:00from, it has three parameters.
20:03Once we have the boost level,
20:05once we have the throttle opening and the RPM.
20:08So it's pretty sophisticated.
20:10So what we can do, we'll say at full throttle at 2400,
20:12we want to change something in there.
20:15So we'll go.
20:22So you see right now it tells us,
20:24this is the injection field at 62 degrees.
20:26That is the full throttle field, 2400 millibar
20:29because we read absolute, 8,000 RPMs.
20:32And then see it goes down every RPM.
20:34You know, when the driver,
20:36when the driver drives and he feels that when it goes
20:38at 1.4 boost, it just gets a little bit tough.
20:41And we have a switch in there
20:42where you can lean it out or reach it up.
20:44And he says, you know,
20:45if I reach it up 10%, it runs better.
20:47So then we just, instead of like before in a carburetor,
20:51we will change a main jet,
20:52what would react over the whole range.
20:54That just specifically,
20:55just goes in that little range there.
20:58So if we do that here,
21:00see, I have a little calculator built in here too.
21:03So it says hex number 72,
21:07percentage rate plus 10.
21:11See, and then the new number is 7D.
21:14So I just type 7D in here and go on.
21:17Then later on, when I'm finished,
21:19what I can do is I can go into a graph program.
21:22If I make some real mistake in programming
21:24and I double check it this way,
21:26then I'll recognize it right away
21:27and can prevent a lot of engine problems.
21:30Porsche's arch rival Nissan have enjoyed recent success,
21:33which could be due to new software they've developed
21:36which electronically controls the turbocharger
21:38and engine combination.
21:40A concept that is not new in racing
21:42and which has been used in production cars for some time.
21:45They had it already last year
21:46and obviously they got it working right.
21:50We're a little bit behind,
21:51but we're working on one too.
21:52And hopefully that we will get it going
21:56within the next couple of months.
21:58But for us, specifically in the Porsche businesses,
22:01it's very difficult to catch up to the Nissan
22:03because, you know,
22:04the basic differences between our engine,
22:07their engine is...
22:08It's like if you compare apples with pears.
22:11No, because our engine is a flat,
22:13six-cylinder air-cooled engine,
22:15but their engine is a V6 water-cooled engine.
22:17And that's being turbocharged.
22:19The air-cooled engine is a handicap.
22:22So I don't think that we will catch the Nissan this year,
22:25but hopefully that we can try to run with the Jaguars.
22:47But what is the cost of preparing and racing a car
23:02in the IMSA GT Series?
23:04And can this cost be justified by manufacturers and sponsors?
23:09I mean, to do a full series program
23:11in this type of thing
23:12is over a couple million dollars a year.
23:14It's more than that.
23:15The manufacturers typically have much better budgets
23:18when it comes down to budgets.
23:20I mean, you see a lot of money being spent in racing,
23:23but relative to the manufacturers,
23:24it's not very much.
23:25Engine-wise, the engines run about $45,000 a piece
23:29on our little V6s,
23:31and they're very similar on the V8s.
23:32But as far as the overall program,
23:34I wouldn't want to get into that.
23:36The budgets are varied quite a bit from team to team,
23:39and some teams are able to make do with less
23:42and get good results.
23:44So I think we've been, from a brag a little bit,
23:47been pretty good at getting by
23:48with what we know to be a comparatively small budget.
23:52The key to sponsorship is audience.
23:55So what kind of people follow GT Road Racing on the track?
23:58We like to look at our audience as a quality audience.
24:02An easy way to compare it is, I think, in many cases,
24:05we're selling classical music,
24:06as opposed to country and western or pop.
24:08It's not as big an audience,
24:10but the people that are here
24:11are much more tuned in to the equipment,
24:14much more tuned in to the people.
24:15And I think they're interested not just in the competition on the racetrack.
24:20Sometimes the racing is outstanding.
24:22Sometimes one guy has it figured out better than the rest.
24:24But the other draw is the technology
24:26and the variety that's on display here,
24:28not only on the racetrack,
24:30and the accessibility of the equipment to people.
24:32We're standing in a paddock area,
24:33and 90% of the people here are paying spectators
24:36who have an opportunity to walk up
24:38and virtually touch what they see on the racetrack,
24:40which is, in other forms of motorsport in this country,
24:42is impossible.
24:43They can't go at India or NASCAR to the garage area
24:46and see the cars.
24:47Here they can.
25:10Down to the finish, car number 83 coming out.
25:24Checkers unfurled and give the win
25:27to John Morton of California
25:29and Jeff Robbham, victorious,
25:32twice in succession for Team Nitzan.
25:35A great victory here at Palm Beach, Florida.
25:38Second place is going to go to the Jag.
25:41Baby Jones is home in second.
25:44Price Cobb and James Weaver will finish.
25:461988 was undoubtedly the year of the Nissan.
25:49They got everything right,
25:51all at the right time,
25:53but more importantly,
25:54they briefly found the edge,
25:56the leading edge,
25:57which for them was a superior
25:58electronic management system for the engine,
26:01and particularly the turbocharger.
26:03It won't be long before other teams catch up
26:06or IMSA changes the rules to offset the advantages.
26:09leading them once again
26:11in search for the leading edge.
26:14We'll keep going.
26:17We'll keep going.
26:17Let's go.
26:49I'm one of those believers in, you know, racing does in fact improve the breed.
26:53You know, it allows you to get engine management systems, tires, chassis developments that you could not otherwise achieve.
27:14You've got two ways to look at it.
27:16You either play the game or you get out.
27:18So as long as I feel that we can be competitive, I'll play the game.
27:22And when I feel I cannot be competitive anymore, then I will no longer build a turbo engine.
27:26I mean, it would be foolish.
27:27I expect it to continue until such time as every different manufacturer is able to win races,
27:50whether it's a normally aspirated vehicle or a turbocharged vehicle.
27:54As long as you have a team such as ours sitting on top with good drivers, good team, and the best cars,
28:01the best preparation, the best sponsorship, the best financing, we're going to win.
28:06Probably because as long as we win races, that's what it's all about.
28:20That's what we're trying to do.
28:21Let's go.
Commentaires