Basics of a Sliding Mesh Gearbox

The sliding mesh gearbox was used in early road vehicles (pre 1930’s) but was problematic (gear clash issues due to the sliding engagement of spur gears rotating at different speeds)

Sliding Mesh Gearbox Diagrams:

Text soon to be updated...

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How to Change Your Shock Absorbers

Shock absorbers are there to ensure handling ride comfort in cars. They are effectively dampers which lessen the effect of the bounce experienced when a car hits a lump or object in the road, it is and important part of the automotive system; when they become worn the lack of damping can damage some of the components in the car. It can also lower the MPG rate and efficiency of your car, costing you a fair bit in petrol in the long run, not to mention the extra adverse effects to our enviroment. Luckily, the process for changing them is fairly simple for a relatively knowledgable person and is exactly the same for left and right shock absorbers, so here is a simple step by step guide:

1. Prepare the car:
Park your car on a level surface and jack up the car, make sure you place the jacks against the frame of the car and not the suspension system, prolonged periods of holding the cars weight can damage the system. Ensure you place wedges behind your rear wheels to prevent the car from moving, loosen you wheel nuts and remove the wheel.

2. Removing the old shock absorbers
locate the lower attachment bolts and or screws of the shock absorber (consult your car handbook if in doubt to which ones), Remove them whilst clamping the shock absorber piston rod in a vice grip. Using a wrench or other tool, remove the upper attachment bolts/screws, your shocks are now removed from the car, remove it carefully.

3. Replace worn parts (bushings and grommets)
The key things to replace is the grommets and rubber bushings. Get the first grommet and put it concave side down onto the shock absorber piston rod. Then, slide the rubber bushing onto the piston rod, moving it down so it is in contact with the convex side of the grommet. Put a second grommet onto the shock absorber piston rod, sliding it down (convex side down) so it sits snuggly to the bushing. If there is a plastic strip around the shock absorber, remove it.

4.Installing the new shock absorber
Place your new shock between the upper and lower suspension arms, pushing the shock absorber piston rod through the hole in the upper suspension arm, tighten the upper fixing nut. Compress the shock slowly, until it lines up with the lower mounting holes on the shock and the suspension arm. Insert the lower bolt through the bottom mounting holes and the bottom of the shock absorber and tighten.

That's it!
Now all you have to do is replace your wheel and lower the car from its jacks!

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Lotus Renault Vs Lotus Renault

There will be two teams bearing the Lotus name in Formula 1 next year.

One, following Wednesday's announcement of Lotus Cars' decision to sponsor and eventually buy into what was the Renault team, will be called Lotus Renault. That team will be part-owned by Lotus Cars but their F1 cars will be called Renaults and will use Renault engines.

The other will be called Team Lotus. This one has nothing to do with Lotus Cars (any more - but we'll come back to that in a moment) but their F1 car will be called a Lotus. They will also use, er, Renault engines.

Both teams, it transpires, plan to run their cars in variations of a black and gold livery. This is an attempt to hark back to the historic John Player Special livery made famous by the original Team Lotus in the 1970s and 1980s through great drivers such as Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Ronnie Peterson, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna, and era-defining cars like the Lotus 72 and 79.

It's a commentator's - and journalist's - nightmare and one can only begin to imagine the confusion it will create for those watching.

So what on earth is going on?

The story starts in 2009, when Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes obtained a multi-year licence from Lotus Cars to use the Lotus name in F1, having persuaded the Malaysian-owned company that an involvement in grand prix racing would be a valuable promotional tool.

Lotus Racing were one of three new teams in F1 in 2010, the others being Virgin and Hispania. All three spent the year close to the back of the grid, but Lotus did establish themselves as convincingly the most competitive. 

