In car or motor racing series they don’t pick up the safety car by random or based on their color. The car that sets the speed at the front of the racers, the safety car, provided by the sponsor. For example in Formula one it is a Mercedes, in MotoGp it is a BMW.
In fact it is BMW’s M division who provide safety car for MotoGP since 1999.
MotoGp Safety Car
There are few things on the above safety car that we never see on factory produced BMW before. For example the matte black color, the upgraded aero kit, the re-designed sporty interior and emergency equipment.
And there is one thing, that we never heard before, that thing is under the hood. This BMW M4 coupe comes with a new injection system. This system instead of injecting only gasoline into the combustion chamber it also injects water too. Water is not combustible except in this case, it will reduce the combustion temperature to be able to increase the boost pressure safely without self igniting the mixture. Water vapor always present in the combustion process (HC – fuel when burns with O2 some the spent gases will be H2O).
Basically what the system does, is spray highly pressurized water into the combustion chamber at the right time. This cools down the combustion chamber, reducing combustion temperature as well as engine knock. This is especially effective on turbocharged engines, as the high boost pressure creates higher combustion temperatures, creating knock and robbing the engine of potential performance and efficiency. Water Injection can increase efficiency by 3-8 percent in every day driving.
BMW M Power with Water Injection System
Water is stored in a 5 liter tank, from here goes to a filter system and then into the HIGH PRESSURE WATER INJECTION PUMP, where it mixes with the fuel. A sensor monitors engine speed and temperature to determine the correct amount of water for current engine conditions.
At high rpm the fuel will be sprayed direct into the combustion chamber with 30 percent water added, sprayed in the same space into the combustion chamber, this will allow the mixture to be cooled dramatically before the spark ignites the mixture and repeat the same at the next combustion cycle.
There are many more technical details which may be confusing at times, the details are available upon request.
The question is do we need to worry about to have enough water on board to have the system perform at it’s best? BMW claims that owners should very rarely check or maintain the water level in the water injection system.
The system will use the most water under acceleration under heavy load only, so for normal driving it should be sufficient for most drivers. Our understanding is, the condense water will be also collected to replenish the system from the air conditioning system as well.
This technology is alredy being tested on the road. BMW produced a prototype 1 Series Hatchback with the B38 three-cylinder engine with this technology.
We heard the next generation M3 and M4 will have this technology implemented as a performance enhancement on the Motorsport engines .
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