6 replies to this topic

[Penulis]

Hi all. I'm new to F1 and CART. Started hooked to the series when I first watch it in 1998.

CART uses Turbo engines while F1 no longer because they claimed it isn't save.

What is the difference between Turbo and Normal engines and why doesn't CART ban the engines since it's dangerous as claimed by F1?

From what I see it, CART is more dangerous than F1 as they race on superspeedways at 240mph!

[Ursus]

The difference between turbocharged and "normally aspirated" engines is theat turbo engines has a device(the turbocharger, powered by exhaust gasses) that increases the air pressure outside the cylinders, allowing more air into them while the normally asp. has to rely on the atmospheric pressure to do the job. Getting air(oxygen) into the cyl. is wat gets you power.

The "unsafe" thing about turbocharged engines is you can produce insane amounts of power from small engines unless you put some restrictions on them. A 1.5l unrestricted turbo f1 engine could give 1200-1300hp in qualifing trim while a 2.67l restricted CART engine produces ~900hp. And it may be added that a CART car is also heavier than a F1 car



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Ursus
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[Christiaan]

Just to add: if you have more air you can burn more fuel, and get more power. You can also get more efficiency because the rate burning of fuel is increased when the concentration of air is increased. Thats part of the reason why car perform better at sea level where the air is denser.

remember Renault's blowing turbos?

Made me think about turbocharger technology. How well do you think an Al/Be turbo will do?

[Penulis]

Thanks for the info, guys!

Wow! A 1.5L Turbo can do a 1500bhp? That's impressive. I wish I have that kind of horsepower for my car.

My next question, does the Turbo has the same effeciency as the NA engine? I mean in terms of miles per gallon of fuel.

You did mention between restricted and unrestricted? What does that mean? The CART's 2.65L is now at the same level with F1's 3L.

[Christiaan]

strictly speaking a turbocharged car should have much better efficiency. The thing is most turbo'd cars are designed so that more fuel can be effeciently burnt for a given cyl capacity. The other thing is that turbocharging can increase the engine's thermal efficiency if done right. The hot exhaust gases lose some heat when in contact with the blades from the turbocharger.

[mtl'78]

Turbos are more thirsty. That is why CART races often degenerate into fuel conservations. The idea being if all the yellows slow them down they might be able to skip one of the 4-5 pitstops.

[Limey]

CART cars are more thirsty because they use methanol as a fuel. For the same size engine, it takes about twice as much methanol as gasoline to get the same stoichiometric ratio (about 14:1 for gasoline, about 6:1 for methanol. Also in CART, there is a limitation on the amount of methanol per car per race so that cars have to average 1.8 miles per gallon. On some road circuits, this is difficult to attain so laps under caution (consumption decreases to about 4-5 mpg)help. CART drivers also have a multi position switch in the cockpit to adjust the fuel ratio between full power and best economy. In F1, turbos generated up to 4 times atmospheric pressure before they were regulated, whereas CART only allows a limited pressure which I believe is about 1.5 times atmospheric.