DENSO: Rallying to the thermal management cause

26 August 2022  

A new video from DENSO has been produced in association with its motorsport partner Toyota Gazoo Racing to show the importance of efficient thermal management and the impact of hybridisation, using the high pressure environment of the World Rally Championship as an example.

Toyota Gazoo Racing Technical Director Tom Fowler observed: “Heat management is always a balancing act because of the range of temperatures, altitudes and different conditions we see in the sport of rally, So, we need to develop a car with the minimum number of different parts that, because of the technical regulations, can be adapted to all of the conditions we will see during the hugely variable special stages throughout the season.”

The programme began at Rally Mexico in 2017, where the principal challenge facing the team and its partners, including DENSO’s engineers, was to overcome the severe overheating problems the was experiencing at this first, very hot event.

Much of the development work was undertaken at the DENSO Thermal Systems R&D facility in Italy, where, with the benefit of a full-scale wind tunnel. Pressure on the thermal management system has increased as it now also needs to cool the vehicle’s hybrid system. R&D Director Matteo Biglia observed: “Cooling a very powerful internal combustion engine combined with the hybrid powertrain is something that we do every day for our hybrids and plug in hybrid applications, but packaging so much cooling power into such tight space? This is where we are really forced to find new solutions, which we can then transform into more compact, efficient, and lighter applications, for our mass production customers.”

On how this work feeds into the overall parts offering, DENSO Europe, Pan European Strategic Marketing Manager Fatiha Laauich observed: “This professionalism and dedication to OE quality is also carried over into DENSO’s aftermarket programme, which means that technicians and workshops serving the independent service and repair sector, can have complete confidence in the replacement components supplied by the company’s distributors across Europe.”

To view the video, go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRTnZRPEBHI