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A Lifeline brand 2.25Kg fire system, or “firebomb” as the Aussies call them, is plumbed throughout the car in case of fire. The Zero 360 models are FIA certified and discharge a foam based extinguishant. Halon is not legal in Australia at all; for motorsports use or not.
Here is what some of the “fuss” is about. In Part 1, you can see how all of the rear sheet metal was cut off and replaced with a one piece carbon fiber rear clip. The unibody is no longer required because of this square and round tube structure that now makes up the chassis. It is tied into the the main cage of course. The execution is pristine and extremely well thought out. The upper A-arm mounts are visible and the upper damper mounts (or the load cell pucks on top of the rear dampers are visible). If you look closely enough, the OEM shock towers are still present, but they are obviously there just to satisfy the rulebook. Once again, there is plenty of triangulation, but it isn't all visible since the rear is mostly covered. It was pretty tough for Jeff to even get this shot. On top of all this is the Motec E816 CAN expansion box, the rear mounted PDM16, and a Bosch motorsport alternator that outputs 197 Amps. The alternator is driven off the driveshaft to the rear differential. The alternator speed was set up so that the system starts to charge at 3000 rpm in first gear. All of the blue hoses and reservoir are for power steering. The electric power steering pump comes from a Holden Astra (or Opel Vectra). The power steering pump does not start working until there is vehicle speed so it takes some muscle to get the car out of the pits.
Here you can see the rear of the rear differential assembly is solidly mounted to the square tube going diagonally toward the rear of the picture. The front of the rear diff assembly is also solidly mounted to an A-shaped frame towards the right hand side of the picture. I'm pretty sure that the rear lower A-arms are mounted to a square tube that ties everything together at the bottom of it all. The electric fan cools…
…the three oil coolers at the bottom of the clear plastic duct. There are three coolers for the rear diff, transfer case, and gearbox oils. Once the temperatures go over 96°C, the fans kick on to keep temperatures under control. The duct empties out of the rear windshield. I wonder if Andrew put that in his CFD tests? The factory Mitsubishi ACD pump is somewhere back here although it has been modified to run at a higher pressure for quicker center diff response times. The Motec MDC controls the center diff solenoid via PWM drive. If you take a closer look at the C pillar, you can see that the inner layer of stamped steel has been removed since it no longer serves any structural purpose.
This picture kind of reminds me of the Terminator with no skin. You can see what remains of the C pillars are really just along for the ride. The rear of the unibody no longer exists. This was on McElrea Racing's Facebook page. I believe they were doing post race teardown/inspection/maintenance after WTAC 2012.
I stole this from Andrew's Facebook page, but it illustrates the difference between the NEMO EVO at static ride height and at full speed down the front straight at Eastern Creek. Peak aerodynamic downforce as reported by the load cells is just under 5000 lbs of downforce at 150 MPH. If I'm correct, that's a shit ton more than F1 or LMP cars at 200MPH I believe.
