Editorial
Saudi Arabia is the first location where 12 teams will line up at the start under the leadership of legends such as Hamilton, Button, Rosberg and others who will test the extremes of their vehicles. The race will start in the middle of a desert oasis in the city Al-Ula, which in Arabic means “first jump”. The qualifiers will take place on April 3, and the finals will be 24 hours later.
The challenges they will face on the first of five extreme locations faced by drivers, there will be heat of desert sand, dust and scorching sun. But racers will not only fight for points and prizes, but will also compete for conservation of the planet, which is one of the fundamental goals of the competition Extreme E. Data show that it will in the next few decades number of drinking water sources in some parts of the world decreased by 10 to 30 percent, which will directly affect 2,4 billion people. It is estimated that these challenges will force some 700 million people to relocate. At the same time every year due to drought 12 million acres of fertile soil turns into barren land.
The car will play a key role in this fight against the relentless desert environment ODYSSEY21, or rather, its extremely important component, tires. If the engine is the heart of the car, the tires are the muscles that carry the entire frame. In order to be able to transfer the transition from hot sand to ice, and then to the humid jungle and other extreme locations around the world, it was necessary to make such tires that would mean a kind of car racing in revolution. That's exactly what worked Continental experts.
On the sidewall of the tire Continental CrossContact it says 37 × 12.5 R17, which means that it measures 94 cm in diameter (height), 31,75 cm in width and is intended for a rim about 43 cm in size. Its profile has been refined for superior performance on all types of substrates, rubber compound for the tread, however, it was developed specifically for this tire. Its carcass is also reinforced.
“The sidewall plays a key role in the truest structure of the tire in the truest sense of the word. Modern medium-sized vehicles today mostly reach a total weight of between 1.500 and 2.000 kilograms. The increasingly popular SUVs, which we also know by the English abbreviation SUV, can weigh up to three tons. After all, the sidewall is actually the weakest part when compared to the tread that connects the vehicle to the ground, or to the tire foot that holds the tire to the rim. The supporting element in a tire is essentially air or a mixture of gases enclosed in it under pressure. Technicians calculate the load capacity of an ideal membrane according to the equation ‘internal pressure x contact surface’. In the case of tires, the rigidity is further enhanced by the rigid structure of the frame, which contributes an additional 10 to 15 percent, " he explained Nico Meier, product designer at Continental.
Thanks to sensors and technology contipressurecheck racers will be able to monitor the on-screen race throughout the race tire data, such as charge air pressure and temperature so that they can adapt their driving style to extreme conditions.
“The ODYSSEY 21 is a unique car: transferring 550 horsepower to all sorts of surfaces our planet can offer, in a 1,8-ton vehicle, will surely push the tires to the extreme. For us, the main difference between an electric drive and a classic internal combustion engine is energy efficiency. Internal combustion engines typically have much lower energy efficiency than electric motors when they convert input energy (chemical energy of fuel or batteries) into mechanical energy for propulsion. The efficiency of internal combustion engines is limited to a theoretical upper limit of 60 percent, which is much less than the typical efficiency of electric motors that do not have a theoretical upper limit. In short, the torque produced by ODYSSEY 21 will expose the tires to extremely high forces, ” he explained Anuj Jain, tire developer at Continental.
