Latest News - 2022

August 2022:

Let's start with an exciting announcement : Motion Systems and PERRINN signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to become global technical partners of PERRINN 424 project. Motion Systems is a company located in Poland producing a wide range of motion platforms as well as simulators components of the highest quality and reliability. PERRINN will benefit from their immense know-how and their enormous community of Sim Racers worldwide. Therefore, this partnership brings an incredible support to PERRINN engineering team in our quest of the highest fidelity simulation possible. By the time you read this, Motion Systems Sim Drivers and PERRINN members are already working side by side to define the next development paths : take a look for yourself.

Currently, one of the main topics under discussion is the improvement of the realism of the steering force feedback in the 424 Unity simulation. As 424 is the probably the most powerful front drive race car with locking diff, the steering behavior does not seem very natural at first. We have to learn how the steering reacts with this particular configuration. In this framework, the torque maps, which will be implemented next, should help to manage this specificity. A real collaboration between sim drivers and technical experts looking at this aspect at the same time will undoubtedly lead to clever solutions in the next few weeks. Not to hide anything, the ongoing study could even lead to a complete redesign of the front suspension to mitigate the effects that could affect the performance of the car or the confidence of the driver. To be continued....

Before undertaking any potential redesign of the front suspension, our CAD expert Isslah is focused on the rear suspension. This month some more weight has been saved in this area thanks to material removal within the ribs, between the bearings and on the axle hub. Among other achievements, the brake caliper support was designed and the overall mass of the upright is roughly 500g lighter than the previous version. The next step is to test those design solutions through stress simulations to validate the design or identify the areas that have to be modified. In parallel, topology optimization of the rear casing is in full swing under the supervision of Gilbert.

Regarding aerodynamic development, new diffuser strake geometries have been tested in CFD simulation. This new design is providing a huge gain in terms of aero efficiency even if radiator ducts and rear casing have had to be redesigned to accommodate this new floor. This is all part of the design process !

July 2022:

The month of July 2022 rhymes with the beginning of the 3rd quarter of the year. We have a list of new objectives to follow our roadmap.

The main goal is to launch the crowdfunding campaign before the end of the year. From July to September 2022, we will focus on software design and crowdfunding platform implementation on PERRINN.com. Anybody interested in Project 424 will be able to be part of the team and support us financially. The money invested will be used to design the electric Hypercar 424. It will, for example, allow us to continue using the CFD tool, Bramble, needed for the Aerodynamic development of the car. Everything will be fully transparent on PERRINN.com and everybody will have the opportunity to exit their investment during a synchronized buy-back. Stay tuned not to miss the start of the crowdfunding campaign!

We are regularly performing structural analysis on various assemblies from 424. Therefore, finding a technical partner to support us in this effort is really in our mind and is one of the objectives set for Q3. This would complete the collaboration started earlier this year with Onshape and Simsolid UK regarding CAD and CFD respectively. Work in progress…

Prospecting to find suppliers for key parts of the car has started: Shiftec will supply PERRINN with the DRS (Drag Reduction System) and the electrical assistance for the steering of 424 and Brembo is our technical partner for everything related to brake systems.

This month, we have been joined by a new test driver, Damian, who has experience in sim racing as well as in real racing. He has also already driven on the Nordschleife which is a real plus when it comes to studying the behaviour of 424 on this legendary track. We now have 2 test drivers fully committed to share their feedback and improve the performance of the 424 Hypercar.

Edy, the creator of Vehicle Physics Pro, is working on all topics pointed out by the test drivers and the engineers on the Unity driving simulation. This month, the steering feedback has been adjusted based on a more advanced model. New torque maps implementation will then follow to meet the demand for more performance from 424 in low speed corners.

In parallel, after defining “no DRS segments” in the Unity driving simulation, the decision was made to adopt “speed limiter segments” for the sake of safety as we could observe instabilities in some specific areas of the track when setting fast lap times. This feature is now fully functional in the latest version of the 424 driving simulation which opens the door to more consistency and confidence in the car. Identifying those ways to improve the behaviour of 424 even before any part of it was actually built or tested in real life is a huge advantage.

As promised last month, the 1D model of the battery cooling system has got our full attention. As Amandine’s internship at SEGULA is coming to an end, the goal was achieved : we now have a complete 1D model to simulate the temperature of the battery all along the Nürburgring lap. It now needs to be implemented in the Unity driving simulation.

