Motorsports News
Direct Injection for Pectel Control Range
Cosworth's latest developments in electronic engine control provide support for direct injection technology.
The relentless drive for improved fuel economy and reduced emissions means that technologies such as gasoline direct injection (GDI) are being rapidly embraced by OEMs throughout the automotive industry.
GDI offers increased precision in terms of the amount fuel injected and the timing of this injection as well as allowing for more aggressive ignition timing curves.
As GDI technology is implemented on more and more OEM platforms - current estimates predict that 60% of gasoline and hybrid vehicles in Europe will use direct injection - so the requirement for GDI support grows within motorsport applications.
The performance OEM platforms that are the starting point for the GT, Rally and Touring Car vehicles raced by our customers are now beginning to appear as direct injection variants and our electronics team has been hard at work developing the new hardware and software that is required.
The future of British Touring Cars
The British Touring Car Championship has announced its specification for the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC), which will form the mainstay of the technical regulations for 2011 and beyond.
Cosworth's electronics division has been chosen to supply a standard solution for all competitors, which will provide engine control, data logging and scrutineering capabilities. This builds on the existing successful relationship between the series organizers and the motorsport electronics team in Cottenham, which is providing trackside Support Engineers at every event in the 2010 season.
A key part of the specification for the NGTC centres around the engine - a 2.0 litre turbo-charged affair with fly-by-wire throttle control, which may be sourced from any suitable OEM. Two early adopters are already running the Cosworth engine control solution with the Pectel IDU1 direct injection power stage on their TOCA-NGTC specification turbocharged Vauxhall Vectra's in this year championship. Pirtek Racing and Pinkney Motorsport have reported promising results and we'll be following their progress closely through out the season.
Roland Meister, Programme Manager for Cosworth's range of engine control electronics, which are badged under the Pectel Control Systems brand, explains how important the project is for Cosworth's motorsport customers:
"The British NGTC demand and the Global Race Engine regulations for the World Touring Car Championship and World Rally Championship mean that our customers are very keen to implement control for direct injection. As one of the leaders in motorsport ECU market it's crucial that we deliver cutting edge technology for teams that are challenging for championships."
To enable Pectel ECUs to control direct injection applications the electronics team in Cottenham have created a new power stage, compatible with our MQ12 and SQ6 ECUs, to drive the Bosch HDEV 5 injectors and engine synchronous HDP5 fuel pump.
Steve Phillips led the project to engineer GDI support:
"It's been a major challenge for us to develop the hardware and software needed to drive the high-pressure fuel pump and injectors that are required for GDI. Despite speculation from competitors that the task would be too great, we have developed a fully functional solution that is running on the track. I'd like to thank everyone that has worked so hard to deliver the Pectel IDU1."
