PDF RICARDO QUARTERLYREVIEW helps make the A8 smooth and silent ...

[Pages:28]Q3, 2006

RICARDO QUARTERLYREVIEW

Cutting clean

Ricardo develops technology to keep the two-stroke clean

Optimised Audi

Exhaust simulation using Ricardo WAVE helps make the A8 smooth and silent

Interviews

Shunsuke Fushiki,Toyota hybrid expert Mark Spain, Microsoft automotive

The hottest

HEMI?

Ricardo supports Chrysler on the engine programme behind the exciting SRT8 generation of high performance models

Contents

RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW Q3, 2006

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18

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14

news

04 Industry news

Diesel Audi wins Le Mans as Peugeot joins the fray; Toyota and Honda reveal their future plans; International Engine of the Year awards; Land Rover Freelander innovations

24 Ricardo news

New cross-axle Torque VectoringTMdemonstrator; Efficient-C launched; Ricardo explores collaboration on MotoGP with B3 Technologies; European software conference and engine training courses announced

questions and answers

06 Shunsuke Fushiki

Toyota's hybrid expert talks to Tony Lewin about the new strategic direction which will see two basic hybrid systems ? one for front drive platforms and the other for rear drive. Both of them will be full hybrids

22 Mark Spain

Microsoft's ambassador to the automotive industry is interested in providing systems for communication, entertainment and comfort ? but, as Tony Lewin finds out, not those which run the engine or steer the vehicle

features

08 The hottest HEMI?

From chief executive's vision to showroom in 26 months ? that was Chrysler's challenge in engineering this latest and hottest incarnation of its famed HEMI? V8. Jeremy Burne reports from Detroit on Ricardo's key role in this exciting programme

14 Two-stroke of genius

Two-stroke engines may be perfect for chainsaws, brushcutters and construction tools, but they are bad for the environment. Now, as Jesse Crosse reports, engineers at Ricardo have invented a new carburettor which cleans up the two-stroke's act ? and which costs almost nothing to incorporate

18 Optimising the Audi

When Audi installed a new 3.2 litre engine in its luxury A8 sedan it used Ricardo WAVE simulation to optimise an exhaust system that was both soothing and sporty ? and which improved both power and torque at the same time. Anthony Smith reports

RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW

Head office: Ricardo plc, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, BN43 5FG, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1273 455611

Ricardo contacts and locations: contacts RQ subscriptions: rq Sales enquiries: business.development@

Conceived and produced for Ricardo by: TwoTone Media Ltd Editor:Tony Lewin Contributors: Mark Roberts, Anthony Smith, Jeremy Burne, Jesse Crosse TwoTone Media Ltd contacts: Anthony Smith: AVSmith@ Tony Lewin: tonylewin@

Industry News

Diesel Audi wins Le Mans

T echnical historians marked an important landmark in June as two V12 diesel-fuelled Audi sports racing cars swept to a 1-3 victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours, the world's most gruelling motor race.

Just days before the start of the race PSA Peugeot Citroen had announced that it would be contesting the 2007 event, also with a diesel sports racer, firmly establishing the diesel engine as a powerplant for top-level racing as well as efficient road-going travel.

The 650 hp Audis were, on the team's admission, by far the fastest and most economical cars in the field and led from flag to flag, their ability to stay out longer before refuelling further reinforcing their advantage.

"Thanks to this stunning showing at Le Mans, we will succeed in persuading even more customers of the advantages of Audi TDI Power," said Audi chairman Prof. Dr Martin Winterkorn after the finish.

Peugeot will also be using V12 diesel

engines, also equipped with DPF particle filters, on its 2007 contender. Fr?d?ric Saint-Geours, Managing Director of Automobiles Peugeot, declared: "I hope this ambitious yet completely achievable project will provide us with a fresh opportunity to demonstrate our ability to win."

Technology showcase

The new Mercedes-Benz CL serves as the coup? version of the S-Class and incorporates the very latest in technologies such as a five-mode intelligent light system which automatically adjusts for the type of road, the speed and the ambient conditions. Also new are the PreSafe brakes to help avoid rear-end collisions: automatic braking is applied when the radar system picks up an impending collision, with full braking power applied as soon as the driver touches the pedal.