Last but not least, regarding the design of rear suspension and transmission, Isslah, Jay and Gilbert have initiated a great collaboration to continue the design of the rear end of the car. The rear casing is being redesigned using topology optimisation whereas the definition of the layout of inboard suspension parts such as torsion bar, rocker, bearings and dampers is ongoing. The rear uprights have been completely redesigned and the aim is now to add the brake calliper support while keeping them light. Challenge accepted!

More to come soon. Until then, we invite you to follow this link to take a ride with Augusto around the Green Hell, enjoy!

June 2022:

A new wind blows in the ranks of the multicultural PERRINN team.

First and foremost, we have an exciting news to disclose : PERRINN and Onshape have sealed an agreement to join forces. We are very happy that Project 424 is now officially supported by Onshape, a ground-breaking design tool that enables all our members to collaborate seamlessly directly in the browser. Their innovative approach to collaboration is perfectly aligned with PERRINN philosophy and distributed organization. Therefore, this partnership is a huge milestone in our journey as the PERRINN digital team vision would not be possible without such resources. Concretely, Jay, a PTC Onshape product manager, has joined the PERRINN team and will contribute to the design and development of our 424 electric Hypercar from now on.

At the same time, Gilbert, an experienced expert in lightweight engineering, has decided to offer his precious support on all topics linked with mechanical design. Given this influx of amazing skills, the timing is perfect to launch a new task force on 424 rear end integration with topology optimisation. As usual, every step of the methodology is greatly documented and openly shared with all members so that everybody learns and participates in the process.

As we are on the subject of 424 design, nothing is set in stone. Various areas of the car are undergoing tremendous changes. The front splitter has been fully remodelled in order to be easily customized as aerodynamic development goes on. We did not have to wait very long before it was modified to fit the whole Nürburgring aerodynamic package : the splitter outboard curl was redesigned and the splitter main plane was lowered by 10mm. A revised splitter fence was also profiled in order to solve some instability at low ride height and the 2 dive vanes were optimized. We also have integrated the new Brembo brake callipers and discs in the full car assembly. Therefore, we have designed disc bells accordingly while suspension geometries are being adapted to fit with the new “short wheelbase” philosophy of 424. As a reminder, the wheelbase was shortened by 150mm down to 3000mm whereas the rear pushrod is now made of carbon and titanium which results in a mass 50% lower compared with the previous version of this part. Inside the cockpit, the layout has evolved too as the dashboard was simplified and detached from the steering wheel, to cite but a few examples.

As we are heading to the summer break, 121 CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) runs have been performed in 3 months (!) and everything is working according to the plan up to now : we are satisfied with the progress we made on the Nürburgring aero package over the last few months and we found a better weight and aero balance solution. Lately, the redesign of the rear transmission has had a significant impact on front aerodynamics and current work consists in recovering the right aero balance. All simulation runs have been performed with a half car model and we are now switching to a full size CFD model to study yaw, steer and roll sensitivities. Soon, this aero development of 424 will slow down a bit before returning to its normal rhythm in October on crowdfunding fuel. Indeed, this “pause” will be dedicated to the implementation of the crowdfunding campaign with the design of the dedicated webpage now that all the specificities of this fund raising process were defined and agreed by the whole team. In parallel, the strategy around potential sponsorship by larger companies from the crypto world is being refined as we go.

The battery cooling simulation is also running at full tilt. Now that the 2D and 3D models have delivered some interesting data, the 1D model has our full attention in order to replicate it inside the 424 driving simulation to get live battery temperature in telemetry.

As far as the DRS (Drag Reduction System) is concerned, the topic is still open. In the 424 driving simulation, we have defined “no DRS segments”. It means that at some places of the Nürburgring track, the DRS is automatically closed to increase downforce and prevent the car from taking off in the worst case scenario. Of course, this system has requested some development which is not directly converted into pure performance…but safety is our very first priority. We have covered some laps with this new feature and the result is undeniable : “no DRS segments” is the way to go to get a race car the driver can trust 100%.

Regarding the 424 Unity simulation developed in collaboration with VPP, torque maps implementation and steering force feedback optimization are the next tasks to be accomplished. Meanwhile, there is much to do to ensure a perfect compatibility with all hardware solutions. Exciting times ahead !

See you soon on the official PERRINN LinkedIn page!

