BOXER ENGINES: INTRODUCTION: We all know various engine setups and designs. The INLINE and the V engines are the most common in this automotive world . There's also a different kind of engine that holds up its heritage from the end of the 18th century till date ,that's THE BOXER ENGINE!!. WHY SO THE NAME BOXER?? Boxer engines are powerful,efficient and way loud than the other engines ,they are also called as Horizontally opposed engines .The name boxer is given due its odd firing order of pistons and its arrangement . In a inline engine the pistons are straight but in a Boxer engine the pistons are faced opposite to each other and also their movement is similar to a boxer ,using his ...
KOENIGSEGG GEMERA:
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| (image credit:Koenigsegg) |
INTRODUCTION:
Koenigsegg the brand that emerged as a great producer of high end sports cars in the market .Their growth is absolutely mind blowing. On August 12, 1994, a 22-year-old guy Christian von Koenigsegg decided to chase his dream to built the world’s greatest super-sports car. Thus Koenigsegg Automotive was born. They have made many iconic super fast cars, in the past their first car the Koenigsegg CC8s made a world record of being "THE WORLDS MOST POWERFUL CAR". At that time.
Now they have made the GEMERA an absolute engineering marvel to be frank . They bought a good blend of an electric car with good old combustion engine not their famous V8 this time they have a different plan.
WHY THE GEMERA IS SO DIFFERENT:
First of all, the GEMERA is a Four seater , which Koenigsegg had never made before . But on engineering prespective they have done some wonders this time .The car has a totally different powertrain than any other car in the world. The power of the wheel comes from not just a single source ,it has FOUR different sources to spin their wheels ,THREE electic motors and an COMBUSTION engine . That makes it as a kind of hybrid in this "electronic trend". This also makes the car as an ALL WHEEL DRIVE monster.
The Gemera’s hybrid powertrain is made up of three electric motors and a
three-cylinder combustion engine ,that Koenigsegg says runs on renewable
alcohol fuel. (The company calls the three-cylinder engine as TINY,FRIENDLY,GIANT. All four of these power units are clustered
around the Gemera’s rear axle. But the supercar is still an all-wheel
drive machine .Koenigsegg’s first AWD which the company accomplishes by
using a direct drive system that runs from the rear of the car to the
front axle.
The arrangement is a bit difficult to understand and in addition to this the GEMERA also hoist KDD (Koeingsegg Direct Drive) .The KDD
reduces drivetrain losses compared to traditional
transmissions or CVT by 3-5% ,as there is no
step-up or step-down gear working in series with
the final drive – just direct power from the engine to
the wheels.That's a masterpiece right.
CONTROL OVER ALL THE FOUR WHEELS:
The Gemera is capable of Torque vectoring, which is the ability to
deliver dynamic amounts of power to individual wheels.So that we could decide how much power and torque each of the wheel should get. This helps in
low-grip and high-performance situations or let’s be Practical, those
moments when you’re Combining both. And when you have 1,700 horsepower to
play with (which is the overall output, though the individual
ratings for each motor and engine add up to more).This when combined with a very good weight distribution , can be driven the way you want.
WHOPPING 1700 BHP:
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| (credits:Koenigsegg) |
Power output from the three electric motors – one for each
rear wheel producing 500 bhp and 1000 Nm of torque, and
one E-motor on the crankshaft that produces an
extra 400 bhp and 500 Nm Torque to power the front
wheels. This adds up to 1400 bhp as individuals and
1100 bhp when combined. In addition to that it has a mind blowing 600 bhp (at 7500 rpm) and torque of 600 Nm
(min2000 rpm to max7000 rpm) rev range, the combined power
output of the GEMERA is 1700 bhp or 1.27 MW.
HOW THE TFG MAKES 600 BHP WITH JUST 3 CYLINDERS:
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| (credits:Koenigsegg) |
At first, hearing about this car the thing that stunned me was the tiny 3 cylinder 2.0 litre (sequential) twin turbo engine making over 600 Bhp that's insane . At a raw calculation that's 200 Bhp per cylinder, that's not a joke. To say at global prespective this can make the combustion engine to regain its popularity admist the EV war . The engine is not just powerful, it is also vey very clean and very low in terms of emission and fuel consumption. The engine also weighs only 70 KG. So how could they make this possible?
FREE VALVE MAGIC:
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| (credits:Free Valve) |
The GEMERA'S TFG uses the technology and it eliminates the usage of traditional CAM AND FOLLOWER mechanism for opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves. Instead they use ACTUATORS to perform the opening and closing of the valves. They are electronically controlled and uses PNEUMATIC AND HYDRAULIC systems to perform the action .
They are far accurate than traditional CAM setup almost every IC engine uses . Also we can control each valve separately which is impossible with the traditional CAM setup .
Here each valve is independent and each valve can have its own independent Lift ,Opening Timing , and its Duration .Hence there is no Cam shaft here and no need of timing chains and large cylinder heads consisting of the DOHC setup .
In a traditional Engine with the CAM setup the opening and closing of the valves are purely based on the Cam's profile. Even Variable Valve Lift (VVL) can control only the lift of the valve and Variable Valve Timing (VVT) can only control the Valve opening timing ,but in case of free valve we can control every aspect of the valve operation.
We can also eliminate or shut off additional cylinders from firing up by closing their intake and exhaust .We can also eliminate the Throttle Body ,which BMW calls as VALVETRONICS.We can have a wide opened throttle body having pressure at valves, rather than having them at vaccum center.
The Koenigsegg also used their profound knowledge in production of cars in the GEMERA .By using free valve technology they claim 30% better fuel economy ,30% greater torque ,30% more power and 50% less emisson.
We can also eliminate or shut off additional cylinders from firing up by closing their intake and exhaust .We can also eliminate the Throttle Body ,which BMW calls as VALVETRONICS.We can have a wide opened throttle body having pressure at valves, rather than having them at vaccum center.
PURE ENGINEEERING:
They also designed the cylinders larger than usual .The Bore and the Diameter of the cylinder is larger than those ones in Koenigseggs V12's. Also they made their Cylinder capacity higher usually a 3 cylinder engine would come with a capacity of 1-1.5 ltrs.They also made their engine with Titanium,which makes a unique sound when we fire up the engine .Infact it is the Most powerful 2.0 litre engine till date.
Some engines make power by either Reving to a high RPM or By a lot of Boost , this baby does the both .This makes it a very powerful engine despite its size.Also the Engineers at koenigsegg managed their turbo well.They placed a twin turbo in a sequential manner , and also they split their turbos by distributing the exhaust valves from each cylinder to a separate turbo and by this they can even eliminate a turbo at low Rpm's.
The GEMERA also makes 0-100 Kph in a mind blowing 1.9 seconds , and hits a top speed of over 400 kph(250mph). That's super cool.
The gemera also includes a 880V 15Kwhr battery altogether the GEMERA gives a range upto 1000kms 950kms with ICE and 50 with E-MOTOR only when driving in hybrid mode.And it is also capable of using second-generation CO2 neutral renewable fuels.
This Graph shows how GEMERA collectively made 1700BHP
SOME TECHNICAL SPECS:
CONCLUSION:
Koenigsegg has made the GEMERA a very good hybrid sports GT .There's no doubt in it.I'm seeing the GAMERA as a game changer especially due to the inclusion of FREE VALVE technology .This shows the love of IC engine among the car makers .Other companies ,by using this technology can bring us very high performance engines with great fuel economy and less emission.Yes the production cost is a concern due to its complexity but when the mass produced can bring a good IC engine back to our garage . Mention your thoughts through comments.
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