F1 is about to revolutionize the world’s cars forever.
Did you know that 80% of the gas you buy is just exhausted
as heat during combustion? That means in the U.K. where gas price average at
$9.45 per gallon $7.56 just ends up heating the air around you. That means out of the 1 trillion estimated
barrels of oil we’ve used over the course of history, and if theoretically all
of them were put into cars, that would leave 800 Billion barrels ending up as
nothing but heat. What you might be even more surprised to know is that the
maximum efficiency is supposedly 30% for internal combustion engines and around
45% for hybrids. Electric motors don’t have that issue, but it’s really
difficult to store enough energy because it takes up so much space and weight,
making it less useful than it could be. Why
am I talking about this? Well because Formula 1 has found a solution.
It’s odd to think that car manufacturers haven’t been
working on solving this dynamic flaw in the genes of cars themselves. Maybe
they just haven’t been able to develop the technology yet, I don’t know, I’m
not car manufacturer, but it seems like such a big problem with such little
attention. However the F1 world doesn’t play like that, we take every single
advantage possible (except the color of
the car, yet). TERS, otherwise known as HERS, A.K.A WHRS, sometimes referred to
as… ok you get the idea, there really
isn’t much unison on the name of the new tech yet, but I’ll call it HERS
because that’s the most F1 related name (KERS).
How close is HERS to coming to engines near you? Very.
Unfortunately I cannot explain the technology without running you through a
whole recap of high school physics, and even then, I can’t access that
information. Either way though, there is a French company working on it as I
write this. Their goal is about 400 Euros for the product and 10kW recovered. To
put that in perspective, with 1 single kW, you could talk for 15 straight days on your
cellphone. It also translates to an extra 13.4 horsepower (A number that seems to make Maldonado happy for some reason). Seems slim, but that would drop 9.29 seconds per lap, the difference between 1st
and 14th on the 2013 Brazil grid. Don’t expect it soon in your own
car but TERS… err WHR… or maybe HRS? Regardless of what it’s called, it will be
in F1 soon, it’s more eco friendly and makes things a lot faster, what’s there
to lose?
Heat 2 power: http://www.heat2power.net/en__markets_racing.php
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