HONDA NSX: TAO OF TECH

HONDA NSX: THE TAO OF TECH
In a project as big and complex as the development of a new supercar it’s hard to isolate the influence of an individual. As time passes the Honda NSX seems to be seen more Ayrton Senna’s supercar than Honda’s.

In truth, the NSX didn’t occupy much of Ayrton’s time and it’s unlikely that its engineers made it fifty per cent stiffer purely on his say-so after his first drive in a prototype between F1 pre-season tests at Suzuka in February ’89.

But he did drive it, and gave his opinion, and drove it again to assess the all-aluminium double-wishbone suspension settings once the design had been frozen.

It was the only road car he had any input into, and he ‘owned’ at least two examples, of which one, with his personal plate, remains in family ownership in Brazil.

And for Honda and Senna fans, that’s enough: the car is the embodiment of the relationship between the utterly un-Japanese Brazilian, and the essentially Japanese corporation with whose engines he won world championships, and which loved him for it.

And Honda’s engineers didn’t really need the help anyway.

Their 3.0-litre, quad-cam transverse V6 with variable valve timing making 270bhp at 7100rpm was hailed, from launch, as ‘one of the world’s finest engines’.

The NSX benchmarked the Ferrari 348 – not a particularly tough target – and ended up the benchmark for the brilliant F355, so it plainly caused Maranello to raise its game.

Younger readers might not remember the years when a Honda regularly, naturally featured in car magazine group-tests alongside Ferraris and Porsches, and beat them. But in its day, the NSX wasn’t just the competition; in many respects, it was the standard.

September 10, 2014 0

Honda and F1

Honda’s F1 history dates back to the early sixties when the company looked to translate its motorcycling success onto four wheels.

Honda tried to strike a deal with Lotus and Colin Chapman, which had won the world championship with Jim Clark in 1963 but when Chapman decided against it, the Japanese pressed ahead with their own car and engine. The Honda RA271E, with a load-bearing transversely-mounted V12, made its debut at Nurburgring in 1964 with young American Ronnie Bucknum driving.

Starting a trend that would continue, F1 Hondas were prodigiously powerful if sometimes heavy. The RA272 gave around 230bhp, estimated to be 10% more than its rivals, and allowed ex-Ferrari driver Richie Ginther to win the company’s 11th race, the 1965 Mexican GP, the last race for the 1.5-litre F1 category.

The new 3-litre V12-engined car ran second on its debut in ’66 and the following year Honda elected to run a single car for John Surtees — the only man to win world championships on two wheels and four – who had fallen out with Ferrari. Lola’s Eric Broadley designed the RA301 chassis, dubbed the Hondola, which first raced in the ’67 Italian GP at Monza. Surtees battled with Jim Clark and Jack Brabham and when one ran out of fuel and the other ran wide, the car won its first GP having led the one and only lap it would ever lead!

In 1968 there was pressure to run an air-cooled V12 to promote air-cooled road cars and the RA302, using lightweight magnesium parts, was built. On testing it, Surtees declared it dangerous and refused to race it. Honda France brought in Jo Schlesser to drive it in the French GP after Johnny Servoz-Gavin turned it down. The unfortunate Schlesser died in a horrible fireball accident when he crashed on the second lap of the last F1 race to be run at Rouen. Surtees finished second in the RA301. Surtees again refused to race the 302 at Monza and shortly afterwards Honda announced a ‘temporary withdrawal’ from F1.

That lasted until 1983, when Honda returned as an engine supplier with the new Spirit team, which graduated from F2 amid F1’s turbo era. The RA163E engine showed enough promise for Williams to do a deal to run Hondas the following year. Keke Rosberg found on/off turbo power delivery and a flexing chassis a tricky combination, but took the Williams-Honda to victory in Dallas.

At the end of 1985, Rosberg and Nigel Mansell won the last three grands prix in Williams-Hondas. The team was dominant in ’86 as Mansell and Nelson Piquet won nine races and the constructors championship but lost out in the drivers championship to Alain Prost when Mansell suffered a spectacular tyre blow-out 18 laps from the end of the season finale in Adelaide.

The team won 11 of 16 races in ’87, with Piquet claiming his third drivers’ title. Honda, however, switched allegiance to McLaren in ’88 as the RA168 engine gave Ayrton Senna his first world title in a year that saw the Brazilian and team mate Prost win 15 of 16 races for McLaren-Honda.

