Clean on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ecclestone wonders if F1's upcoming turbo V6s should get augmented sound [w/videos]

While every team on the Formula One grid is worried about making a good showing in this year's championship at the same time as they develop a brand-new car for next year's championship, Bernie Ecclestone and F1 circuit promoters have a different concern: how next year's cars will sound. The current cars use 2.4-liter, naturally-aspirated V8s that can reach 18,000 revolutions per minute and employ dual exhaust, next year's engine formula calls for 1.4-liter turbocharged V6s that are capped at 15,000 rpm and are constrained to a single exhaust outlet. Ecclestone and promoters like Ron Walker believe the new engines sound like lawnmowers and that the less thrilling audio will keep people from coming to races. If Walker's Australian Grand Prix really is shelling out almost $57 million to hold the race, every ticket counts. As a fix, according to a report in Autoweek, Ecclestone "suggests that the only way to guarantee [a good sound] may be to artificially adjust the tone of the V6s."
However, neither the manufacturers nor the governing body of F1, the FIA, think there will be a problem. Ecclestone fears that if the manufacturers "don't get it right" they'll simply leave the sport, but the only three carmakers and engine builders left next year, Renault (its 2014 "power unit" is pictured), Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari are so embedded that it would stretch belief to think they'd leave the table over an audio hiccup - if said hiccup even occurs. And frankly, these issues always precede changes to engine formulas, as they did when the formula switched from V10 to V8; fans, though, are probably less focused on the engines and more on the mandated standardization of the sport and the spec-series overtones that have come with it.
No one knows yet what next year's engines will sound like, but we've assembled a few videos below to help us all start guessing. The first is an engine check on an Eighties-era John Player Special Renault with a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, after that is Ayrton Senna qualifying in 1986 in the Lotus 98T that also had a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, then you'll find a short with a manufactured range of potential V6 engine notes, and then the sound of turbocharged V6 Indycars testing last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Any, or none of them, could be Formula One's future.

Mercedes-AMG to phase out 5.5-liter V8 after next year [UPDATE]

UPDATE: A previous version of this story indicated that AMG's 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 was still mated to a five-speed automatic transmission, however the latest models (including the S65 AMG sedan and coupe, SL65 roadster and G65 sport-ute are equipped with the newer seven-speed unit. Mercedes also reached out to point out that the 5.5-liter engine will be phased out gradually, not overnight. There's a lot to love about AMG's 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8. It produces as much as 577 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque, and delivers blistering performance to even the heaviest of vehicles. But try not to get too attached, because like its 6.2-liter, naturally aspirated predecessor, it's not long for this world. The latest word comes from Autocar, which reports that Mercedes will release the last applications for the 5.5 biturbo within these next two calendar years in the new GLE63 AMG and upcoming S63 AMG convertible. After that, even though it was only introduced in 2011, it will be phased out. Fortunately Affalterbach has a worthwhile successor already in place in the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from the Mercedes-AMG GT. The smaller powerplant, already in store for the new C63, is already producing 503 hp and 479 lb-ft in S spec. That's still shy of the larger unit's output, but where the 5.5 is nearing the end of its production cycle, the 4.0 is just starting out. Of course the 4.0-liter biturbo isn't the only engine AMG is making these days. Smaller models (based on the front-drive platform) employ the 45-designation, high-output 2.0-liter turbo four. Models at the very top of the lineup, however, use a 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 that may be a dinosaur, but with 621 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque on tap, still can't be beat.

France formally moves to ban Mercedes vehicles using contested refrigerant

That didn't take long. Shortly after a French administrative court gave the French government a ten-day window to reconsider its ban on registrations of Mercedes-Benz A-, B- and CLA-Class cars using the prohibited R134a refrigerant, the government cited an EU directive to formalize banning the sale of the cars. The country's environmental ministry said that registrations "will remain forbidden in France as long as the company does not to conform to European regulations," meaning so long as they do not use the approved R1234yf refrigerant.
Daimler had won the administrative court decision by challenging France's application of a "safeguard" provision in which the EU allows a country to block sales of cars that would "seriously harm the environment." In spite of Daimler's victory, France has cited that very provision as basis for the continuation of the ban.
Daimler got permission from Germany's KBA federal motor authority to keep selling cars with the coolant banned by EU politicians, and is using that national permission as the right to sell the cars throughout Europe. Meanwhile, above that battle, German politicians are asking the EU to let Mercedes sell the cars in France while the KBA does more testing, at the same time as the EU is threatening Germany with repercussions if it doesn't bring the KBA and Daimler into line.