We're here at Pike's Peak International Hill Climb
and behind me is one of the cars that's probably
a clear favorite for both the Overall
and Unlimited class wins today.
This is the Norma MXX RD Limited,
driven by Romain Dumas from France.
Now Romain is no stranger to this hill,
previously winning in both the Overall and Unlimited classes
in 2016 as well as 2014.
He's also had great results at Le Mans,
winning at Le Mans on several occasions.
Now I just wanted to take the opportunity
to find out a little bit more
about what makes this car tick,
and incredibly fast as well.
So the Norma race cars come from France.
Norma produces several different variants of the race car
and the MXX RD Limited is a special car
built purposely for Romain Dumas
and the Pike's Peak International Hill Climb.
It's a modified variant of the car
that Romain ran last year with great success
and one of the aspects of this car is that it is
built using a carbon fiber monocoque.
Probably a more common construction technique for cars
like this would be to use a tube-frame steel chassis.
Now the carbon fiber monocoque is a technology
that is used in both F1, as well as IndyCar and LMP1.
The carbon fiber monocoque provides a couple of advantages.
Firstly, it's incredibly light,
even compared to a steel-tube framed chassis.
And when we're talking about a hill climb,
such as Pike's Peak, every ounce of weight counts
and the lighter the car the can be made,
the better the performance
and the lower the times up the hill will be.
As well as the light weight,
the carbon fiber monocoque chassis is also incredibly stiff,
and this improves the handling balance
and also the feedback to the driver,
again improving the performance up the hill.
The engine fitted to Romain's car is the same engine
that's fitted to a number of the production Norma race cars
in that it's a Honda K20, 2-liter, 4-cylinder engine.
This is fitted in the rear of the car behind the driver
for a superior weight balance.
Where this particular car does differ though,
is in order to make high horsepower levels
that are required for success here at Pike's Peak
as well as to reduce the effect
of the power loss that we see at high altitude,
this particular K20 engine has been turbocharged.
It's fitted with a BorgWarner EFR turbocharger
and this allows the team to also increase the boost
as the car climbs the mountain
and the barometric air pressure drops
to again claw back some of that lost power
that we see with altitude.
Now one of the problems with doing this
is that as we increase the altitude,
and at the peak here of the summit of Pike's Peak
we're at over 14,000 feet,
so as we get up to that sort of altitude
it's necessary to drive the turbocharger harder and harder
in order for the engine to make the same power
that it did at the start line.
Now if we've got a turbocharger that would be
more conventionally sized for a 2-liter engine,
what this means is that while everything
may be fine at the start line,
when we start increasing the turbocharger pressure ratio
as the car goes up the hill,
the turbo is worked harder and harder
and the turbo speed also increases.
And every turbocharger has a critical speed.
Not only does this affect whereabouts
the turbocharger is operating in the compressor map,
if the turbo is sped up too fast
it can actually result in failure.
So in order to combat this and give the team enough headroom
to make high power levels at the summit,
a turbocharger that is probably a little bit larger
than what you'd conventionally fit to a 2-liter engine
has been chosen.
Now this does present some issues
because with a small 2-liter engine,
response with a large turbocharger suffers.
And in this case the Cosworth engine management unit
is running an anti-lag system.
This works when the driver is off the throttle
by bypassing air through the engine,
retarding the ignition timing and adding additional fuel.
This results in combustion that continues
into the exhaust manifold, spooling the turbocharger,
so that when the driver gets back on the throttle
after a corner, the turbocharger is already spooled up
and the boost response is instant.
As well as the anti-lag system,
the car is also fitted with a launch control system
to improve response off the line,
although here at Pike's Peak that's actually not essential.
While the cars do launch from just here beside me,
the start line is actually around this lefthand corner
about 100 meters away.
So it's actually not essential
to go for absolute optimum launches here
at this Pike's Peak Hill Climb.
One of the interesting technologies
that's employed on this car
is the construction of the hubs or uprights,
both front and rear.
Conventionally these may be manufactured
from billet and CNC machined.
And Norma have contacts with a company
that does a lot of work in the F1 industry,
and these particular uprights are manufactured
using the same technology employed in F1.
This uses a proprietary titanium-based alloy
and it's actually manufactured
using a laser production process.
This results in a very light and very stiff upright.
And anything that the team can do
to reduce the unsprung weight in the hub assembly
is going to offer a large improvement in the performance
and the ability for the suspension to do its job
as well as possible.
In terms of that suspension you can see
that the car is equipped with Ohlins inboard suspension
that is all actuated via push rods and rocker arms.
One of the key areas where this car differs
from the production of Norma race cars
is that it's now 4-wheel drive.
This is essential to improve traction here at Pike's Peak
in a lightweight, high-powered car.
Backing the engine is a custom-built
SADEV six-speed transaxle that includes an output
that runs forward to a custom SADEV front differential.
The actual gear set is a six-speed dog engagement sequential
gear set that is controlled via paddle shift,
and this is all functioned via the Cosworth ECU.
This means that the driver doesn't need
to take his hands off the steering wheel.
All of the shifts both up and down are actuated via paddles
mounted behind the steering wheel,
and on the upshift the driver is able to shift
at full throttle without needing to back off.
The ECU simply employs an ignition cut
in order to reduce the engine torque
and allow the shift to complete.
On the downshift the drive by wire throttle body
is blipped in order to match revs,
so again the driver doesn't need to heel and toe
on the downshifts to manually match revs.
As well as the 4-wheel drive nature of this car
another big change from the production Normas
as well as the car that Romain ran here last year
is the 18-inch wheel and tire combo.
Last year one of the challenges the team faced
was the braking performance.
The production Normas run on a 13-wheel
and understandably this limits the size
of the brake package that can be used.
Romain was finding that the brake performance was marginal
here at the high speeds that are achievable at Pike's Peak
and they've opted to go this year to an 18-inch wheel,
which has allowed them to fit
a much larger Alcon brake package.
Fitting the 18-inch wheel however has also required
significant modification to the body work,
and particularly on the front.
You can see the louvers that are employed
above the front wheels,
and these have actually been taken from the body work
of the Norma LMP3 model.
The aerodynamic package fitted to the car
is another key to optimizing the performance.
Now unfortunately the team weren't prepared to share with me
exactly how much down force is being produced.
However just a look at the way the rear wing is mounted
and how extensive that bracing is
gives you some indication of exactly how much force
is being transferred down from that rear wing
into the transaxle and into the chassis.
The car weighs somewhere in the vicinity of 700 kgs
and is producing approximately 600 horsepower
at the start line.
Now obviously that's a pretty impressive
power-to-weight ratio and this results in a car
that's understandably a bit of a handful to drive.
You'll notice that on the steering wheel
there's several controls for Romain to operate
during the run and also before the run.
There's also a driver display that includes a shift light
so Romain knows when to upshift
as well as driver warnings if anything
goes wrong during the run.
In particular some of the dials and switches
that are on that steering wheel
include switches to adjust the current engine map
in the Cosworth ECU,
as well as controls for the aggressiveness
of the anti-lag and launch control systems.
As I said at the start, this is already a clear favorite
for outright honors here today
at Pike's Peak International Hill Climb.
Romain has already qualified first in the entire field,
and we can't wait to see how the car performs today.
We wish Romain and the team all the best for today's event.