In the course of the year, though, Group Lotus's approach to F1 changed, as part of a hugely ambitious refocusing of the company's future plans by chief executive officer Dany Bahar, who formerly worked in the commercial arms of Red Bull F1 and Ferrari.
Bahar, it transpires, was never keen on Lotus granting the licence to Fernandes, and it has become clear through 2010 why - he wanted to take the brand into F1 himself, but in a different way, through an involvement with an established team.
At the Paris Motor Show in October, Bahar announced plans for five new road-car models, expanding Lotus's range by nearly 200%, and has since said Lotus will enter IndyCar racing in the US and race at Le Mans. And now comes a major sponsorship deal with what used to be the Renault F1 team which will, at an undefined point in the future, morph into Lotus part-owning that team.
Fernandes, meanwhile, struck a deal in September to buy the rights to the Team Lotus name from David Hunt, brother of 1976 world champion James. Hunt had bought them when the original Team Lotus collapsed in 1994 after racing in F1 since 1958, during which time it had established itself as one of the sport's most iconic names.
Fernandes' success in buying the name - exclusively revealed by BBC Sport - marked the point at which what had until then been a private dispute between him and Lotus Cars - which is owned by the Malaysian company Proton - broke out into the open.
Following Fernandes's acquisition of the Team Lotus name, Group Lotus claimed that it owned all the rights to the Lotus name - a point of view robustly disputed by Hunt, who points out that Proton have several times tried to buy the Team Lotus name from him without ever being able to conclude a deal.
The dispute got so heated that former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir bin Mohamad stepped in to mediate, but he succeeded only in stopping the ping-pong of press releases. The dispute is now going to the High Court - and it is unlikely to be resolved until next year.

But the disagreement over the ownership of Team Lotus is only one of two ongoing legal cases between Lotus Cars and Fernandes. In the other, Fernandes is suing Lotus Cars for breach of contract over its withdrawal of the licence to use the Lotus name in F1.
That, too, is not expected to be resolved until some time next year.
Both sides, then, have got themselves into a bit of a pickle.
Lotus Cars has struck a deal to promote its brand in F1 through a team that is knocking on the door of breaking into the top three - and which, in Robert Kubica, has one of the finest drivers on the grid.
But it is doing so with a car that is called a Renault - and there is no way out of that one.
Lotus and the team's majority shareholder, the private investment group Genii Capital, cannot change the constructor name assigned to their team because if they do so without the permission of all the other teams they will lose the millions the team earns through Renault's historic achievements in F1, which date back to their entry in 1977.
And guess which team would not agree?
Fernandes, meanwhile, faces the prospect of his team giving free publicity to a company with which he is in two separate legal disputes. And even if he changed the name of the team to something else, his cars would still be called Lotuses.
It is an unsatisfactory situation for all involved - the efforts of both parties will be diluted by a dispute that, for those watching, will create only confusion.
Fernandes is understood to be increasingly confident that he will win the court case over the Team Lotus name. Lotus Cars, for its part, appears not to be overly concerned about the existence of a second team diluting its brand. Their view is that only one of the teams is affiliated with Lotus, and the other one is providing free advertising for it.
In the meantime, questions hang in the air.
Is the end game for Fernandes to sell the Team Lotus brand to Lotus Cars if he succeeds in establishing that he owns it? Can Lotus - and its parent company Proton - sustain such an ambitious programme? And so on.
In the murk, only one thing seems clear - this is only the latest stage in a story that will rumble on for some time to come.

This is an excerpt from Andrew Bensons blog on the BBC site, the full article can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/12/lotus_v_lotus.html 

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About Me, My Degree and Motorsport Zone

Name: Adam Feneley

Born: Leicester, England

Currently Residing: London, England

Job: Realization Engineer at BMW Plant Oxford (Now back at University)

Study: Brunel University, London, England

Degree: Masters of Engineering (MEng) Motorsport Engineering

Biography:

I was born in Leicester, England in October 1990 and have spent most of my life living in Nottinghamshire. I attended college in Bingham, Nottinghamshire and achieved A levels in Mathematics (A), Physics (A) and Economics (B). My interest in engineering stems from a rich family history in the area, both of my great grandfathers were great engineers of their day, my grandfather himself was a draughtsman and my father a designer.

My mother’s grandfather, Samuel Lee, was an engineer at the birth of the partnership of Rolls and Royce. In the early 1900's he was the chief engineer to Henry Royce before and after the merger with Charles Rolls.

Rolls was introduced to Henry Royce by a friend at the Automobile Club, Henry Edmunds, who was also a director of Royce Ltd. Edmunds showed him Royce's car and arranged the historic meeting between Rolls and Royce at the Midland Hotel, Manchester on 4 May 1904. In spite of his preference for three or four cylinder cars, Rolls was impressed with the two-cylinder Royce 10 and in a subsequent agreement of 23 December 1904 agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. These would be of two, three, four and six cylinders and would be badged as Rolls-Royces.

