Press Release
Top Speed over 300 km/h
BMW Writes Automobile History and underlines Technological Leadership
Hydrogen means top performance not only in rockets travelling to outer space:BMW has proven what the hydrogen car is able to offer, setting up 9 records for hydrogen-drive cars with combustion engine. "Nine records marking the start into the hydrogen age. BMW technology has already come a long way. Now, together with politicians and the energy industry, we must turn our vision of sustained mobility into reality", stated Professor Burkhard Göschel, Board Member of the BMW Group, during the speed record trials in Miramas. Achieving this amazing success at the high-speed Miramas Proving Grounds in France, the BMW Group has clearly proven its conviction that hydrogen is able to replace conventional fuel without requiring the driver to make the slightest compromise in terms of dynamic, up-to-date performance.
Indeed, the specifications of the H2R Record Car clearly confirm this superiority, the six-litre 12 cylinder power unit developing an output of more than 210 kW or 285 bhp. This accelerates the BMW prototype to 100 km/h in approximately 6 seconds and gives it a top speed of 302,4 km/h (185,52 mph). Based on the gasoline power unit featured in the BMW 760i, BMW's hydrogen combustion engine boasts the most advanced technologies such as BMW's fully variable VALVETRONIC valve drive.
The main modifications to the engine involve the fuel injection system adapted by BMW to the special features and requirements of hydrogen, the H2R Record Car benefiting from the results gained in series development of BMW's future hydrogen engine for the world's first premium saloon built for dual-mode operation: BMW will be launching a dual-mode version of the current 7 Series during the production cycle of the present model, thus introducing the first car of its kind able to run on both hydrogen and gasoline.
The H2R prototype set up the following records shown here in terms of times measured and speed achieved:
BMW works drivers Alfred Hilger, Jörg Weidinger and Günther Weber took turns at the wheel of the Record Car in their record-breaking session.
BMW's motive in setting up these records was not only to prove the power and performance the hydrogen engine is able to offer. Rather, the reliability and durability of the technology used clearly demonstrates the supremacy of BMW in developing the hydrogen engine to production standard. In this process BMW is concentrating on the combustion engine, simply because the combustion power unit, given the sum total of all its features and characteristics, still offers the largest number of advantages and benefits all in one.
"We had just 10 months to develop the H2R prototype", states Jürgen Kübler, the H2R Project Manager. But a short time span like this is quite normal for the creative engineers that make this Company so very special.
In the process the engineers and development specialists were of course supported by three factors: First, the components featured in BMW's hydrogen production car of the future have now reached a high degree of maturity allowing their unproblematic and straightforward adaptation for the record car. Second, the development specialists were able in the development process to use proven BMW chassis and suspension systems naturally meeting the strictest requirements. And third, consistent, far-reaching use of CAD technology allowed a clearly oriented and time-saving development process.
The most significant differences in terms of the engine's structural components are the hydrogen injection valve and the choice of materials for the combustion chambers: Contrary to the production engine with fuel injected directly into the combustion chambers themselves, the injection valves in the hydrogen engine are integrated in the intake manifolds. And for the specific speed record requirements to be fulfilled in this case, the hydrogen combustion engine was designed and built for single-mode operation running exclusively on hydrogen.
This allowed the engineers to set up and tune the engine specifically for hydrogen requirements, for example by using special valve seat rings made of an appropriate material. The reason for this necessity is that hydrogen does not have the lubricating effect of a conventional gasoline/air mixture. And it is worth noting in this context that this need to cope with a lower level of lubrication already arose in the past when introducing unleaded gasoline, production engines since then being built with even stronger and more resistant materials.
Inside the engine the high combustion speed of the hydrogen/air mixture generates a higher temperature than in an engine running on gasoline. Engine management of the BMW H2R Record Car has been modified accordingly, the hydrogen/air mixture not being ignited until the piston reaches top dead centre, thus ensuring maximum output. With a gasoline/air mixture burning relatively slowly, by comparison, the mixture must be ignited at an increasingly early point as a function of engine speed, the pressure peak thus being reached just as the piston starts to move down.
A significant advantage of the higher combustion pressure of the hydrogen/air mixture is that the generation of more power from the same amount of energy means a higher degree of efficiency.
As desirable as the high standard of ignitability of hydrogen within the engine may be, it naturally requires a great deal of attention outside of the combustion chamber. To avoid misfiring, for example, BMW's engineers have developed a specific gas cycle and injection strategy, with BMW's VANOS infinite camshaft adjustment masterminding the share of residual gas according to specific, on-demand requirements:
Before the hydrogen/air mixture is able to flow into the cylinders, the combustion chambers are cooled by air to ensure that the fuel/air mixture is not able to ignite in an undesired, uncontrolled process.
The H2R Record Car: developed in just 10 months
The BMW H2R Record Car was conceived, designed and developed by BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH, the legendary subsidiary of BMW AG. The name "H2R" stands for "H two Race Car", "Hydrogen Record Car" or "Hydrogen Research Car". The engine: series production 12 cylinder specially adapted for hydrogen
The "heart" of the H2R Record Car is based by and large on BMW's top-of-the-range power unit, the Company's six-litre 12 cylinder. It is able to run on hydrogen fuel through the adjustment of engine management as well as the fuel/air mixture formation components. Hydrogen providing enhanced efficiency
A fundamental consideration is that the combustion properties of hydrogen are quite different from those of gasoline or diesel: While hydrogen burns faster than conventional fuels under normal air pressure, the combustion temperature is slightly lower than in the case of gasoline.
