24 h on the fast track

The qualification rounds are over and now all drivers are preparing for the Start on saturday. Winning in a race like the  »24 heures de Le Mans«, starting June, 16th, requires stamina of both driver and the car's components.

Again this year, the endurance race will again be starting with many vehicles equipped with Bosch Motorsport racing technology. According to the company, all overall winners since 2000 of this long-distance race have used Bosch injection technology. Following the victory of a vehicle with port fuel injection in 2000, all the winners up to 2005 were equipped with gasoline direct injection. The year 2006 then marked the start of a run of victories for diesel-powered race cars, all of them equipped with Bosch Common Rail technology. Apart from injection systems, Bosch Motorsport supplies the race teams with control units, displays, data loggers, telemetry systems, starters, generators, wiring harnesses, and sensors, among other things.

In 2012, Bosch is again the development partner of Audi Sport, supplying the customized diesel injection technology for the Le Mans prototypes, among other things. A number of the vehicles on the starting grid in 2012 will also feature Bosch Motorsport gasoline direct injection. The LM-GTE-class's (Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance) Ferrari 458 Italia GTC vehicles will use this system, which is based on the latest findings from series production technology, and has been optimized to meet the demands of motor racing. With the MS 5.1 control unit and the HPI 5 high-pressure power stage unit, the gasoline direct injection system includes all the electronic components. Moreover, with the HDEV 5 high-pressure injection valves and the HDP 5 high-pressure fuel pump with integrated demand control valve it also includes the entire hydraulics. The electronically controlled HDEV 5 high-pressure solenoid valve with multihole technology has been customized, and its spray pattern adapted to the racing engine's combustion chamber geometry. Bosch Motorsport is supplying the especially small and light HDP 5 high-pressure fuel pump, whose cam profile has been customized to fit the properties of the engine. Explaining the advantages of the complete gasoline direct injection system, Klaus Böttcher, the Vice President of Bosch Motorsport, says: »As a complete system, the hydraulic and electronic components are perfectly matched and tested for optimum performance.«

Many teams are using other technology supplied by Bosch Motorsport – not only injection systems. For example, the Ferrari 458 Italia GTC vehicles also feature a customized DDU 8 dash logger from the German supplier. Corvette Racing's GT2 Corvette C6.R vehicles use Bosch Motorsport's MS 5.1 engine control unit, C 60 data logger, and DDU 7 dash logger. All these products were developed especially for motor racing, manufactured in small series, and applied to the race cars using customized software. The telemetry system in the Corvette race cars is also a Bosch Motorsport product. It uses a radio modem to transmit data between the vehicle and the pit.

For the Porsche 911 GT3-RSR vehicles also competing in both LM-GTE classes at Le Mans, Bosch Motorsport supplies the MS 4.0 engine control unit, the engine data logger, the starter, and many sensors. Mostly based on series-produced components, they have been adapted to the grueling demands of a long-distance race. To achieve this, the motor racing engineers work together closely with the prototype departments in the Bosch plants. With every component they use, the teams benefit from the expertise of a leading automotive supplier.»We supply many teams in the '24 Hours of Le Mans' race. On request, each team is served by a different set of engineers,« Böttcher says, explaining the internal set-up of the Motorsport unit. »The software developed for each manufacturer, as well as the customer-specific product modifications, are reserved exclusively for the special teams,« he says.

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