原文標(biāo)題：

Inside the engineering challenge of getting BTCC hybrid-ready

原文鏈接：https://www.autosport.com/btcc/news/inside-the-engineering-challenge-of-getting-btcc-hybrid-ready/10334482/

作者：John Waterman

原文發(fā)布時間：2022.6.8

翻譯/封面：ApexNova

（由于譯者外語水平/專業(yè)知識不過關(guān)+常態(tài)化放飛自我式翻譯，本文采用中英雙語對照格式）

As well as race engineering four-time British Touring Car Championship-winner Colin Turkington, John Waterman led West Surrey Racing's work on implementing the hybrid system into its BMW 330e M Sport. As he explains, there's much more to it than simply plug-and-play...

除了擔(dān)任四屆BTCC冠軍Colin Turkington的比賽工程師，John Waterman還領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了West Surrey Racing將混合動力系統(tǒng)落實到寶馬330e M Sport賽車中的工作。正如他所解釋的那樣，這套系統(tǒng)遠非“即插即用”那么簡單…

Developing a car for the hybrid era of the British Touring Car Championship has been a challenging but satisfying job.

為BTCC的混合動力時代開發(fā)一臺賽車，是一項極具挑戰(zhàn)性但又令人滿意的工作。

We introduced the new 3 Series BMW for 2019, and were thinking of changing the cooling package at the end of 2020, ready for 2021, but when the hybrid was announced we thought if we do it then, we’d have to do it again for the hybrid. So, we kept the car as it was, and then hybrid gave us a new project to take to BMW for 2022.

我們在2019年推出了新的寶馬3系賽車，并考慮過在2020年年底修改它的冷卻套件，為2021年的比賽做好準(zhǔn)備。但當(dāng)這項賽事宣布將使用混合動力時，我們認為如果我們執(zhí)行了那次修改，就需要為了混合動力賽車而重復(fù)一遍相同的工作。因此，我們讓賽車保持了原樣，將混合動力作為一個2022年的新項目交給了寶馬。

I represent WSR on the BTCC’s Technical Working Group, and we’d already started having meetings about hybrid in early 2020, so started to thrash out positions for hybrid-related components with Cosworth and TOCA for front and rear-wheel-drive cars. We were talking about it for a good year or so before we even started designing parts for the 330e M Sport.

我代表WSR參與了BTCC的技術(shù)工作組，而我們在2020年的早些時候已經(jīng)就混合動力召開過會議。因此，我們開始和Cosworth以及TOCA就關(guān)于用于前/后輪驅(qū)動賽車的混合動力部件展開了探討。在開始為330e M Sport賽車設(shè)計零部件之前，我們已經(jīng)就此事情討論了將近一年的時間。

The first thing that had to change was the bellhousing, because unlike front-wheel drive, which have a modified Xtrac casing to take the hybrid motor on the outside of the casing, we were putting it in line with the gearbox, so it was a new Xtrac casing for us, and a new bellhousing because of that.

首先必須被修改的是變速箱外殼，因為和前驅(qū)賽車不同的是，他們有一個定制的Xtrac護罩，允許在保護罩的外側(cè)安裝混動系統(tǒng)的電機。而我們要將電機和變速箱結(jié)合到一起，所以我們需要一個新的Xtrac護罩，因此還需要一個新的變速箱外殼。

Battery position between front and rear-wheel drive was down to TOCA, who did C of G calculations to tell us where we were going to put it. Unfortunately for us, this pushed the battery for rear-wheel drive as far forward as it could go. So, I had to do a lot of toing and froing when the initial schemes came out, and eventually we got them to turn the battery around – it was supposed to be facing the other way, but the control unit (MCU) was going to be in our engine bay!

前驅(qū)及后驅(qū)賽車的電池組安放位置是由TOCA決定的，他們做了COG計算來告訴我們該把電池放在哪。但不幸的是，這套方案將后驅(qū)賽車的電池組朝前推到了非常極限的位置。因此，當(dāng)初版方案發(fā)布時，我不得不做了很多工作，最終我們讓他們調(diào)轉(zhuǎn)了電池的方向——它應(yīng)該朝向另一面，但是控制單元（MCU）被扔進了我們的發(fā)動機艙！

Because that meant some of the weight came backwards, they had to compensate for front-wheel drive, so now front-wheel drive has a maximum rearward and minimum forward position whereas RWD has just one position. But that’s the way it goes!

因為這些方案意味著一些負重會向后放置，所以他們不得不對前驅(qū)賽車作出一些補償，所以現(xiàn)在的前驅(qū)賽車在后方有著很大的調(diào)整空間而前方的很小，后驅(qū)賽車則只能在一個方向上作出改變。但事情的發(fā)展就該是這樣！

We didn’t get the hybrid kit until late February, but up until then we had all the drawings from Cosworth, we knew the position the battery had to be, so basically, I just designed all the bracketry to hold it in place in the passenger footwell where it had to go, and all the other stuff that goes with it.

我們在二月的晚些時候才拿到混合動力套件，但在那之前我們有來自Cosworth的圖紙，知道該把電池裝在哪里。所以我基本上只是設(shè)計了所有的支架來將它們固定到副駕駛的地板上——這是它應(yīng)該在的位置，而其他的附件也被放在了一塊。

We had to move electrical boxes, so had to redesign trays to make the boxes stack – we don’t usually have them stacking, but we were running out of room basically. It was a packaging exercise more than anything. We used EY3 Engineering to assist with the front bumper surfacing that incorporated the ducts for the LTRs, which are situated under each headlight, one for ESS battery cooling and one for the EV motor and MCU.

