Podium Engineering at the 43rd ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24h

19 May 2015

Pont Saint Martin, 19 May 2015 – Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus debuts its brand new SCG 003C at the 43rd ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24H race finishing at 35th, after relentlessly climbing its way up from 24th to 11th position in the first half of the race, and putting up the 8th best lap time overall in the second half.

This year Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus challenged the Ring with their newborn SCG003C, engineered by the Podium Engineering team, relying on the expertise of Luca Ciancetti as the SCG 003C race engineer. With a project track record that is astounding by many standards, the SCG 003C was fully developed in a rule-breaking time of 14 months, from the preliminary style sketch to the first track test in Vairano (Italy) proving ground last December.
Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is not a newcomer to this race, as they raced in the 2011 edition with their P4/5 Competizione finishing to 39th, nearly where she had started.

They went back the following year with a new powertrain combining a 4.0 liter V8 and a Formula 1-style KERS system developed by Podium Engineering. The P4/5 Competizione M went on to finish the 2012 edition race winning its class and with a remarkable 12th place overall, best result ever attained by a hybrid car.

The 43rd edition of the ADAC Zurich 24-Hour Race that took place at Nürburgring last weekend, saw only 102 cars crossing the finish line after the legendary chase twice around the clock, out of the 151 lined up on the starting grid the day before.

Two SCG 003C were built and went through the Qualifying Race that took place at the Nürburgring on April 12th, 2015. Both cars made it for the 24 Hours “Top 30”, as driver Lauck qualified “Macchinauno” (Car 1) in 6th position, and Mutsch qualified “Macchinadue” (car 2) in 4th position.
 On these exceptional results, Jim Glickenhaus, the visionary owner of the Scuderia that carries his name, was awarded a special trophy just before the race on May 15th by the Nürburgring organizers, for the “Extraordinary achievement in engineering and development” accomplished on this car.

During Thursday night qualifying, “Macchinadue”, owned by Christopher Ruud, suffered a spectacular 120 mph shunt crashing into the guardrails, and the yellow no. 40 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG 003C had to withdraw from the race. American driver Ken Dobson, who was behind the wheel at that time, was sheltered safe of any injuries by the robust chassis safety structure design.

After making it through to the final 30 qualifying round on Friday afternoon (and earning the most distinctive flashing blue light), drivers Marino Franchitti, David Jahn, Manuel Lauck and Franck Mailleux started the black no. 9 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG 003C, owned by Jim Glickenhaus himself, at 24th place in grid.

In the first 6 hours of the race, the SCG 003C earned its way up from 24th to 15th position, until a second speeding in one of the speed-limit zones at 21h57 hit the team with a 3:32 minute time penalty, which got the car to start the 7th hour down to 18th place.

SCG 003C no. 9 picks up the pace again, chasing her way to the top ten getting to 11th place, when at 3h12 after more than 11 hours of continuous racing, an alternator V belt failure stops the car for one hour in the garage to get repaired. After the stop, the car hits the track again down to 29th position.

At 07h00, ranking 26th after 85 laps, the car is back to the pit, and into the garage.

The alternator V belt idler pulley locked, as a consequence of the previous breakdown.  At 08h01 the repair works have been completed, the car is pushed out of the garage, refueled and rejoins the race in 39th position.

At 15h15, 45 minutes to the end of the race, after a never-give-up comeback to 30th position, and notching the 8th best overall lap time of 8:26.480 on lap 95 at an outstanding average speed of 180.384 km/h, the car is back to the pit. Again, the alternator belt breakdown is causing power steering failure and no battery voltage.

At 15h53 the entire pit-lane applauds the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus squad that succeeded in push-starting the car with their last bit of strength, letting SCG003C no. 9 cross the chequered flag at 16h03 at 35th place.

Assembly process

Sorting, Testing and Stacking Cylindrical
- Fully automated station
- 100% cells state of health testing (including open circuit voltage, resistance/AC impedance, temperature
- Stations able to handle module up to 1200 mm length
- Different cooling strategies can be handled within this station
- Similar capacity cells can be sorted and included in a module
- Fast and tack-free led lamp curing
- Accurate pressing operation
Sorting, Testing and Stacking Cylindrical
Sorting, Testing and Stacking Prismatic and Pouch
- Fully automated station
- 100% cells state of health testing (including open circuit voltage, resistance/AC impedance, temperature
- Stations can handle different cell dimensions and different thermal extraction strategies
- Accurate pressing operation
Sorting, Testing and Stacking Prismatic and Pouch
Bus Bar Laser Welding
- Cutting edge laser beam technology that guarantees robust joints for several type of busbar connections
- Possibility to weld challenging reflective materials such as CU, Al and dissimiral combination of materials
- Internal development of welding parameters
- Extensive quality control such as weld penetration in process monitoring and resistivity checks
- Stations can handle module up to 1200 mm length and 600 mm width
Bus Bar Laser Welding
Ultrasonic wire bonding
- Fully automatic station
- Wire bonding with the highest axis accuracy
- Continuous real time monitoring of wire condition and process
- Integrated quality control
Ultrasonic wire bonding
Pack assembly stations
- Stations equipped with manual assistors and process dedicated tools to allow assembly teams to work in perfect ergonomic and safe conditions
- Stations equipped with torque monitored tools
- Control tracking system to verify process completion and quality monitoring
- Junction box assembly and quality control
- Controlled sealing application completed after functional test
Pack assembly stations
EOL Testing
- Battery module and pack functional tests
- BMS firmware and software flashing
- Pack cooling system integrity test
EOL Testing

Main features

  • Safety: BMS Design compliant for ISO 26262
  • Scalable slave-master architecture, handles systems
    up to 1.000 V
  • Cell dissipative balancing

Functionalities

  • Real time monitoring cells & components voltage
    and temperatures
  • Advanced algorithms for SOC/SOH estimation
  • Advanced SOP estimation with realtime cell
    thermoelectrical models
  • Electromechanical components feedback monitoring
    and degradation estimation (fuses, contactors)
  • Control and monitoring of the thermal management system
  • Sensing of current, water leak, internal humidity, etc
  • Ground fault monitoring of grounded or ungrounded systems

Services related to BMS

  • Testing and modelling of battery cells
    and systems
  • Experimental characterization of cells
    for accurate state estimation algorithms
    (e.g., SOC, SOE, SOH, SOP)
  • BMS hardware and software development
    for specific applications
  • Prototyping of high-performance
    battery systems
  • Consulting in the field of battery systems

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