It would have been a clean sweep had not Senna tripped over a backmarking Williams-Judd a handful if laps before the end of the Italian GP. In a great irony, the Williams was driven by Jo Schlesser’s nephew Jean Louis who, standing in for Mansell, who had chicken pox, was making his first F1 start on the eve of his 40th birthday…

In an era of continuing McLaren domination Prost (89) and Senna (90) took world titles with V10 Honda power, then Senna repeated the success and took his third and final crown in ’91 with the V12 Honda RA121E-engined McLaren MP4-6. At the end of ’92, however, with the active suspension Williams-Renault now dominant, Honda withdrew once again.

They were due to return with a chassis being tested by Jos Verstappen and developed by Harvey Postlethwaite in ’99 but the project was stillborn and Postlethwaite died shortly afterwards from a heart attack at a Barcelona test.

Again as engine suppliers only, Honda returned with British American Racing and Jordan, eventually buying out BAR in 04/5 and returning solely as the Honda Racing F1 Team in ’06. Jenson Button gave them a first win in nearly 40 years with the RA806 in a mixed-condition Hungarian GP, but the going was tough.

It got tougher still in 07-8 with no sign of a competitive car. Ross Brawn had been recruited, however, and early in a hopeless 08 season, the decision was taken to concentrate on next year’s car. During that time a Japanese aerodynamicist came up with the double diffuser that was key to the ’09 season. Suddenly though, in a shock announcement in December 08, with the worldwide recession taking hold, Honda pulled the plug. Button went on to win six of the first seven ‘09 races en route to the championship. Honda reputedly injected over £90m running budget to avoid having to close down the Brackley factory. The car though, ran as a Brawn and carried a Mercedes engine. If only they’d known…

September 10, 2014 0

THE ULTIMATE IN PHATNESS?

We’re not sure exactly what the racer in this picture is, but man alive, does it not want to make you go racing?

There’s something about the exposed mechanicity of the diff and the tubes and the pipes and the roll bar, crossed with the fat slicks and the way the shadoes of the sun fall on the grass – that makes this our favourite race car perspective.

If anyone can ident this car for for us, we would be truly, madly, deeply thankful.

September 10, 2014 0

BMW M3: THE EVOLUTION.

1986: E30
After completing its brief career in Formula 1, BMW’s Motorsport arm focused all its energy on touring car racing. The BMW M3 E30w was born. The first edition came with a 195 hp, four-cylinder 16-valve power unit. Right from the start the car was a success and in 1987 Italian driver Roberto Ravaglia won the World Touring Car Championship at the wheel of a BMW M3. In the following five years the M3 was the uncontested leader in the international touring car scene, bringing home two European Touring Car Championships and winning the DTM twice. But the M3 was, of course, an equally successful road-going car. Sales reached a heady volume of 17,970 units, including 600 units of the 2.5-litre M3 Sport Evolution version, as well as 765 hand-built convertibles.

1992: E36
The E36 M3, launched in 1992 was voted car of the year in Germany two years on the trot – and in France even gained the questionable moniker ‘car of the century’. Between 1992 and 1996 M-sport built more than 85 four-door racing 3 Series based on the E36 M3 GT, with Johnny Cecotto at the wheel winning the ADAC GT Championship in 1993, and next setting out to conquer the US motor-sport market. In 1995 the car received even more power – 321 hp from 3.2 litres, to be precise – and for the first time the M3’s grunt exceeded 100 hp per litre. Double variable timing was also used for the first time, as well as a six speed gearbox.

2000: E46
Making its debut in the year 2000 the E46 M3 turned up the gauge in all departments. 343 hp. 365 Nm. 5.2 seconds. And the design in turn reflected the increased attitude. One year later the M3 GTR lined up on the starting grid of the American Le Mans Series with a four-litre eight-cylinder under the bonnet for the first time. The racing car with the characteristic air scoops in the bonnet and the powerful rear aerofoil proved superior on the race tracks of the USA and won the Championship in the GT Class. 2003 saw the return of the CSL with its roof, centre console and door panels made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic. This lean beast was powered by an engine tuned to 360 hp, which gave it an astonishing Nürburgring lap time of 7.50. In 2003. All 1800 units were sold before they hit the forecourt.

