“If you really want to learn and get better at anything and to have any chance of becoming an expert, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable. That’s because thinking takes effort. It involves fighting through confusion and, for most of us, that’s at least somewhat unpleasant.”
So says the closing quote in a great video by Veritasium, one of my favourite Youtube channels. If you share my goal to finish each day a little smarter than you started it, this channel is indispensable.
In his video “The Science of Thinking” (scroll down), Veritasium’s Derek Muller dives into the System 1/System 2 thinking model explored so eloquently in Daniel Kahneman’s book “Thinking Fast and Slow” and shows why learning feels hard and takes time. I’ve been struggling with this truth all week, as I set myself a project to understand more about energy.
The Origins of Energy
Today we may think of the concept of energy as fundamental to the human experience, but it’s a relatively recent arrival. Though Aristotle spoke of “energeia” in the fourth century BC, the Greek word was not directly translatable. The German mathematician and philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, formulated ideas corresponding to our modern understanding of kinetic and potential energy in the 17th century, but it was not until the early part of the 19th century that Thomas Young used the term ‘energy’ in the way we mean it today.
Young’s use of the word did not gain traction and it popped up only sporadically in science until Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity in 1905. By the time his Theory of General Relativity was published in 1916, the notion of energy was becoming widespread. But let’s go back to Leibniz.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born in Leipzig in July 1646. His father – a professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Leipzig – died when Gottfried was six years old, leaving his son a substantial library. In April 1661, the fourteen year-old enrolled at Leipzig, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy just eighteen months later. He then spent another year earning a masters in the subject.
Opining that philosophy and law were connected in theory and practice, Leibniz then spent a year studying law and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in the subject in September 1665. The following year, Leipzig refused the young man’s application for a doctorate – a process that normally took three years and included a licence to practice law – so he left Leipzig and went to the University of Altdorf. The university awarded the twenty year-old with his licence and doctorate in February 1667. They also offered him an academic position, which he declined.
Leibniz’ life is an incredible story. He worked in alchemy, law and international diplomacy until a meeting with a physicist and mathematician revealed a flawed understanding of both subjects. Studying maths led to the formulation of an entirely new form of calculus and the invention of a calculating machine called the Stepped Reckoner, a model of which he presented to the Royal Society in the 1673. The Society instantly made him a member.
Period engineering struggled to manufacture the intricate machine, but restoration of his final version in the late 19th century showed that it worked. The machine survives in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz library at the University of Hanover.
Leibniz vs Newton and Descartes
Leibniz was active across many areas and his work brought him into conflict with other thinkers of the time, including Newton and Descartes. Sides taken in the fallout from these disputes would lead to virtual anonymity at the time of his death, but his work has since earned significant approval.
Many of Leibniz’ ideas would not be proven until centuries later. Positioning himself against Newton, he argued that space, time and motion were relative rather than absolute. This was not settled until Einstein and the discovery of subatomic particles supported Leibniz’ theory of motion, based on the existence of both kinetic and potential energy.
Other Leibniz ideas included the molten core of the earth, the existence of an unconscious mind and the development of national insurance systems. He pre-empted game theory and information theory and is regarded as one of the first computer scientists: while researching other cultures and comparing notes on metaphysics, Leibniz read the Chinese I Ching text and reinterpreted the Ying/Yang symbol as a zero and one.
I don’t know where to stop with Leibniz: he is simply incredible. Nowadays, a person with one game-changing idea in life is granted hero status, but here is a man to match Da Vinci and yet we have scarcely heard of him. I tripped over him in a BBC video on the concept of energy, which led me to Leibniz and Emmy Noether’s theorem on the physics of symmetry. This is where my tiny brain is struggling hardest at the minute, but I am working on it.
Porsche Parts: Pure Energy
When I was first sent the photos accompanying this post, they immediately intrigued me. Shot by a famous German photographer, the images show various Porsche parts in an explosive state of animation. Echoing the two-dimensional parts diagrams all car enthusiasts will be familiar with, these energetic three-dimensional photos of Porsche parts challenge our notions of the inanimate nature of car parts and question our concept of energy in a pivotal time for consideration and conservation.
As energy cannot be created or destroyed, the energy that went into creating these parts and the energy they will generate throughout their useful life is significant. Even static, every part in these photos embodies energy that has surrounded our world since the very beginning.
