They say change is as good as a holiday. That seemingly means that Ferrari must be feeling extra refreshed and renewed. It was not that long ago that Ferrari announced that they filed a patent for an upside-down hydrogen twin-supercharged inline-6 unit. Now they want to shake things up again. The Italian luxury sportscar manufacturer recently filed a patent for a new prototype that could notably influence engine efficiency and performance. Intrigued? So are we. This is what we know so far.<\/p>\n
A recent European patent filing disclosed Ferrari’s plan to explore an unconventional approach to the internal combustion engine. We all know that a standard engine consists of round pistons that move up and down in cylinders, each connected to the crankshaft. This is where we cue the new Ferrari prototype’s grand entrance. Leaving the industry-standard round pistons behind, this new design features oval or “pill-shaped” pistons<\/strong> that could significantly impact the engine.<\/p>\n The patent details pistons that are shorter in one extent and longer in the other. If this layout reminds you of a NASCAR-style oval racetrack, you are not the only one. Ferrari plans to turn the long axis of each piston at 90 degrees to the crankshaft, placing the cylinders closer together. This of course may shrink the engine’s total size. This smaller engine is essential to flagship Ferrari vehicles, especially those with V12 power. It will also aid the company while contemplating mid-mounted engines or future hybrid layouts.<\/p>\n The patent also details two pistons facing each other sharing a single crankshaft journal. This will reduce production complexity and friction, simplifying assembly. In theory, Ferrari will reach more power per stroke<\/strong> with better mechanical effectiveness while enhancing fuel consumption.<\/p>\n This new design is not brand new in the automotive designing and engineering scene. In 1979, Honda produced a four-stroke motorbike engine to make a comeback to the World Motorcycle GP series with the NR500. Honda engineer, Toshimitsu Yoshimura, had the following response when remembering the project:<\/p>\n “When I look back at it, I’m not sure if we were experimenting with cutting-edge technologies or obsessed with foolish ideas.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In retrospect, the design led to a pioneering moment. Back then, Honda faced production struggles concerning machining the oval parts. Luckily, with today’s modern technology and 3D printing, Ferrari could enjoy much more success with this smaller V12 approach<\/strong>. Porsche has proven the success of 3D printing pistons. Yet, whether Ferrari could fully apply such methods at scale remains an open question, making the overall feasibility of the new design something to watch closely.<\/p>\n More and more automotive companies have given in to the pressure of hybrid and electric vehicles<\/a>. Ferrari, however, declared that they will continue improving high-performance combustion engines as dictations allow. The unconventional piston shape shows that Ferrari is dedicated to prolonging the stirring roar driving experience that has become the brand’s trademark.<\/p>\n The new prototype will also help Ferrari adhere to stricter emission regulations<\/strong> without surrendering distinctive horsepower, torque, and quality engine traits. Honda’s experiments have proven that unconventional piston designs are not new, but Ferrari’s approaches to machining, metalworking, and computational modeling could make this prototype commercially more feasible.<\/p>\n While most automotive companies decide to go mainstream by making radical changes to ensure a smaller carbon footprint, Ferrari decided to try and keep things as old school as possible. The new unconventional piston design represents Ferrari’s latest step in its ongoing commitment<\/a> to the combustion engine, alongside previous explorations such as its hydrogen engine<\/a> patent. So hold on to your horses folks, because Ferrari and its V12 engines are not going anywhere!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They say change is as good as a holiday. That seemingly means that Ferrari must be feeling extra refreshed and renewed. It was not that long ago that Ferrari announced that they filed a patent for an upside-down hydrogen twin-supercharged inline-6 unit. Now they want to shake things up again. The Italian luxury sportscar manufacturer … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":4831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_focus_keyword":"new prototype, Ferrari","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_description":"The Italian luxury sportscar manufacturer recently filed a patent for a new prototype that could notably influence engine efficiency and performance.","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The feasibility of the prototype<\/h2>\n
Ferrari’s future: Committed to combustion<\/h2>\n