May 2022:

Changing the shape of a race car depending on how it behaves on track...wouldn't it be a dream come true for all race teams ? This is exactly what we are doing in PERRINN thanks to the combined development of both a state of the art driving simulation and 424, our electric hypercar. As the design of our race car is evolving everyday, the Unity simulation is updated accordingly to model its behaviour on track. Similarly, new 424 design development paths are regularly found thanks to our test driver's feedback and the conclusions drawn from the simulation telemetry. We test on the simulation, we compare results, we choose the right technical solutions for 424... as simple as that!

May 2022 was no exception. Once again, the Unity simulation was upgraded with the adjustment of the audio track, the addition of some very useful channels in the telemetry, the increased reliability of the Autopilot feature, the improved ergonomics of the user interface and adjustment options for the driver. But that is not all : the behaviour of the differentials (on front and rear axles) has been completely remodelled to help Nic, in charge of 424 design, choosing whether we would like to equip 424 with this feature or not for the Nordschleife lap record. The figures and the smile on Augusto's face, who is our official test driver, leave no room for doubt : we need those differentials on our hypercar.

Still regarding the Unity simulation, ride height calculation has been at the top of the job list over the last few days as we would like to study a bit more potential unwanted reactions of the car in some areas of the track. As this mission has already been accomplished, we were able to move to the next ones. We have launched an effort to enhance torque maps management, that has to do with the repartition between mechanical braking and kinetic energy recovery system. Without mentioning the optimization of the force feedback torque in the steering wheel which is one of the next areas of development that we will study. Do not worry for our team of Unity developers, we constantly have new challenges for them as engineering excellence is our common passion.

In parallel, the Unity simulation has been continuously used by Augusto to test each one of the new aero baselines of the car and give very valuable feedback that helps the engineering team to take the right decisions as far as the design of the car is concerned.

The transition is readily found to speak of the design and aerodynamic evolutions brought to 424 in the latest weeks.

As mentioned last month, all suspension wishbones are now made of carbon and all the parts that need to be adapted around this brand new suspension are being carefully designed as you read this. The chassis has a wheelbase shortened by 150mm and equipped with sliding doors in order to save mass and improve the weight distribution. The position of the driver was lowered whereas the rear transmission and the motor locations were adjusted to clear space for the diffuser. The battery pack was redesigned in order to leave some space at the front of the car to be able to generate more downforce and push the aero balance forward to prevent oversteer. Of course, all the modifications mentioned above were tested and validated thanks to CFD tests.

By the way, all of those tests were performed on Bramble, developed by our partner TotalSim UK. The bodywork as well as the floor of the car have evolved quite a lot to continue the optimisation of the aerodynamics of our prototype. Our current aero baseline includes a new body gurney, lower rear arches, fully integrated front brake cooling ducts, floor extensions, a refactored arch to splitter interface, floor rear tyre curl, side skirt angle, diffuser side skirts as well as a higher body tail and a lower rear wing. The cover bumps that were visible on the bodywork up to now were suppressed which will request a redesign of the rear suspension torsion bar in the near future. Anyway, the suspension and uprights will have to be checked over again when receiving the new version of brake discs and callipers supplied by our technical partner Brembo…which should happen very soon!

Last but not least, the strategy around the Drag Reduction System (DRS) design and triggering was fully reviewed. Instead of opting for one DRS only at the rear of the car, we have chosen to couple it with a front DRS in order not to penalize the balance of the car when activated. In parallel with the front DRS, the design of the rear DRS has also progressed a lot : we would like to adopt a pneumatic actuator, more reliable than a hydraulic one. It has been modelled in CAD and discussions with potential suppliers are already making good progress.

While technical development is in full swing thanks to our very talented crew, an equally dedicated team of contributors takes care of every commercial aspect of the project behind the scenes. They manage communication and solicit potential partners such as, for example, companies linked with the crypto world. No doubt that they could be interested by our approach to collaboration with the implementation of COINS on PERRINN.com to manage membership and reward working members for their investment.

April 2022:

No sooner said than done !

424 front lower wishbones are now made of carbon. Some additional simulations and optimisations are still to be performed in order not to compromise reliability nor performance but we can already see very positive results with more than 500g saved and improvements in terms of downforce and cooling. The integration of those carbon wishbones on the car was part of the third stage of our CFD work. Therefore, those wishbones have already been tested in CFD thanks to great collaboration between all team members from all over the world. This is PERRINN.