我們移動了接線盒的位置，所以不得不重新設(shè)計了托盤以讓它們堆疊起來——我們通常不會讓它們堆疊，但我們也騰不出更多空間了。相比于其他事情，這最像是一個打包的工作。我們讓EY3 Engineering來協(xié)助設(shè)計前保險杠表面的冷卻管道入口——就是頭燈下方的那些，其中一條負責(zé)電池的冷卻，另一個則通向電動機和MCU。

There was a rear-wheel-drive hybrid test car – the Ciceley Motorsport 1 Series BMW, built and supplied by WSR. But as Cosworth ran the test, you weren’t allowed to look at any data, and they had their own drivers. They didn’t run anywhere near enough kilometres and what running they did do was in winter temperatures, so there have been some problems this season.

我們擁有一輛后輪驅(qū)動的混合動力測試車——Ciceley Motorsport的寶馬1系，由WSR制造并提供，但測試工作是Cosworth來負責(zé)，你不被允許觀測任何數(shù)據(jù)，他們也有著自己的車手。而他們的測試?yán)锍虜?shù)并不夠，并且還是在冬季的低溫中行駛，所以在本賽季中出現(xiàn)了一些問題。

Basically, the EV motor was designed to be shared between all the cars like a common part, as TOCA parts are, and the bracketry for it was just holding the motor in line with the gearbox on a transverse engine. For the rear-wheel-drive because we’re in-line, it turns the motor 90 degrees so now that little bracket was trying to stop the motor going backwards and forwards under braking and acceleration. And then coupled with some early tolerancing issues, the whole unit would flex.

電動機在大體上被設(shè)計為可以在所有的賽車之間共用，就像TOCA的零件那樣，它的支架只是為了讓電機與橫置發(fā)動機的變速箱之間保持穩(wěn)定的連接。而對于后驅(qū)賽車而言，因為我們使用的是直列式布局，發(fā)動機旋轉(zhuǎn)了90度，所以那個支架還要在加速或者制動時阻止發(fā)動機的位移。加上一些早期存在的公差問題，使得整個裝置發(fā)生了彎曲。

These issues became apparent when we started running at the first round and I had to quickly come up with a solution to support the bracket better, to stop everything flexing. The brace I designed was also supplied, in principle, for the Infiniti.

當(dāng)我們開始第一輪比賽的時候，這些問題就變得非常明顯。我不得不迅速想出一個解決方案來提高支架的強度，以防止任何彎曲現(xiàn)象。原則上，我設(shè)計的這些支架也會提供給英菲尼迪。

From the first race event it also became apparent the gear teeth that drive the EV motor were not up to the loads being experienced. At Thruxton the gears in RWD cars suffered with cracked idler gear teeth. The drivers had no hybrid deployment during races. Since then, Xtrac responded very quickly and improved the design and material to eliminate any further issues.

從第一場比賽開始，電動機齒輪上的齒也明顯不能勝任所要承受的負載。在Thruxton，后驅(qū)賽車上的齒輪空轉(zhuǎn)時，齒發(fā)生了開裂。這讓車手在比賽期間失去了混動系統(tǒng)的協(xié)助。從那時起，Xtrac迅速作出反應(yīng)并在設(shè)計和材料方面進行了改進，消除了更多的問題。

There’s also been an issue with heat-soak to the EV motor when the car’s in the garage. So we’ve used the driver fan to duct air into that area on the motor, which seems to have worked out OK so far. The drivers are now cooled via a hose from a NACA duct in the rear window.

還有一個問題是，當(dāng)賽車在車庫中時，電機會發(fā)生“熱浸”現(xiàn)象。因此，我們使用了車手位置的風(fēng)扇將空氣引導(dǎo)至電機所在的位置，這招到目前為止還比較管用?，F(xiàn)在，車手通過后窗NACA管道上設(shè)置的軟管進行降溫。

We not only did the hybrid this year, but we also repackaged the intercooler, radiator and their cooling ducts for better airflow under the bonnet. We’ve got louvres in the bonnets now; it’s all to do with airflow to keep the charge temperature down because we were suffering in races with it getting hot when we were up behind cars. I think that, plus a little bit of aero work that we’ve done, has been another step forward for the car. It’s been worth all the extra work over the winter.

今年，我們不止做了混合動力系統(tǒng)，而且還為中冷器、散熱器以及它們的冷卻管道重制了外包裝，讓引擎蓋之下的空氣流動更加順暢。我們現(xiàn)在還在引擎蓋上開出了百葉窗，以保持氣流順暢來持久地降低進氣的溫度，因為我們苦惱于在比賽中跟車時發(fā)生的溫度上升現(xiàn)象。我認為關(guān)于這一點，再加上我們所做的一點空氣動力學(xué)改進，對于賽車來說是又一個進步。這讓這個冬天的所有額外工作都是值得的。

Now I just wish we could get back the boost we are supposed to have so we can show our true performance this year.

現(xiàn)在，我只希望我們能找回我們本應(yīng)擁有的性能，這樣我們就能在今年展示自己的真正實力。

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