We must also consider the question of the human energy invested in these parts: the design. manufacture and assembly and the creation of these incredible photographs. Energy everywhere moving from one form to another – a fascinating train of thought, especially if one has watched enough Star Wars movies. May the force be with you.
Our energy future is a significant challenge: whether we will continue to survive as a species largely depends on how we allocate our energy resources and how we choose to expend our own energy. It is important that as well as looking forward, we look back to lives such as Leibniz and Noether and are inspired by the mental energy they invested into stretching the collective consciousness and understanding of the universe.
I’ll conclude with a nod to Leipzig University’s page on the origins of energy as a concept, which I drew upon while writing this piece. “The concept of “energy” has entered common speech in ways that are often confusing and contradictory. Everyday expressions such as “energy production” or “renewable energy” contradict the energy conservation law which, as we recall, asserts that energy cannot be created or destroyed. The scientific definition of energy by the law of energy conservation also does not do much to help us understand expressions like “an energetic person”.
For an everyday working definition of “energy”, we might look back to Aristotle for inspiration. Stated simply, he said: Energy is a condition that describes the capacity to do work.”
While Aristotle’s point is a subtle one and considering the nature of energy to include creative and contemplative energy may be intolerable from a purely mathematical position, being more appreciative of energy and the increasing importance of our relationship with the concept in all of its accepted forms is paramount to our future.
If these engaging images help us to take a step back from viewing their subjects as simply constituent elements in a privileged form of personal transport and classifying them only in terms of the thrills they deliver, they will have transgressed their intended function and inspired more energy than their designers and manufacturers could have ever imagined. That is exciting on so many levels.
Photo Credits:
Bernd Ebsen – Photographer Oliver Naske – Set in Motion (Set building) Nils Emde – Splash camshaft Imagerefinery – Postproduction Tom Schönfeld – Assistant
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Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
I recently read an interesting article in a Fast Company newsletter, sharing how engineers at Penn State University have come up with a new technique to dramatically increase the charge rate of electric vehicle batteries.
“We demonstrated that we can sufficiently charge an electrical vehicle in ten minutes to give a range of two to three hundred miles,” said Chao-Yang Wang, project lead and director of the Electrochemical Engine Centre at Penn State University. “We can do this maintaining 2,500 charging cycles, or the equivalent of half a million miles of travel.”
The new technique centres on heat. Up to now, charging rates have been limited due to degradation in lithium-ion batteries when charged at normal ambient temperatures. The research showed that deposits of lithium were forming on the battery anodes when charged at less than fifty degrees Celsius.
The researchers discouraged the plating by increasing the heat to sixty degrees C. At this temperature, batteries could be charged up to 2,500 times with no evidence of lithium plating. The same process tried at twenty degrees C showed huge degradation, with batteries showing significant deterioration due to plating after just sixty recharges.
Battery Charge Management
The symptoms seem close to the plating one finds on normal lead acid car batteries after standard charging on trickle chargers etc. Batteries left uncharged or on a low trickle charge for months can build up deposits of lead sulphate on the plates that permanently degrade the performance, with a marked increase in degradation in lower temperatures.
Owners can mitigate the effects of this plating by using battery chargers with charge management programmes, that vary the amount of voltage being fed into the battery. I have CTEK, Optimate and Facom smart chargers but there are plenty of others to choose from.
I got into using charge management devices when the kids were younger and I had an American motorhome/RV fitted with Elecsol carbon fibre leisure batteries. NLA nowadays, these batteries were efficient and lasted longer when maintained with a CTEK charger while the camper was stored between trips. Ambient temperatures had a noticeable impact on performance.
The current charge times for a 300-mile range on the typical EV are said to be about 50 minutes, meaning that Penn Sate has cut the charge rate by some 80%. The mind boggles as to what other developments across this technology may eventually be capable of bringing to EVs and the rest of our tech.
I got into a conversation with a friend today about scattering ashes. I’ve written about what led up to the chat and what’s happened since, but it may be too deep for a Thursday. I’ll share it another time.
It was a fun conversation. He was talking about how they scattered his dad’s ashes in a river: a strange will request, as his dad hated water and couldn’t swim. When they shook the ashes over the surface of the water, they did not float off on the current but sank straight to the bottom. “That’s aquaphobia at DNA level,” I said. “Even as ashes, he still couldn’t swim.”