My Fathers grandfather was a senior engineer during the First World War. He was part of the team that designer the Mark I Tank, he was himself credited for solving the problematic design of the fuel delivery system on the first vehicle in the world to be called a tank. A golden tank trophy stands in Lincoln stone bow bearing his name, in memory of his efforts and achievements during the war. With this type of history in my family i found it very difficult in not pursuing further education and hopefully a future career in the industry.

I applied through UCAS for my course at Brunel University, my first and second choice were both at Brunel, as soon as i came on the open day i knew this was the place i wanted to sit my degree. Looking back my first year was relatively simple. Universities seem to use this as a way to benchmark students; assuring that everyone is capable, and on a level-playing field for when the real hard work begins in the second year. Despite this we took part in a great deal of worthwhile projects during year one; the highlight of which were the technical drawing and engines laboratories.

I was proud of my grades in the first year and have attained 4 A+'s, 1 A- and 1 B+ in my six modules. Going into my second year i had 5 modules to sit, currently halfway through the year here is a brief overview of each one and what is involved:

Principles of Vehicle Design:
One of my favourite modules so far this year, lectures focus on design considerations for different systems in a car. We have currently covered topics of powertrain and transmission and will be moving on to the lesser systems after the Christmas break. Within this module is a very exciting project in which we are taking part in feasibility study for a zero emission single seat racing car, for the Formula Zero Competition (an article on this can be found in the ‘formula zero’ category found on the right sidebar of this webpage). I have been studying various books on steering systems and contacting various hydrogen fuel cell companies, as the Hydrogen systems and the steering geometry are my areas to focus upon.
Along side this project another piece of coursework involves us organising a conference for Brunel Motorsport alumni, which appears to be a bit of a tall order been as the last one (which was organised by the university board – not students) attracted guest speakers in the likes of Ross Brawn and Frank Williams. I will be immensely impressed if our group manages to achieve anything close to this!

Professional Engineering Applications and Practice:In this module we have already taken part in a CAD tutorial using Siemens (more popularly known as Unigraphics) NX version 7.5. I completed a piece of coursework, which comprised of making a part from scratch providing machine drawings for its parts, exploded views, motion simulation and various competency exercise to prove our ability with the software. We also have various lectures in the module centring on business, engineering and professional practices.
The secondary major project for this module is to produce a presentation to be performed in front of members of industry on a chosen company. Our company is Jaguar Land Rover; we have yet to build our slide show for this yet so I will update this as the project comes along.

Solid Body Mechanics:Solid body mechanics is all about how solids react to forces and loads, whether solids are stationary (statics) or moving (dynamics). It has additional element to the ‘fundamentals of…’ course that I took last year in that we take part in statics and vibrational laboratories. We have so far done the statics lab in which we did three different experiments with pressure vessels, torsion, tension, shear and strain. I am currently in the process of writing up the lab report for these as they are due in January.

Thermofluids:This module is another continuation on the fundamentals of…’ course that I took in the first year, but the principles have become more complex and we are covering the second law of thermodynamics in far more detail. We also have labs in this topic, both fluids and thermo; the labs have included a study of refrigerant systems (vapour compression cycle), gas turbines (jet engines), compressible flow (including supersonic shockwaves exiting a nozzle) and high-speed air jets.

Analytical Methods, Control and Instrumentation:Analytical methods is a module which is basically a combination of computational mathematics and control engineering. So far we have only covered the control, which included a control lab in which we studied the systems governing a servo system with and without tacho feedback. But after Christmas we move on to a more in depth study of Matlab and have an assignment using it as we did in year one.

Aside from all of this work I have a years industrial placement to sort out by Christmas so It has been a busy old year! So far I have applied to Williams F1, Mercedes High Performance Engines, Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and am currently in the process of filling in forms for Xtrac and Bentley. So wish me luck! Interviews will be after Christmas…

This completes my about me section for now! If you have any questions about projects or the site in general please contact me using the contact me link at the top of the site!

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F1 to go green from 2013

Formula 1 stakeholders have reached an agreement for grand prix cars to use a new type of 'green' engine from 2013.

The sport will switch from the current 2.4-litre V8s to 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo engines with energy recovery systems and fuel restrictions.

The move is an attempt to mirror the trend towards fuel-efficiency in road cars and to popularise it, increasing public demand for such engines.

The new rules could be confirmed by governing body the FIA on 10 December.

Mercedes and Ferrari had been reluctant to agree to the move as recently as a month ago, believing that it was an unnecessary expense at a time when F1 was trying to reduce costs.

