Off-Road racing, motorsport and curb the carbon footprint
We at Puro Off-Road believe that off-road racing – just like any other motor sport – and commitments to becoming more environmentally efficient can get along very well. Pressure from sponsors, who are increasingly keen to be associated with a “greener” product will eventually rise since they realize it will be hard to maintain a general “clean” profile while supporting notoriously gas-guzzling monsters while there are alternatives. Alternatives that provide the excitement and spectacle of the sport as much as covering energy efficiency and master technical challenges. Following a report from FOTA. Given the challenges of off-road racing the time span to apply such measurements may be somewhat longer yet it could be also applicable.
The notoriously gas-guzzling sport of Formula One is on track to curb its carbon footprint. The Formula One Teams Association is unveiling an analysis that projects emissions cut of 15% in three years. Fota says the sport is the first to have a comprehensive and externally audited carbon reduction program. Further ambitions may include a doubling of energy efficiency in engines, which manufacturers hope would feed through into road cars.
The audit has been carried out by the consultancy Trucost, whose chief operating officer Richard Mattison told BBC News: “We’ve been able to analyze all drivers of carbon emissions, from logistics right down to the engines themselves. “There’s a lot of data in teams – more so than in most businesses – and we were able to analyze it and see how and where they were going to make reductions.” Running cars’ engines in races and testing accounts for less than 1% of the sport’s emissions, even though the cars run at less than five miles per gallon.
About half of the emissions are associated with items the teams buy in; other major sources are the transport that takes teams and equipment from race to race, and electricity, large slices of which are consumed by wind tunnels.
New opportunities
Formula One’s regular cost-cutting programs include some measures that will also reduce carbon emissions; and Trucost calculates that plans already in place will cut emissions by about 15% from 2009 levels by 2012.
“With the support of all its member teams, Fota has… undertaken to maintain continuous and independent analysis and assessment in order to ensure that these carbon emissions reduction targets are met or bettered, and to investigate where further carbon emissions reduction opportunities may exist,” said Martin Whitmarsh, Fota chairman and team principal of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
“In addition, the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the sport’s governing body) and Fota are already working together to tailor the 2013 technical regulations to ensuring that all engines and power-trains used in Formula One by that date will showcase, and provide a platform for the ongoing development of, technologies designed to enhance fuel efficiency.”
One option the FIA and engine manufacturers are considering from 2013 is increasing engine efficiency through limiting the amount of fuel that each car can use.
Currently, each car will burn about 160kg of petrol in an average race in its 2.4 liter normally-aspirated V8 engine. Under this scenario, engines would be made much smaller – about 1.5 liters, in either a straight 4-cylinder or V6 configuration – and turbocharged.
Then the amount of fuel allotted to each car would be progressively decreased over successive seasons, perhaps down to about 80kg within five years, with manufacturers aiming to hold power output at current levels – which would imply a virtual doubling of energy efficiency from today’s standard.
Backers point out that if this sort of design improvement materialized and was fed back into road cars, it could make curbing vehicle emissions significantly easier. Meanwhile, emissions associated with traveling around the world from race to race could be tackled by rationalizing the race calendar, with better co-ordination of segments of the season in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
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This post was compiled by Memin Pinguin