Just as it’s impossible for us to sidestep our genetic building blocks, a new and interesting video on the GT3 Touring shows how closely the latest 911s remain tied to the old. The Touring is a spoilerless GT3 with a manual gearbox and all who have driven it have raved about its engine and its energy. A 9,000 redline gives it aural appeal, while the unspoilered tail brings us back in time to the first of the flared-arch, flat-tailed impact bumper cars. How it behaves under duress on track could not be more impact bumper.
Driving the Porsche is Andy Pilgrim. Born in Britain, Andy studied computer programming in the UK and then moved off to Michigan for a job with GM in Detroit. Arriving in the US with just one hundred bucks in his pocket (sounds pretty familiar), he programmed software for $12,000 a year before moving down south for better money and racing.
Working hard, he eventually saved enough cash to do a bit of racing and ended up making a name for himself. His career developed through Formula Renault into GT cars. He has raced many Porsches: at Le Mans alongside Stephane Ortelli and Sebring and Pikes Peak with Alan McNish, amongst others. He now runs a road safety school to make up for the below-par American driving test and teach kids how to drive safely, has driven with Patrick Long and Tim Pappas at Black Swan Racing and also instructs at NCM Motorsport Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky: not too far from my family in Lexington.
Andy also works with Automobile Magazine, and his latest video for their Youtube channel takes a GT3 Touring in beautiful Sapphire Blue Metallic on track in Kentucky. The run down the half-mile straight perfectly illustrates the Touring’s main selling point – the 4-litre engine – but the hot laps show how a Touring can bite. Scroll down for the video.
Physics: Modern v Classic
“It’s a very cold day here at NCM Motorsport Park and I’m trying to warm the tyres up as I wanted to give it a shot at a hot lap.” As the Pilgrim ploughs down the main straight and turns right into turn one, the rear of the car drifts left and Andy corrects, catches it, corrects again and catches that before the third swing kicks in. The behaviour will be familiar to anyone who has ever experienced an old 911 on track: it’s the laws of physics at work. The age of the thing trying to wrap up the physics doesn’t matter so much.
Porsche let Andy keep the car for a few more days until the weather warmed up and he did set a hot lap. Deciding not to change up ahead of some corners to hold on to the gear for the exit, he hits rev range one several times on the lap, but that Florida-registered demo has seen some action on Youtube and in print. No doubt the next owner will get a full warranty.
“Have to use all the road on this one. You’re going to see quite a lot of oversteer correction,” says Andy on his lap. “The Touring does not have all the downforce of the regular GT3: the regular GT3 has 150 lbs of downforce at 124 mph and the Touring has about 50 lbs of downforce.” The car sets a 2:11.8 in the cold: seven-tenths slower than a PDK GT3 over a fairly long lap, which I think is pretty good going.
“The GT3 Touring is kind of a split personality,” concludes Andy. “On track, it took all of my skill to get a really good laptime out of the car and it actually reminded me in a throwback way to the Porsche 911s I drove on track twenty years ago. They let you know there was a lot of weight back there and you used to not have a lot of downforce to help you.
“Well, welcome to the Touring: it doesn’t have a whole lot of downforce. But, on the street? I tell ya, it’s just such a joy to drive any GT3, but this one without the wing is a little more understated. If it’s not the best 911 you can buy today, it’s gotta be one of the top three.
None of my first 911s had spoilers and I can vividly remember my first high-speed drive in a friend’s ’86 3.2 Carrera with rear spoiler down the A43 near Silverstone. Hitting 130 mph in that car was completely different to my no spoiler SC Cabriolet at the same speed. I changed to a Carrera 3.0 Coupe soon after, fitted an early Turbo rear tail and have never taken it off.
Days of 120-130 mph as a regular thing on UK roads are well behind us now so spoilers may be once again irrelevant. A no-spoiler GT3 Touring would be on my list if I had the money to spend. From roughly £200k in their honeymoon period after launch, the cars are now showing somewhere around the £165k mark as used sales versus a base cost new of about £115k.
Expect to see them getting cheaper still. 991 GT3s with a few miles now start around £100k or so and, while Tourings won’t get quite that cheap anytime soon, there are always more cars for buyers to chase. Tourings will keep coming back to the market and get a little cheaper as new models supersede them. Nevertheless, they are emotional. I envy anyone who gets to drive one of these cars every day.
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I caught the first Porsche Supercup race of the Mexico Grand Prix weekend tonight. While I haven’t missed a Grand Prix in over ten years, it’s been a while since I watched a Supercup race. Unsurprisingly, not much has changed since last time.