Peugeot announced its intention to field a diesel race car at the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours, just

days before Audi's diesel (below) won the 2006 event

US: fuel-saving pressure grows

California senator Dianne Feinstein last month pressed for sharp increases in the CAFE fuel consumption standards for cars and light trucks, calling for a 10 mpg improvement over 10 years. The change to the CAFE norms would be the biggest rise in their history, and would require cars to average 31.1 mpg by MY2009 and light trucks 23.6 mpg. While automakers complained the norms would be too expensive to apply, rising fuel prices appear to be prompting a change of outlook among consumers, with one-third of those surveyed by Consumer Reports saying they would consider swapping their SUV or large car for a more economical model. Half of this group said it would consider a hybrid, perhaps prompted by a growing groundswell of incentives from employers ? such as the $5000 offered to Google employees investing in a hybrid, or the $3000 available to workers at Bank of America.

News in brief

Koreans for quality Hyundai surprised commentators by overtaking Toyota to become north America's best-quality volume brand in the 2006 JD Power initial quality survey.

Formula One hybrids Grand Prix organisers are considering allowing hybrid energy recovery systems to be added to existing engines to add interest to F1 races and to encourage overtaking in races.

Ethanol helps hydrogen The increasing popularity of ethanol in the US could open up the way to hydrogen production: many of the processes are the same, says Larry Burns, GM head of R&D.

Marathon Mercedes 450,000 km in 26 days is the daunting target for 33 dieselpowered Mercedes E-Class cars as they set out from Paris to Beijing for the opening of AutoChina 2006 in November.

04 RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW ? Q3, 2006

Japan's giants outline their plans

In an unprecedented show of technical openness, both Toyota and Honda have outlined key elements of their engineering strategies to 2010 and beyond.

Both technological powerhouses are targeting significant reductions in CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts, and both are pursuing fuel cell vehicle development, with Honda promising to commercialise a model within three years.The design will be previewed this autumn.

Honda plans a 10 per cent reduction in its cars' fuel consumption between 2000 and 2010, as well as a similar cut in CO2 emitted per vehicle manufactured. Motorcycle and power product fuel consumption is targeted to fall twice as much.

A next-generation clean diesel will appear within three years, able to conform to the EPA's strictTier 2, Bin 5

emissions levels, and a clean V6 diesel will also be introduced. Honda will migrate hybrids into smaller cars and diesels into larger models.

A new dedicated hybrid will launch in 2009 at a price lower than that of the Civic Hybrid, currently north America's cheapest. It will be built at a rate of 200,000 a year, promising strong competition for Toyota, which will double its numbers of hybrids by 2010 and introduce plug-in models for even lower CO2 emissions.

Also by 2010, Toyota promises emissions 75 per cent below Japan's 2005 standards and 10 per cent better than that country's 2010 fuel efficiency stipulations.

Many of these gains will be achieved through an overhaul of the complete Toyota gasoline, diesel and transmission line-up, again by 2010, an example being this year's new 1.8 litre gasoline engine which gains 5 per cent in economy through ultra-light pistons and roller-rocker valvegear.

Next year, Toyota will introduce flexfuel vehicles to Brazil, able to run on up to 100 per cent ethanol, with bioethanol models for other markets.

RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW

The task of RQ is to highlight the latest thinking in automotive engineering and technology worldwide ? both within Ricardo and among other leading companies. By presenting an up-to-date mix of news, profiles and interviews with top business leaders we paint an interesting and exciting picture of R&D activity at a world-class automotive engineering services provider.

It is a formula that has certainly been a hit with the worldwide automotive community: in the five years since RQ was launched we have had to increase our print run to 14,000 copies to keep pace with the demand to read about Ricardo and its activities.

Client confidentiality is of the utmost importance to Ricardo, which means that we can only report on a small fraction of the work carried out by the company. So we are especially grateful to those Ricardo customers who have kindly agreed to co-operate with RQ and allow their programmes to be highlighted in print: without such help from customers it would not be possible to present such a fascinating insight into the way vehicles are conceived and developed.

Carry-over winners dominate engine awards

Only two new engines made it into the winners' enclosure in the 2006 International Engine of theYear awards. Nine of the twelve classes were taken by winners familiar from past years, such as the five-litre BMW V10 as overall Engine of theYear as well as Best Performance Engine.

Familiar, too, were the 3.2 litre Mseries BMW, taking its class for the sixth time,Toyota's Prius Hybrid, three years in a row as best for fuel economy, and Honda making it seven years on the trot for the Insight's tiny three-cylinder IMA hybrid.

