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A pretty massive NACA duct grabs air from the lower door sill to feed air to the rear brakes. Wire mesh covers the duct to prevent big pieces of debris, chunks of tire rubber, and other possible projectiles from damaging the brakes. Hey… that’s a good idea! Also, the single port refueling receptacle is located in the ‘rear window’ on the passenger side of the car.
There’s only one port on the outside but two big tubes on the inside. What gives? The lower tube should be a big vent tube to allow air to escape the fuel cell. Allowing the air displaced by the added fuel to escape easily allows the fuel to fill as quickly as possible. Or…. I could be completely wrong for which I have no explanation of the lower tube. In case you hadn’t already noticed, there’s a lot of wiring to connect all the sensors to the computers. The panel with the three plugs is mounted here on the passenger side for quick and easy access by the engineers to hook up their laptops to the car’s computers.
The carbon fiber passenger door has a simple strap for a handle. The wire might be for opening the latch. Who needs fancy handles and latches? Because racecar!
There’s a lot of stuff going on in the passenger side foot well! The big greenish/aqua/some color I don’t know the name of bottle is for the fire suppression system. The big grey box next to it labeled “BMW Motorsport Electronics” is probably the ECU. About that A/C system I mentioned earlier… I found some of the parts. The silver cylinder mounted up on the firewall should be the receiver dryer. Follow the insulated line to the left and it leads to the evaporator. A dry carbon duct attached to the evaporator is fed air from the fatty neoprene duct we saw earlier snaking its way through the engine bay. What’s that tungsten colored looking rectangular box mounted vertically next to the tranny tunnel? Is it possibly a battery to power the A/C compressor which might be the little black box behind it? Keep in mind the A/C system is only used when required, which is to keep the passenger compartment below 30 degrees C unless the ambient temperature is higher at which the cabin temperature cannot exceed ambient temperature. A/C systems suck up power, so you only want to use them when necessary. Now, if that is a battery, then it can be charged when there is excess electrical power, say when the car is braking. Therefore, when the A/C does need to be run, it can run off the battery instead of sucking power off the alternator and therefore engine. Or, I’m completely wrong on what that tungsten box is and just talking out of my derriere. Another interesting thing is the three blue strips of temperature tape located around that box. Lastly, note how neatly all of the wiring is routed, bundled, and also labeled. Being able to find the wire you need quickly saves critical time in the pits.