Let's come back to the topic : we also redesigned the front flap of the car, thickened the floor, designed higher front arches for greater wheel clearance and found a better optimum drag level. Indeed, following the feedback from our simulator test driver, we have opted for a high rake configuration which ensures higher front end downforce and therefore less understeering. The laps set on the Unity simulation fully match the expected results from our offline simulation and we are now very confident that it is the good way to go. Consequently, lower rear arches were designed. The floor now has to be optimized in accordance with this new aero configuration and the rear suspension has to be adapted which is work in progress. Meanwhile, the front brake ducts were fully integrated to the car model : the disk cooling duct diameter was reduced and the calliper cooling duct was removed.

Last but not least : the DRS system is being reshaped. Up to now, 424 has had 2 DRS systems : the first one actuating the flap on the rear wing, the second being linked to a flap located on the rear end of the bodywork. Both are activated automatically in function of throttle parameters. Nevertheless, the drop in downforce provoked by the activation of this "double DRS" is a little bit too strong to be managed by the driver. Therefore, it looks like we are going to adopt a semi-automatic "single DRS", keeping only the system located on the rear wing.

In April, the 424 Unity simulation was experimented by a Nascar Super Late Model driver. The feedback was very positive and valuable as it confirms that the baseline is already excellent with some room for improvement as far as force feedback, suspension and tyre models are concerned. Development paths have already been defined to fine-tune those areas and get an almost perfect feeling once at the wheel.

Regarding the funding of PERRINN, a great brainstorming session was carried out to identify who could be our next partners. Interesting strategies have emerged as various company profiles could benefit from such a project combining passion, sustainable mobility, technical excellence, global network, open source work and communication as well as decentralized governance and crypto network. Along with corporate sponsorship, we strongly believe that crowdfunding has an important role to play in PERRINN commercial strategy. We are currently defining the user experience we wish and then, later this year, this crowdfunding feature will be implemented in PERRINN.com to enable anybody to support us financing the engineering software licenses needed to get 424 ready for a ride around the Nürburgring. Of course, every investor will get 424 COINS in return and have the opportunity to get his money back, with interest, when the project succeeds.

Keep posted, very soon we will be sharing a turnkey version of the 424 Unity simulation that you will be able to test without installing anything on your computer. We are waiting for your feedback on PERRINN.com !

March 2022:

CFD work on 424 has started! All the set-up of Bramble, a CFD cloud based solution developed by TotalSim UK, and the first runs of simulation were successfully carried out. The whole team has been waiting for months and it is now like being in a sweet shop as we are able to test many aerodynamic configurations and converge little by little to the ideal bodywork for the Nürburgring challenge. The first set of runs has shown that our baseline is very good. It is now a matter of time up to the point where we reach our clear targets in terms of L/D ratio, drag and balance of the car.

It is a very big step for PERRINN as it is also the beginning of a brand new partnership with TotalSim UK, a benchmark company in CFD. We can now benefit from the expertise and the experience of the very best people to tailor the aerodynamics of the 424 hypercar. Let's have fun!

The end of March corresponds to the end of the first quarter of the year and every goal we had defined was completed.

The validation of the mass/aero/energy optimisation was achieved earlier this month which gives us a clear development path in terms of aerodynamics as well as battery pack design.

As mentioned before, the difficult step of restarting CFD testing was achieved and we will soon see the impact through CFD results, 424 reshaping and CFD social media posts.

Battery thermal model is being taken care of by Amandine, our SEGULA French engineering student with already some very interesting and promising results obtained. We will soon be able to decide which coolant fluid to choose and whether the battery cell modules should be installed in parallel or in series in the car.

CAD was not left behind. For months, we have been following the work performed by our Algerian CAD expert Isslah on front suspension. Through a very deep stress/stiffness analysis, we were able to eliminate the need for a bracket on the upright and increase the stiffness of the assembly while decreasing the mass by 24%. This very strong result will enable us to move on more detail work on suspension and to lower the front end of the chassis. Additional modifications on the braking system will lead to further mass reduction. Disc brakes will be thinner and the size of the brake cooling system is going to be reduced as it is currently oversized according to the study performed by our technical partner Brembo. And why not switching to carbon wishbones instead of the current ones made of steel ?

Meanwhile, the Spanish team of Unity developers delivered very robust results. The Autopilot feature was refactored which means that it is now ready to receive new updates to make it even more efficient and complete. Furthermore, after months of development, the device input manager is now ready to be launched! Plugging any sim rig to the 424 Unity simulation is very straightforward which opens the door to a very large audience : influencers as well as professional sim racers will be invited to test our simulation very soon. Let's see if anyone can beat Auguto, our official test driver from Brazil! Various feedback could also help us to develop even more advanced suspension and tyre models, which is the next step on our job list.