The only fresh air came from Volkswagen, courtesy of the 1.4 litreTSi turbo-supercharged four cylinder as best new engine and best between 1.0 and 1.4 litres ? and Subaru for its turbocharged flat four, taking the 2.0 to 2.5 litre class.

Innovative driveline for new Freelander

The new Land Rover Freelander, the first to be built in Merseyside's award-winning Halewood plant, incorporates much engineering innovation despite being the brand's entry level model. The new 3.2 litre, transversely mounted i6 engine has its ancillaries gear-driven off the rear of the block to save underhood packaging width, while electronic control and hydraulic actuation of the Haldex centre coupling allows the fuel

efficiency of an on-demand 4x4 system at the same time as the pro-active safety benefits of a full-time set-up. Four driver-selectableTerrain Response programs control the parameters of the engine, transmission, steering and braking, while roll stability control is achieved through gyroscopic sensing which compares the rate of change of roll angle with the steered course.

CO2-neutral seats After bio fuels come bio fabrics. Honda has developed seating and interior trim materials derived from plants, leading to a potential saving of 50 kg of CO2 during the building of the car.

Hybrid milestones Just days afterToyota's cumulative global sales of its Prius hybrid topped the halfmillion mark, Europe celebrated 50,000Toyota hybrids: 41,000 Prius and 10,000 RX and GS.

Multifuel Michelin Both Volvo and General Motors claimed record prize hauls in the 2006 Michelin Bibendum Challenge for environmental vehicles. Winners included a Volvo able to run on five different fuels,

a flex-fuel V50 and a bi-fuel S60. GM's successes included the third-generation fuel-cell Hydrogen3, a Saab 9-5 BioPower, Saturn's hybrid Vue Green Line and a natural-gas Zafira that's about to go on sale.

Q3, 2006 ? RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW 05

RQ Interview ? Shunsuke Fushiki

Hybrids: cost down, choice up, volume up

Toyota is the world's leading manufacturer of hybrid vehicles and recently celebrated the 500,000th Prius. Tony Lewin spoke to Shunsuke Fushiki, group manager at the hybrid system management department, at the recent launch of the Lexus GS 450h, the world's first performance hybrid.

Toyota currently produces five different hybrid systems. Can that possibly be economic? Yes, it's true that we have five systems right now, but we're currently establishing what is the best solution based on our latest technologies. The THS2 and the Lexus Hybrid System are some of the best ones. It will narrow down in the future. For example, on the Japanese market we until recently had the Estima [Previa in Europe] hybrid with the CVT transmission: now it has been replaced by a completely new Estima hybrid that has changed to the THS2 system.

Is the THS2 system the same as in the US market Camry large sedan? Yes, it's exactly the same as in the Camry. So now we will try to use the advanced THS2 for all Toyota hybrid cars, and the Lexus Hybrid Systems for the GS and LS [large luxury sedans].

basically front wheel drive, so we use a version of theToyota system.

Your top-line Lexus LS600 seems to have a very different hybrid system, with mechanical four wheel drive, to that on the GS. Why is this? As far as their hybrid systems are concerned, the LS and GS are basically the same in the sense that they are both [fundamentally] rear wheel drive systems.The main difference is that we are using mechanical four wheel drive [on the larger LS] ? but it's basically the same technology. It needs to be four wheel drive because there is so much power and so much torque.

What about mild hybrid systems for volume cars like the Corolla? Our main target is to reduce the cost and also the

weight by using the THS2 system. We are thinking of not using mild hybrid systems at all: [instead] we will try to use a similar system to that on the current Prius. With R&D effort we can make it lighter and cheaper, but I'm not sure that we will use it for cars like the Corolla, at least not in the near future.

Could the Prius full hybrid system ever become cheap enough to put on a bigselling model like a Corolla or a Yaris? We will try to do this, yes. Our target for the near future is to have an advanced system which is lighter and cheaper.

Which is the biggest cost element in the current Prius system? Is it the battery? This is a confidential matter. It's difficult to say which is the most costly, but the battery could be among them.

What's the next big step on batteries? We're looking at different materials for the near future, such as lithium-ion or something like that. We're also trying to find something similar [to today's Ni-MH] batteries but lighter and with the same amount of power. We're doing a lot of R&D.

