I am not in favor of cancelling the 120 km/h rule, because that would give Audi a traction advantage. The rule should apply to all hybrid cars. Now Toyota has a big advantage in traffic, because they get the boost immediately.
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Originally Posted by TF110
In my opinion, Audi has 4wd and 4wd shouldn't be full time/anytime. That's the direction they chose knowing it's 120kmh+.
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I am not sure that Audi knew about this restriction when they developed their hybrid system. According to
http://www.joest-racing.de/en/index....e-tron-quattro the development of the e-tron quattro started in February 2010 and the initial test were done 18 months later, so July 2011.
In
2010 the hybrid rules were the following:
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Energy recovery systems are free, provided they respect the following rules: - Recovery of energy from the brakes on the 4 wheels or from the heat of the exhaust fumes.
- Only the rear wheels can be used to propel the car.
- Regarding energy recovery from the brakes, only electric systems are allowed.
- Only the storage of electric energy is permitted
- The car’s minimum weight is identical to that of the other LM P1s using conventional powertrains:
- petrol: 900 kg,
- diesel: 930 kg,
- The maximum amount of fuel allowed on board is identical to that of the other LM P1s using conventional power trains:
- petrol: 90 l,
- diesel: 81 l,
- The combustion engine and the electric motor must be controlled by the driver using the accelerator pedal (push to pass buttons forbidden).
- The amount of energy used between 2 braking must not exceed 1 MJ
- The current, voltage and the time of charge and discharge will be measured continuously between the energy storage system and the inverter(s).
- Safety rules that will be imposed by the ACO
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For
2011 the rules were changed to allow front wheel drive and flywheels (thanks to Audi) and to reduce the energy storage from 1 MJ to 500 kJ (thanks to Peugeot):
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Energy recovery systems are free, provided they respect the following rules: - Recovery and release of energy from the brakes, either on the 2 wheels of the front axle, or on the 2 wheels of the rear axle.
- Recovery from the heat of the exhaust fumes.
- Regarding energy recovery from the brakes, only electric systems and mechanical or electromechanical flywheel system are allowed.
- The car’s minimum weight is identical to that of the other LM P1s using conventional power trains: 900 kg.
- The maximum amount of fuel allowed on board is:
- petrol: 73 l.
- diesel: 63 l.
- The combustion engine and the electric motor must be controlled by the driver using the accelerator pedal (push to pass buttons forbidden).
- The amount of energy used between 2 braking must not exceed 0.5 MJ. Braking lasting under 1 second will not be taken into account.
- The current, voltage and the time of charge and discharge will be measured continuously between the energy storage system and the inverter(s).
- Equivalent sensors will be defined for the inertial systems.
- Sensors for monitoring the use of the brakes and the wheel speed will equip the car.
- Safety rules that will be imposed by the ACO
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The 120 km/h restriction (thanks to Peugeot) was only introduced in the 2012 technical regulations. The
2012 rules were published at the end of 2011.
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- The amount of energy used between 2 braking must not exceed 0.5 MJ.
Braking is a deceleration of the car greater than 2g.
Braking lasting under 1 second will not be taken into account.
If the STSY is connected to the front wheels, the release of energy is permitted only above 120 km/h.
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At that stage Audi was already testing their hybrid system and all the important design choices (i.e., axle and energy storage medium) were probably made.