Ferrari patent reveals a gas thruster system to boost performance

Ferrari has always been at the forefront of automobile technology. The Italian carmaker’s race to road-car philosophy is well known. Thanks to the Prancing Horse’s singular focus on making cars go faster, we know that they can innovate. This time, we have information on the latest Ferrari patent. This patent pertains to the use of gas thrusters to improve not just the pace but also the airflow across the aero bits of the car, making it stick to the road when cornering.

Ferrari’s Gas Thruster patent

While the date on the patent reads 2019, it was published a while back. According to Ferrari, the car will come with multiple gas thrusters in specific areas. Each thruster will have five nozzles, each of varying sizes, from small to big. This means when the compression is high, the gas will be displaced from the smaller nozzle, and when the pressure drops, the larger openings will compensate for it while still delivering the same output. Ferrari is estimating a force of 5,000 Newton from the thrusters.

All this will require a pressure of 700 to 900 bar. That is around 10,000-13,000 PSI. This figure sounds big, but there are already storage technologies that allow gas storage under this pressure. Take the case of hydrogen tanks of fuel cell vehicles. But Ferrari says there are other ways to achieve this pressure. Further, the whole system will add just 88-99 lbs.!

Also, expect these thrusters to generate a good amount of noise. The gases expelled could reach supersonic speeds.

Thrusters to increase performance as well as downforce

Ferrari expects these thrusters to improve the car’s speed, acceleration, etc. But Ferrari has one more trick up its sleeve. These thrusters will channel air between the car’s floor and the road surface. This will lead to even more downforce thanks to the ground effect or the Venturi effect. This will be similar to a car equipped with a large fan.

In the closing lines of the patent, Ferrari says these thrusters don’t use compressed air. Instead, Ferrari says that they act as pulse jets, which means a liquid fuel is burned to generate the required force. Ferrari could use the same fuel that powers the engine to drive these pulse jets.

Tesla too has proposed a similar system

This is not the first time carmakers have ventured out to use alternative propulsion systems either on their own or in combination with conventional systems. Back in the day, Tesla founder Elon Musk had described a similar system on the Tesla Roadster. However, the system proposed to use a compressor connected to the rear wheels to generate sufficient compressed air at the required pressure.

Source : TheDrive