Jul 25 2015
EARTH Magazine takes you to Le Mans, France, to cover how the World Endurance Competition (WEC) race series is transforming automotive efficiency in both high-performance racing and the commercial automotive industries.
Explore new energy efficiency technologies being implemented, including Porsche's lithium-ion batteries, Toyota's super capacitors and Audi's flywheel system. Credit:Kathleen Cantner
EARTH's latest feature explores the science behind efficiency upgrades used by three major racing competitors: Porsche, Audi and Toyota.
Using physics and cutting-edge materials results in a "fascinating case study of how unbridled competition can produce unique, innovative and extraordinary solutions to engineering barriers once thought intractable," wrote authors Todd Davidson and Michael Webber, both of the University of Texas at Austin.
EARTH Magazine brings you the science behind the headlines in its August 2015 digital issue, and in the July/August 2015 print issue being shipped now. Articles review how government policy is affecting the U.S. icebreaker fleet in "Endangered Icebreakers," and geoscience research news about the role bark beetles play in forest fires, and the first discovery of naturally occurring quasicrystals identified in Russian meteorites.