RET127 Temp Digital

53 REPORT : 24-HOUR PROTOTYPE ENGINES 2020 TOYOTA AT LE MANS Toyota’s 2019-20 WEC TS050 LM P1 car had an unchanged powertrain from the previous season. This marries a circa-2.4 litre, V6 turbo to an 8 MJ hybrid system embracing front- and rear-axle MGUs and battery energy storage. A two-car factory team (#7 and #8) was, as usual, run out of the company’s base in Cologne, Germany. The TS050 debuted in 2016, and the development of its power unit for 2017 was described in depth in RET 102 (May 2017). For the 2018-19 season there were subtle changes, as described in our 2018 24-Hour Prototype Engine report ( RET 112, August 2018) while for Le Mans 2019 (the culmination of that ‘Superseason’) there was some subtle control system software development, as described in our 2019 24-Hour Prototype Engine report ( RET 120, August 2019). The regulations governing hybrid powertrain performance were unchanged for the 2019-20 WEC season, and the IC engine and ERS hardware deployed by Toyota at Le Mans 2019 – the conclusion of the Superseason – went into the 2019-20 season also unchanged. “We have had no big issues since 2018, so haven’t needed to make changes for reliability or performance,” noted Kenji Sumi, director of r&d at Gazoo Racing Company. Of course, any additional performance would doubtless be countered by regulation changes under Equivalence of Technology balancing. Only the mapping was revised for the 2019-20 season, in view of a small change to the specification of the E20 fuel supplied to all competitors by Total. Sumi said the only issue across the WEC season before Le Mans was that “from the point of view of control we had a slight problem in lean-running conditions at Spa. We modified the fuel mapping in response to that.” In terms of reliability during the 2019-20 season prior to Le Mans, Manchester said, “We experienced some minor issues, as you get with engines, but nothing directly related to the B-spec upgrade.” The GL458 is proven as a 5000 km/25 hour unit, and as such there was no dyno or track testing specifically to address the requirement of Le Mans 2020. The engines taken to Le Mans were to the regular homologated WEC specification. DragonSpeed’s Gibson-engined BR Engineering car was absent from Le Mans this year but the Switzerland-based Rebellion team was back with its Oreca-produced and co-run cars (#1 and #3), as was Austrian but Germany-based squad Team ByKolles with its lone CLM coupe (#4). Gibson Technology had seven engines on hand for those three cars. Rebellion changed engines after Thursday running, as did ByKolles. The quickest of the trio in qualifying was the #1 Rebellion, which claimed second on the grid with a time just 0.03% shy of pole. ByKolles had enjoyed its best ever race at the previous Spa event, where in the wet it had looked to have the measure of Rebellion, but at Le Mans in the dry it was again an also-ran and this year it retired yet again from the marathon.  Early on, a (chassis- rather than engine-related) alternator issue cost the CLM seven laps, then at around one-quarter distance a rear wing failure sent it into the wall. It limped back to the pits only to be retired. By contrast, Rebellion had another strong race, albeit without the pace to beat Toyota in a straight fight. The #1 car showed competitive pace in the early stages, but as the race settled down neither it nor the #3 had the speed to win, short of any issue for the Toyota duo, which had a crucial advantage in traffic. In the event, a turbo replacement for the #7 Toyota let the #1 car through to second, delayed only by a quick nose change yet still five laps adrift of the winner.  Delayed by bodywork damage, the #3 car looked set for third. Alas, clutch trouble contributing to a late off-track excursion dropped it behind the #7 Toyota, finishing in fourth on the same lap. Thus there were no engine issues across the three Gibson-powered LM P1 cars at Le Mans. In total the three cars clocked up 16,569 km over the four days. GIBSON TECHNOLOGY AT LE MANS Gibson Technology GK458B LM P1 4.5 litre, 32-valve, DOHC V8 n/a Managing director: Bill Gibson Operations director: John Manchester Commercial director: James Hibbert Technical director: Ian Lovett Track support manager: Bob Baker Chief r&d engineer: Yutaka Hiwatari Le Mans track support #1: Yutaka Hiwatari Le Mans track support #3: Rob Crook Le Mans track support #4: Olly de Garston  1 Rebellion R13 (Xtrac/Michelin) 2nd – 382L 2nd LM P1 3 Rebellion R13 (Xtrac/Michelin) 4th – 381 L 4th LM P1 4 CLM P1-01 (Xtrac/Michelin) Rtd – 290L t The Toyota TS050 had a circa-2.4 litre V6 turbo fundamentally unchanged from 2019