KERS available?

freestyla

Is KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) technology available for all or it's just for racing?

AugustusMinimus

In what sense ?

KERS is nothing more than current hybrid technology in that energy under braking recharges batteries which can be used later to power the car.

The only difference (and it's a minor one) is that with KERS the driver controls when the power from the electric motor feeds into the powertrain via an active diff system.

This is all irrelevent anyways considering that the power from KERS will be blended with throttle from the 2014 season.

So in essance, it is just a standard hybrid system which is already in a Prius but it's more powerful and on a racing scale.


TERS is another technology which will be finding its way into F1 from 2014. The heat from exhaust gases (after passing through the future turbo) will be used to generate electricity and will be fed to the batteries for future use.

unkel

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Pretty much all the hybrids have it as part of the package.

Regenerative braking, charging the battery. Even plenty of non-hybrids have that these days. But not a KERS flywheel system as used in F1. The only manufacturer that has that today is Porsche with the 918, which I'm not sure is actually for sale yet

AugustusMinimus

unkel wrote: »

Regenerative braking, charging the battery. Even plenty of non-hybrids have that these days. But not a KERS flywheel system as used in F1. The only manufacturer that has that today is Porsche with the 918, which I'm not sure is actually for sale yet

Williams is the only car with the potential to run a flywheel KERS system. Everyone in 2011 ran with a battery and electric motor system.

unkel

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Williams is the only car with the potential to run a flywheel KERS system. Everyone in 2011 ran with a battery and electric motor system.

Thanks for that, I know almost nothing about F1

Stopped following it after the Monaco grand prix was stopped with Senna at 3rd postition. What a disgrace. How many decades ago was that?

Regenerative braking charging a battery is all grand in that it picks up free energy, but for performance I think it is hard to beat a flywheel system to release a lot of energy over a very short period of time

AugustusMinimus

unkel wrote: »

Thanks for that, I know almost nothing about F1

Stopped following it after the Monaco grand prix was stopped with Senna at 3rd postition. What a disgrace. How many decades ago was that?

Regenerative braking charging a battery is all grand in that it picks up free energy, but for performance I think it is hard to beat a flywheel system to release a lot of energy over a very short period of time

You might be thinking of 1984. Senna was in 2nd and homing in on Prost. Prost was complaining like a bitch about the weather, signalling out of the car every two seconds trying to get the race red flagged. He managed to get it red flagged about a lap before Senna would have overtaken him.


The flywheel KERS system is nice in that it's completely a mechanical system. Very much a mechanical watch vs digital watch kind of preference.

mickdw

It actually the Williams F1 kers flywheel that has been developed in house by Williams under there customer division and sold to porsche for racing and road use.

unkel

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

You might be thinking of 1984. Senna was in 2nd and homing in on Prost. Prost was complaining like a bitch about the weather, signalling out of the car every two seconds trying to get the race red flagged. He managed to get it red flagged about a lap before Senna would have overtaken him.

Jaysus, looked it up, it was even worse than that. I can't remember the details (I do remember being disgusted), but Senna had already overtaken him according to this. No wonder I gave up on F1:

Qualifying 13th on the grid, he made steady progress in climbing through the field, passing Niki Lauda for second on lap 19. He quickly began to cut the gap to race leader Alain Prost, but before he could attack Prost the race was stopped on lap 31 for safety reasons, as the rain had grown even heavier. At the time the race was stopped Senna was catching Prost at 4 seconds per lap.[21] Senna finally passed Prost during the 32nd lap at the end of which the red flag was shown. However according to the rules, the positions counted were those from the last lap completed by every driver, lap 31, at which point Prost was still leading

AugustusMinimus

unkel wrote: »

Jaysus, looked it up, it was even worse than that. I can't remember the details (I do remember being disgusted), but Senna had already overtaken him according to this. No wonder I gave up on F1:

In a similar finish, check out the end of the 2002 Indy 500.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Indianapolis_500

AugustusMinimus

mickdw wrote: »

It actually the Williams F1 kers flywheel that has been developed in house by Williams under there customer division and sold to porsche for racing and road use.

I believe that Williams actually bought a small company who were developing flywheel KERS technology in order to get their hands on it.

mickdw

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

I believe that Williams actually bought a small company who were developing flywheel KERS technology in order to get their hands on it.

I didnt know that. Its a result anyway for them.

wonski

Yep, recharging battery while braking is common now for any electric powered vehicles. Warehouse trucks I use at work have it all, so it is not limited to cars only. I would never compare it to KERS in Formula1 bolids...

freestyla

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

In what sense ?

Is it possible to buy and install in own car? - to charge batteries under braking and off-throttle then to get boost with press of a button.

Would it be road legal?

freestyla

unkel wrote: »

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

You might be thinking of 1984. Senna was in 2nd and homing in on Prost. Prost was complaining like a bitch about the weather, signalling out of the car every two seconds trying to get the race red flagged. He managed to get it red flagged about a lap before Senna would have overtaken him.

Jaysus, looked it up, it was even worse than that. I can't remember the details (I do remember being disgusted), but Senna had already overtaken him according to this. No wonder I gave up on F1:

Qualifying 13th on the grid, he made steady progress in climbing through the field, passing Niki Lauda for second on lap 19. He quickly began to cut the gap to race leader Alain Prost, but before he could attack Prost the race was stopped on lap 31 for safety reasons, as the rain had grown even heavier. At the time the race was stopped Senna was catching Prost at 4 seconds per lap.[21] Senna finally passed Prost during the 32nd lap at the end of which the red flag was shown. However according to the rules, the positions counted were those from the last lap completed by every driver, lap 31, at which point Prost was still leading

Tis on youtube! Thanks for idea to soend the evening.