What has the 919 Hybrid in common with the power supply of a village? (Pt2 of 2)
More fun facts from Porsche on the 24 Hours!
100%
At the 2015 final WEC round in Bahrain, both throttle barrel levers broke on the Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley/Mark Webber car. The fact that the three drivers still reached the chequered flag and became world champions was thanks to a mechanic’s clever idea and quick thinking engineers: mechanics had locked the barrels on full throttle – by putting two pliers into the engine, fixed with cable straps – while engineers were busy programming in real time to keep the car running. Such ingenuity wins races like Le Mans as well as world championships.
395
laps were covered by Earl Bamber/Nico Hülkenberg/Nick Tandy on their way to win the 2015 Le Mans 24-Hours. The three LMP rookies agreed before the race that they each drive the speed they were comfortable while trying to avoid hitting anything. The plan resulted in the first overall victory for Porsche since 1998.
397
laps is the longest distance ever covered during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 2010 winners all had a Porsche junior background (Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas/Mike Rockenfeller). They shared an Audi when they covered the 5,410.713 kilometres.
> 400
HP contribute to the two different energy recovery systems (front axle brakes and exhaust). On demand, an electric engine powers the front axle and turns the 919 Hybrid in to what is in effect, a temporary four-wheel drive car.
Photo: Porsche Motorsport
< 500
HP is the output of the 919’s turbo charged petrol engine that drives the rear axle.
2013
Neel Jani - unhappy with the cockpit ventilation of the first test car back in 2013 – commented that if a driver broke wind in the car, the smell would linger for two hours…!
22,984
shifts (up and down shifting) of the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid’s gearbox during the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans.
62,000
kilowatt hours of electrical energy have been recuperated by Porsche 919 Hybrids during a total mileage of 321,000 kilometres (testing and race weekends) from their two energy recovery systems (brake energy from the front axle and exhaust energy). If the 919 was a “power station”, this energy would have been the capacity to power a village of 15 houses, each occupied by four people, for an entire year.
120,000
revs and more per minute of the turbine that sits in the exhaust and drives a generator. To recover energy also at low engine revs, the turbine has variable geometry. The turbo charger instead works without VTG.
128,000
kilometres have been completed by various variants of the Porsche 919 Hybrid from early 2014 until the end of May 2017 during race weekends (including practice and qualifying).
193,000
kilometres from testing since 2013 add to this impressive tally.
243,000
kilometres had been clocked up by the identical specification of the Porsche 919 Hybrid’s water pump with no issue when it suddenly failed at 23:13 hrs in 2016 at Le Mans. At 01:56 hrs, Bernhard/Hartley/Webber returned to the race now 39 laps behind the leaders.