But a spokesman for Ferrari told BBC Sport the rules had been agreed and he would be "surprised" if it was not announced by the world council.

He admitted Ferrari had concerns about the move on cost grounds but added: "An agreement is there, and when there is an agreement you work accordingly."

A high-level source involved in the talks said it was "most likely" that the FIA would announce the move on Friday.

Why should we change to something that is going to cost millions of pounds and that nobody wants and that could end up with one manufacturer getting a big advantage?

Bernie Ecclestone

The aim is for the new rules to improve the efficiency of F1 engines by as much as 50%.

Care has been taken to ensure the performance of cars will not be affected and total power outputs will remain at current levels - approximately 750bhp.

By adopting the regulations, F1 hopes to widen its appeal to sponsors - commercial insiders say some companies are reluctant to get involved in F1 because of its image of being wasteful with resources.

The agreement to change the regulations from the 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8s used in F1 since 2006 comes after months of protracted negotiations and it had looked as if the switch might have to be delayed until at least 2014, or perhaps until as long as 2017.

F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone has been firmly opposed to the rule change.

He told BBC Sport: "We have a very good engine formula. Why should we change it to something that is going to cost millions of pounds and that nobody wants and that could end up with one manufacturer getting a big advantage?"

But the change has been agreed in a series of recent meetings between F1's current engine manufacturers - which also include Renault and private company Cosworth - and the final touches were put to the regulations by a steering group of F1 engineers on Thursday.

F1 ENGINE RULES FROM 2013
1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbos with energy recovery and fuel restrictions to replace current 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8s
Fuel efficiency to increase by a target of 50%
Overall power to remain same at approx 750bhp
Checks and balances to ensure costs are contained and performance across all engines remains comparable
Plan for advanced 'compound' turbos to be introduced in subsequent years
Power of Kers energy recovery systems to increase from 60kw in 2011 to 120kw in 2013

It is understood that a series of checks and balances have been written into the regulations to keep costs down and to ensure it should be impossible for one manufacturer to steal a march on the others in terms of performance.

This will primarily be done through resource restriction - such as limiting the amount of people or time that can be devoted to a project.

German car giant Volkswagen has also been heavily involved in the discussions and has privately indicated to F1 insiders that the only way it would consider entering F1 would be if the sport adopted these new rules.

However, sources say VW is giving conflicting messages about whether it will commit to an F1 engine project. If it did enter the sport, it is expected to use its Audi brand.

BBC Sport has been told the regulations will go before the F1 Commission - a group of stakeholders that agrees all rule changes - on Thursday 9 December before being rubber-stamped by the World Council the following day.

The move is a triumph for both F1 teams' organisation Fota and FIA president Jean Todt, both of whom have made increasing the future sustainability of F1 a key aim.

Leading figures in F1 hope that the adoption of the new rules will insulate the sport from charges of wastefulness at a time when supplies of fossil fuels are diminishing and there is pressure for the world to cut its production of greenhouse gases.
Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prx
The sun is setting on the era of big-capacity normally aspirated F1 engines

The aim is that by associating these energy-saving, fuel-efficient technologies with a glamorous and popular sport, they will become desirable in road cars, where their use is already increasing dramatically.

About 600bhp of the 750bhp produced by the engines will come from the four-cylinder single-turbo engine itself, with the rest being provided by energy storage and power-boost systems.

These systems - known as Kers - were first used in F1 in 2009 before being abandoned for 2010 and are being reintroduced next season.

For 2013, the power capacity of the Kers systems will be increased from 60kw to 120kw.

ANDREW BENSON'S BLOG
F1 is hoping it can insulate itself against accusations it is an irrelevant waste of resources and speed up the adoption of these technologies in road cars

Fuel consumption will be restricted both by limiting fuel flow and introducing a maximum capacity for races.

The new engines will not do more than 10,000 revs per minute - current F1 engines spin at 18,000rpm.

In subsequent years, complex new turbocharging technology called compounding will be introduced to further enhance efficiency.

The regulations have been framed to encourage the pursuit of efficiency in engine design, dramatically increasing the amount of power that can be produced per litre of fuel burnt.

Those lessons in efficiency can then be transferred to road cars so that considerably less fuel is used for a given amount of performance.

The FIA was unavailable for comment.

(Story from the BBC website, no copyright infringement intended.)

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