In parallel, David, founder of our long-standing partner ThrillCapital, keeps on delivering strong commercial support to the team. This will hopefully result in partnerships with Australian and New Zealander Business and Engineering Schools to explore new fields such as machine learning.

With more than 1100 visitors, PERRINN.com has become the place to be for anyone willing to contribute to our high quality work, learn with us or simply follow Project 424. The passion and enthusiasm we are bringing to the community through communication, accessibility and transparency are the best rewards we can get. We can't wait to count you among us!

February 2022:

It is decided : 424 will use a high downforce aero package for the Nürburgring lap record attempt. The design is yet to be finalised but the various simulations performed show that it is the right way to go.

First, we have an "offline simulation" at our disposal that enables us to get a first estimation of the speed, the lap time and the energy consumption for various inputs such as the weight or the downforce of the car. This tool had already shown that the current "Le Mans" configuration of the car (low drag) was not the most adapted to the requirements of the Nordschleife. Increasing the downforce could lead to a lap time improved of about 6 seconds.

What we did in February was confirming those first observations thanks to our Unity real time simulation. The latest developments include the automation of the creation of a "reference lap time", a combination of all the best sector times to deliver the ideal lap for a given car configuration. After building a plan to test several car set-ups, our sim driver from Brazil performed the test in front of the PERRINN members to demonstrate that, undoubtedly, the car is faster with the high downforce package. While we will continue to fine-tune the car, PERRINN contributors from the UK will start the CFD work in order to redesign the full bodywork.

Meanwhile, the Unity simulation will be taken care of by our team of experts from Spain in order to be ready by the end of the year when we will set a new virtual Nürburgring lap record. By the way, even if it is a state of the art tool helping our team of engineers, it is also a game you can link very easily to your own sim rig and have a lot of fun with. It is downloadable here. The car model is now highly realistic after a huge team effort performed by our Unity developers and 3D artists. We hope you like the result !

The PERRINN.com platform is undergoing development too. It looks like the opportunity PERRINN is giving to showcase new talents is attracting more and more people to join the adventure. We are very happy to welcome them within our team and we keep updating the platform as the team grows so that it offers all the functionalities we need to enhance global cooperation. As an example, sorting the threads according to one's interests and sharing images on our chat platform is now easier.

We have had more than 1000 visitors on PERRINN.com and the team is composed of more than 40 members among which almost 20 contributors, twice as much as one year ago, giving their all to deliver the best electric hypercar ever. In February, we were joined by several design engineers, an aero designer who will be able to support all the CFD work and a content creator who will help us advertise the project.

The partnership with SEGULA has been reactivated too as Amandine, a French engineering student, has taken over the role of Battery cooling system designer and is currently performing studies to determine which battery cells configuration is the most suitable and efficient.

Yet, don't worry, there is still room for you. We are looking for new contributors to integrate our 424 core team : there are various positions open. If you are interested, you can find every detail right here. Furthermore, a mechanical design challenge will take place very soon to give new designers the opportunity to join us. Fun is never far away from PERRINN, stay tuned !

January 2022:

Here we are : 2022... the year that will lead us to the Virtual Lap Record attempt on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, so exciting!

We are ready to gear up for a new year full of developments, learning, emulation and fun! To be honest, we have never really paused as we are thrilled by passion.

At the very beginning of the month, an updated roadmap was built to disclose accurate objectives for each quarter of 2022, 2023 and 2024. After breaking the Nürburgring lap record virtually in 2022, we aim at repeating the performance in real life mid-2024.

The 424 rear suspension design finally came to an end with the creation of the barrel and the rear brake disk cooling duct that was adapted to the specific needs of the Nordschleife, in accordance with the conception of the specific Nürburgring aero package. It was integrated to the 424 CAD master assembly. By the way, this brand new version of the rear suspension has already been taken care of by our 3D artist and underwent a full retopology to be included in 424 Unity simulation immediately. Doesn't it look nice? Bolstered by this experience, the front suspension is currently receiving our full attention.

The Unity simulation keeps being improved. The best sector times are now automatically identified on the player's screen and merged to display a reference lap time. Autopilot uses this data as well as the dash delta time on the driver's steering wheel. Comparing various car configurations in the Unity simulation will be very straightforward now that this tool is at our disposal!

In addition to a team of very talented individuals, achieving our goals will require some funding. This is why we will soon open a crowdfunding platform where the public will be invited to buy some digital COINS and own a part of our team.

Without you, there's no us. Join us.