2007 E90-series
For the E90, with that marmite design that put quite a few folk off, BMW went with an eight-cylinder engine for the first time in the coupé and the saloon launched shortly afterwards. The new V8 engine generated power of 420 hp from a displacement of 3,999 cubic centimetres. Around 85 percent of the maximum torque of 400Nm could be called up over the enormous rev range of 6,500 rpm. Power was transferred to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox and a completely new rear-axle differential. Particularly in the coupé, the design engineers once again used lightweight construction. The positive experiences with other M models led to the roof also being made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic and the engine bonnet was made of aluminium.

2014 BMW M3 / M4
Engine/Drivetrain

BMW has reverted to an inline six cylinder for the new M3 and M4. But unlike the S54 in the E46 M3, the new S55 is turbocharged. Based on the N55 six cylinder, the S55 utilizes VANOS and Valvetronic as well as gasoline direct injection in the cylinder heads. But unlike the N55′s twin-scroll single turbocharger, the S55 utilizes two turbochargers, one turbo per three cylinders. Given all of the heat the engine is capable of producing, BMW has taken great care in ensuring that it is properly controlled, especially knowing that the M3/M4s will see a lot of track time.
The S55 is set to deliver 431 HP and 406 lb-ft of torque. To ensure that nothing untoward happens on the bottom end the S55 employs a forged steel crankshaft. The torque developed by the S55 is fully available from 1,850 to 5,500 RPM which leads one to believe that the turbos selected for use on the S55 are slightly larger than the ones employed on the N54 motor of yore. Two tidbits worth considering are the huge increase in torque over the outgoing V8 and the approximately 25% increase in fuel economy of the S55 over the V8.
Attached to the S55 will be one of two available transmissions. A six speed manual with dry sump lubrication (forced oil feed rather than the gear-train sitting in a ‘splash bath’ of oil) is available. The six speed manual will have some software integration with the ECU in that it will blip the throttle on downshifts (rev-match engine RPM to road RPM). The available third generation M DCT seven speed transmission will offer launch control and stability clutch control. Stability clutch control is an interesting feature that disengages the clutch momentarily, invoking a whiff of power of oversteer when too much understeer is detected by the car’s electronics. Think of it as augmented stability control.

The power from the transmission is delivered to the Active M Differential, a multi-plate electronically collected limited slip differential, via a carbon fiber prop shaft. The carbon fiber shaft saves weight, provides more than adequate strength and reduces inertia in the drivetrain. Of course tying everything together is the software and electronics that monitor vehicle dynamics and intervene based on the requirements of the situation.
Suspension:
The M3/M4 utilize BMW’s proven double pivot strut front suspension and multi-link rear suspension. The front and rear suspensions utilize M specific aluminum components which are light weight and biased towards stiffness. The front suspension has additional stiffening in the form a CFRP strut brace, aluminum stiffening plate, and additional connection points between the sub-frame and the chassis. The downside of the additional stiffening may be additional harshness but the responsiveness gained is beneficial. The suspension features the M Adaptive suspension settings of Comfort, Sport, and Sport +.

Another benefit of the additional stiffening may be an acceptable level of feedback for the electrically-assisted power steering (EPS), which BMW M employs for the first time. It will be interesting to read the reviews of the steering gear to determine how much ‘feedback’ the EPS provides. Since the EPS utilizes software to control its responses, different settings can be utilized ‘on the fly’. The EPS will have Comfort, Sport, and Sport + settings, and the hope is that most drivers will leave it in Sport +.

Regarding the use of EPS however, one would think that BMW would not deploy EPS in this critical set of M cars if they weren’t confident that they had achieved a level of feedback M drivers expect. Braking is provided by M compound brakes and optional M carbon ceramic brakes (with gold brake rotors).

Electronics

There is a good deal of integration between drivetrain and chassis, especially if the M DCT transmission is specified. In addition there is a BMW M Laptimer app available for the driver’s smartphone than we connected via USB cable or the optional phone cradle can record lap data and playback the data graphically on the smartphone’s screen. AN optional heads-up display is also available and it too contains M specific functionality.

The M3/M4 exhibit a degree of technological capability/creativity that were unimaginable when the original M3 was conceived. For better or worse the tight integration of mechanical systems with electronics (and lines and lines of software code) make the new M3/M4 what it is.