Форум истории автоспорта > История
Турбонаддув
Владимир Коваленко:
The cutaway drawing and its artists
Владимир Коваленко:
Статья из "Аутоспринта" 1972 года.
Guderian:
Владимир Коваленко:
Из книги Найджела Мэнселла "Верен себе" (Staying on Track).
--- Цитировать ---I’ve mentioned the astonishing performance benefit of the turbo car when I first tried the new Lotus in 1983, but my fondest memories of the turbo era are at Williams. A modern Formula 1 car produces in the region of 750—800bhp. In a car that typically might only weigh around 550kg, that is staggering and the subsequent performance is savage. Back between 1977 and 1988, Formula 1 enjoyed its first turbo era. For me personally, this was my favourite period in which to race. We had cars in qualifying that were producing over 1350bhp! That’s about 500bhp more than current FI cars. Five hundred! That’s like adding the might of a Ferrari F40 engine on top of what you already have (one BMW qualifying engine even hit 1500bhp). I loved those cars and consider them to be the grand stallions in the history of FI.
The golden years of that turbo era for me were the mid-1980s, particularly 1986 and 1987. My favourite turbo car was FW11B in 1987. The rate of development of this technology and these cars at Williams was simply astounding; they just kept relentlessly pushing forward. The work rate was unbelievable to watch.
For example, in 1985 we had so many different engine evolutions, you almost lost track. They experimented with different size turbos — big turbos for fast circuits with the long straights, smaller turbos, quicker response turbos, they were all over it. Williams and Honda together was such a dynamic team. It was mesmerising how the engineers and the team developed the turbos from virtually nothing into these astonishing power units in such short periods of time.
For us drivers it was just so exciting. You could get wheel spin in sixth gear with no traction control and a fully manual gearbox - you certainly had to drive the car! The surge of power when the turbos kicked in was breathtaking, I absolutely loved it. Mind you, learning how turbos operated was a bit of a knife-edge way to make a living, let me tell you, because those very early examples were utilising technology that was in its infancy, and that meant there were issues. Most obviously and crucially, the turbo lag - the time between putting your foot on the throttle and the response of the turbos in terms of injecting more power into the engine - was unpredictable and really quite slow at first. Then, after this uncertain delay, when the turbo did finally kick in, you had to hang on pretty tight! It was exciting because you never knew when the power was going to come in.
You would go like stink down a straight, then when you got to a corner you’d have to put the throttle down one or two seconds before you actually wanted the power to be available, to allow for the turbo lag. You had to learn to gauge that delay, but to be honest in those early engines it was essentially guesswork. An educated guess based on testing and race experience, of course, but guesswork nonetheless.
In 1985, we started off at the beginning of the year with a turbo that might just as well have been an on-off switch, it was all or nothing. When the turbo was off, the car wouldn’t turn into the corner and when it was on the car was viciously trying to spin. We almost had to go to psychiatric units for tranquillisers the day before we’d have to drive the car ... and that was in the dry! If it was in the wet, it was suicidal. We had so much power that we had to have barn doors on the back of the cars; we couldn’t get big enough wings on them to try to restrain the power. If anyone had done the aerodynamics perfectly, I think we’d have been doing 300mph down the straights. It is insane the amount of power we had.
One of the worst and in some ways most embarrassing accidents I’ve ever had in Formula 1 happened in Estoril in 1985 on the parade lap. I’d already ended up in a guardrail through no fault of mine in first qualifying, when Eddie Cheever’s car bounced off Riccardo Patrese’s Alfa Romeo and into me. Thanks to the amazing efforts of my mechanics and team, the car was repaired in time and so I was looking forward to the race.
On race day, it was raining but conditions were fair. I developed a misfire and then when I called for the power from the turbo nothing happened, so I took my foot off. ffowever, as I did, the power suddenly came in for a few seconds, put me into a huge spin and I smashed into the barriers. Basically I didn’t have any control over the car at all. When that happened, you really weren’t driving; you were just sitting in the car watching what was going to happen. I limped into the pits and, not surprisingly, the whole front geometry and wishbone had to be changed, which was a huge amount of work to be done in a very short space of time. Consequently, I had to start from the pit lane. It was my first year with Williams and only my second race, so this was not a great way to impress your team bosses. I was actually really concerned that I was going to lose my drive. This was coming off the back of two years of a very negative atmosphere at Lotus. However, in very sharp contrast, after I span off in Portugal, Frank, Patrick and all the team were fantastically supportive and it all felt so very energising, inspiring even.
I’d had to start from the pit lane but I managed to haul myself up to fifth, which was a great recovery. Ayrton won, his first ever grand prix victory. During the race, Keke was coming out of a fast right-hander in fifth gear when the car did the same to him — the turbos slammed in unexpectedly, put him into a spin and threw him into the guardrail, breaking a bone in his hand in the process. He was so upset and cross. I have to admit, I was gutted for Keke but, from a self-preservation point of view, at least it made the point that if this hugely talented former world champion could be thrown off track in that way, then at least it wasn’t just me. When I saw Keke in the pits afterwards he was really frustrated, as were the team of course, so I tried to cheer him up by saying, At least you came off in the race!’
I will say it again, I loved the turbo era. As a racer, it held my attention all the time; it was very demanding and at times dangerous, but always hugely exhilarating. The turbo cars were what I would call an old-school man’s car. A boy could not drive these cars, especially with the lack of driver aids and electronics, heavy manual gears and so on. This was about as physical as you could get in terms of driving an F1 car.
It wasn’t just the physicality of the turbo cars that demanded you were on top of your game. There were so many subtleties too. If you called for power and changed gear at the wrong time, you’d basically blow the gearbox up! If you changed down too much, you’d mechanically over-rev and blow the engine up! Each driver’s hands-on management of the engine and gearbox was so crucial to a turbo car’s health, and by definition its performance and therefore likely success in the race. There were no wheel sensors, nothing like that, so the individual drivers had to do everything right. They had to have a real skill and understanding of how to drive those cars, and that’s what I found so utterly fascinating.
There were other less obvious downsides to these turbo monsters. For example, in my days using a Renault VI0, if those engines were only slightly out of balance, the vibrations used to make me cough almost uncontrollably. The vibration of the car was at a very specific frequency that coincidentally made me cough constantly. This was not a phenomenon exclusive to me, but when you are doing 200mph in a 1350bhp car and competing against the best drivers in the world, constantly coughing isn’t an ideal ticket. One particular VI0 was so bad they had to change the engine. I said, ‘I can’t drive it, really sorry.’
During that classic turbo era, there were three or four seasons when it was just sensational. Evolutions came along seemingly every week; cars that had 1350bhp melted your brain with their ferocity and power, and the races were so physical, so draining, yet so fabulously exciting to be a part of. It was exhausting and yet life-affirming, astonishing and frightening all at the same time.
Turbos were eventually banned in 1989 because of new regulations. Fast-forward to 2014 and turbos were reintroduced, but there isn’t really any obvious comparison. The motivation back then was to go faster, to wring more performance and brutal speed out of the cars. However, in the new millennium, priorities have changed, on a global scale as well as within the context of Formula 1. The sport is quite rightly trying to reflect that change of emphasis and remain current or, indeed, strive to be pioneering. So the new turbo era is mostly driven by a need for efficiency and fuel economy.
--- Конец цитаты ---
Владимир Коваленко:
На машинах национального американского чемпионата ЮСАК турбонаддув использовался уже как минимум в 1968 году.
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