Where do you stand on lithium-ion, for instance? Is it still too expensive? I cannot comment on the cost side: our main R&D effort right now is geared to matching these newmaterial batteries to several different types of environmental conditions. We already know that our current Ni-MH batteries can work in almost any situation from ?30 to +40 Celsius. We're still trying to develop solutions

So will the Lexus Hybrid Systems be for rear wheel drive applications, and the Toyota system for front drive? Basically, yes. But we do have the Lexus RX model (luxury SUV) that is

Toyota group's latest hybrid is the performance-orientated rear wheel drive Lexus GS450h (right)

06 RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW ? Q3, 2006

"Between the first-generation Prius and the current model we were able to reduce the cost of the complete hybrid system by about 30 per cent: our next target is going to be much lower still"

to be able to work in the same environmental conditions with the other battery materials which have more power and also charging and discharging advantages. That's our main issue right now.

Which suppliers are you collaborating with? It's a joint venture with Panasonic for the batteries, but we make our electric motors in-house.

Is that a new capability for Toyota? No: the current Prius, GS and Camry ? all have motors made byToyota.

What about the power electronics that control the whole system? They're in-house too.

Are they a very expensive part of the hybrid set-up? Yes, over the past ten years that has been true, and it has been one of our main targets for cost reduction. Between the first-generation Prius and

the current model we were able to reduce the cost of the complete hybrid system by about 30 per cent: our next target is going to be much lower still.

Can you say what your cost-reduction target is for the thirdgeneration hybrids? I believe we are trying to reduce the costs by around 30 per cent over the second generation. Honda has said that it hopes to sell the new hybrid version of its Fit small car

(Jazz in Europe) for just $2000 more than the basic version. It's a very aggressive target for a vehicle of the Honda's size.

Do you think you can match that? Yes, I think so. Honda's IMA system is basically a mild hybrid system using only motor, just for assisting the combustion engine. That system may come down in cost further. Our system has two motors, a generator and a power split device, and in the near future we want to adapt our hybrid system to smaller cars as well.

Will your hybrid system for smaller cars still be a full hybrid system? Yes it will.

Could you reach the $2000 target? I don't know about the actual $2000; I can say that it's $2000-plus right now, but we're working on it in R&D. We have a big advantage over Honda in that all our hybrid system parts are made in-house, so we know the actual cost for each part and don't have to pay fees to other companies. And as you know, we are also increasing sales of our hybrid models, which is helping to reduce the costs too. Both of these will allow us to reduce the costs of hybrids in the near future.

When you are planning new generations of a large-selling model like the Corolla, is a hybrid version part of the plan? I can't say whether we will adopt the hybrid system in the Corolla, but if we succeed in making it smaller we would be able to install it much more easily in allToyota's cars and all of the Lexus models.

With a car like the Corolla or Yaris, what is the main issue with hybrid, apart from the cost? The packaging and the batteries. As you know, the Prius was designed as a [dedicated] hybrid car, so we were able to install the hybrid system from the beginning.That's one of the key issues for the next-generation Yaris and Corolla ? to come up with a design which is able to accommodate the hybrid system from the beginning. And if we can get the hybrid system much smaller than the current one we won't have to think so hard about installing it.

Would one of the objectives of these hybrid cars be to be built on the same production line as the regular model? Yes. We're already doing that: the Lexus GS hybrid is built on the same line as the standard versions in our Tahara plant in Japan.

Are you looking at a diesel hybrid of any form? Currently, I'm in charge of gasoline hybrid systems, but Toyota does see potential in diesel hybrids. We're now doing development on them; you need to do additional research and calibration work to adapt diesel engines. On the cost side, too, it's more expensive, and because you are using a higher compression ratio there's a little bit more difficulty in starting them.

Shunsuke Fushiki has been inToyota's hybrid department since 2004. Prior to this he worked for Mitsubishi, where he developed a range of V6 engines for the US market.

Q3, 2006 ? RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW 07

Chrysler HEMI?

The Hottest HEMI?

From chief executive's vision to the showroom in 26 months ? that was the challenge faced by the elite SRT engineering team when Chrysler managers gave the green light to a family of high-performance models using the famed HEMI?V8 engine. Ricardo, which had supported Chrysler on the 5.7L HEMI? since 1999, was a key player in this latest and most ambitious engine programme which used race team techniques to deliver dramatic performance increases against tight budgets and deadlines. Jeremy Burne reports from Detroit

08 RICARDO QUARTERLY REVIEW ? Q3, 2006

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