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Ferrari patents a fancy and fascinating electric turbocharger

While turbocharging has improved vastly over the years, and it has enabled cars to become both more powerful and more efficient, there's always room for improvement. Turbochargers scavenge exhaust gas pressure and use it to turn a compressor that forces intake air into the cylinders. However, as the patent points out, this means the intake compressor and the exhaust turbine are physically coupled, and have to spin at the same rate. Ferrari's design divorces the two, and it's a happy breakup. The key is hooking up the two components of the turbo to their own individual electric motors, with an energy storage device in between. It's different than the electric supercharger systems you have seen on certain Audi products, for example. Those systems recover energy like a hybrid, store it, and then use it to drive an intake compressor. It supplements conventional turbochargers that harvest energy from the exhaust. In systems like Audi's, the electric supercharger is supplementing the sequential conventional turbochargers when they're not operating efficiently, at very low RPM in particular. It works well, but it's complicated, and it is a workaround for the limitations of a conventional turbocharger. See below for an animation of the Audi system. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Usually, optimizing a turbo is a compromise between figuring out what RPM is ideal for each side to spin at to generate power. A smaller compressor generates boost more quickly, but loses efficiency at higher RPM. But there's way more energy in high-RPM exhaust gasses. By hooking up the turbine to an electric motor instead, you can harvest energy from the exhaust throughout the rev range, and particularly when the engine is pushing lots of gasses through. And you can store that energy in a battery if it's not needed at that moment. The intake-side compressor also has a reversible electric motor attached. It is not physically connected to the turbine, so it can operate at any time the computers decide it's beneficial. As engine RPM increases, the compressor doesn't have to increase its speed beyond its optimal range, so there's less energy wasted. And at low RPM situations, when a conventional turbocharger wouldn't have enough exhaust gas passing through its turbine side to generate useful boost in the compressor side, the electric motor can spin up Ferrari's divorced compressor to provide some boost.

Ferrari still finalizing LaFerrari hardware? [w/videos]

McLaren, Ferrari and Lamborghini helped make this year's Geneva Motor Show one of the most exciting in recent memory, but the LaFerrari might be a little further away from production than its McLaren P1 hypercar rival. According to GTSprit.com, it sounds like Ferrari is still trying to hammer out the the car's details to ensure the lucky 499 souls laying down $1.5 million aren't left in the dust by a brightly colored McLaren.
While it's not clear what sort of things Ferrari is still working on, the continued development aspect is somewhat substantiated by the fact that the 949-horsepower hybrid supercar is still running around Italy wearing camouflage - albeit light camo. As proof of this, the site also found a pair of enthusiastic amateur spy videos that get some good rolling shots of the LaFerrari out testing. They also show how well the car can handle a roundabout. Both videos are posted below.

F1's Sebastian Vettel says mistakes happen but he's not making too many

SPIELBERG, Austria — Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel has hit back at suggestions he has been making too many mistakes to win this year's Formula One championship. The German, a four-time world champion like Lewis Hamilton, was penalized at last weekend's French Grand Prix for colliding with his Mercedes rival's Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas at the start. Vettel ended up fifth after coming back through the field. That left Vettel 14 points behind Hamilton after eight races, with both title contenders on three wins each and the German having started half the races from pole position. "It's racing. There are some errors you shouldn't do, some errors that happen. It depends on the type of error," Vettel, in good spirits, told reporters ahead of Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix. "I've had a lot of races. It happens, unfortunately, at times. I try to minimize it, but I'm not worried. I don't think there is something fundamentally wrong," he added. "I think we know what we are doing — I hope I know what I'm doing most of the time, so I should be fine." The German lost places in Azerbaijan in April, when he started on pole but finished fourth, after he made a bid for the lead, locked up and ran wide following a safety car re-start. In China, a collision with Red Bull's Max Verstappen dropped him down the order, after the pre-race favorite had initially made a good start from pole. Hamilton has meanwhile gone 33 successive races in the points, and his off days have been less costly than the Ferrari driver's. "It's a long way to go, and it's normal some things happen along the way," said Vettel. "Obviously you are trying to push the limits. It didn't cross my mind when I was in Baku to just stay behind, surrender, and maybe wave another person past, just to collect some points," he added. "That's not how I define racing. I tried to go for the gap, I went for it, it was there, and I didn't make it. It didn't work. Sometimes it works out, and it's great. Sometimes it doesn't." Reporting by Alan Baldwin