The Ford Racing team is working at full steam ahead of its maiden race in the WEC Hypercar class next year. We’ve covered every step of the journey so far, from the team’s inception to the announcement that it would run a Coyote V8 and the engine’s first firing. Now, Ford’s released a video of that V8 recreating a lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe while on the dyno.
Ford calls this its “virtual proving ground,” and that’s exactly what it is. With a roster of simulator drivers to establish a baseline for the engine department, the V8 can not just do a lap around the famed circuit, but it can recreate an actual lap “driven” by a professional driver on Ford’s multi-million-dollar simulator. This is important because it means Ford is not just testing a perfect lap around la Sarthe dictated by a computer, but a lap driven by a human, with all its little nuances, bits of experience, and even mistakes, perhaps.
La Sarthe on the dyno.
And with three drivers per car and an average of six to eight driver changes in a 24-hour race, it’s crucial for engineers to understand what the engine will experience with each driver over the course of a full day. While every driver hops into the car with a shared goal, their driving style or resource management might differ from others, so being able to factor in all these details during dyno testing will give the team a bigger leg up on the competition once they hit the tarmac.
From a fan perspective, it’s just cool to witness the dramatic forces an engine undergoes while doing such a long and fast lap, and it’s mind-boggling to think that in this year’s race, the winning Toyota clocked 381 laps around the 8.46-mile track. The forces, heat, and overall stress these components must endure truly highlight the incredible engineering behind them.
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