Michael Ammermüller has been a smooth operator since coming to Supercup in 2012. A former Red Bull Racing test driver, he raced single seaters before Porsches, so, when he does not start on pole, he has a way of getting to the front without inflicting too much collateral damage en route. This is not the Supercup norm.
The first race in Mexico exemplified the contrast between the man from Passau in Bavaria and most of the rest, when the championship leader took an early lead and wasted no time building a gap. Meanwhile, the young hot shots who have vied for Weissach’s attention and championship honours all year were dropping bodywork and running miles beyond track limits to ultimately slow each other down and finish well off the pace.
Holding on to positions by cutting corners and chicanes is amateur stuff: they could all do with watching how the champion brought his third title home. It was a surprise that the race director did not pull them up a bit harder. I guess that is probably fair enough in the title decider for a one-make championship but, if drivers knew they would be penalised for running off track and gaining an advantage, then they might drive accordingly.
Ammermüller is now just two races off a new record of wins in the series and has matched René Rast for total championships won. Four would match Patrick Huismann and five would set a new benchmark. Onwards and upwards, Michael.
Porsche Supercup renews F1® contract to 2022
Porsche recently renewed its contract to run Supercup races as part of Grand Prix weekends up to and including 2022. “We’re proud to forge ahead with this close and long-established partnership,” said Fritz Enzinger. “Formula 1® offers an exclusive setting with a unique flair. This fascination and high media importance represent an ideal overall package for our racing series.”
Supercup has been part of F1’s support programme since its debut season in 1993. Famous and fashionable circuits such as Spa-Francorchamps, Monza and Monte Carlo are regular fixtures on the racing calendar of the international one-make cup. Drivers compete in 485 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars: the racing vehicles are technically identical, as are the tyres and the fuel, guaranteeing equal chances for all.
“We are pleased to extend our long-standing partnership with Porsche for a further three years,” said Ross Brawn, F1’s Motorsport Director. “This one-make series provides some of the most spectacular racing of any series and contributes significantly to the show that’s on offer over a Grand Prix weekend. Furthermore, in the thirty years during which it has run alongside Formula 1, the Porsche Supercup has provided an excellent launch pad for many drivers who have also made their mark in international races at all levels.”
Porsche works driver, Earl Bamber, is so far the only Supercup champion (2015) who has gone on to win a World Endurance Driver’s Championship title (2017), although 2014 champ, Nicki Thiim, did win a World Endurance GT Driver’s Championship title with Aston in 2016.
René Rast was one of the most thrilling Supercup champions to watch. He has gone on to win the 24 Hours of both Spa and the Nürburgring, as well as DTM titles in 2017 and 2019. Double champion, Richard Westbrook (2006/7) went on to win the 2009 FIA GT2 championship, while 2001 champion Jorg Bergmeister won the 2003 Daytona 24 Hours and the 2006 Rolex Grand-Am championship.
In recent years, the Supercup series has become a bit of a proving ground for Porsche Juniors, with Sven Muller winning the 2016 title and Dennis Olsen running Ammermüller hard in 2017. I like to see cut of the Juniors in Supercup, but it does give me a thrill to see a proper gentleman-racer-with a-day-job like Ammermüller take the title. His trademark speed and class is what Supercup is all about. What a great job.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
I’ve spent a lot of time with the Singer DLS in recent months. Our paths have crossed on several occasions, so I’ve had plenty of time to explore the project up close. The details are special.
Daniel Simon was creative advisor/top banana on the DLS styling. If you have never heard of the man, it is worth learning more: check out the Daniel Simon website. I follow Daniel on Instagram and his feed is highly engaging: from beautiful sculpted robotic race cars to hanging out with Valentino Rossi and designing with Singer, there’s so much great stuff. Porsche plays more than a small part.
One thing that I found quite surprising when I first started following Daniel was his work on the Star Wars films. “Working on Star Wars Episode VIII was a twenty-year dream come true,” he said. “My contribution is negligible among the insane talent of the entire art department, and it is unforgettable to work with Rian Johnson and the fine folks of ILM.”
Daniel contributed to Episode VIII and also designed several vehicle concepts, including an ‘unstable’ speeder and a luxury cruiser. The artwork is shared on his Instagram feed and is worth checking out, if only to study the level of detail that top line designers will put to in presenting their concepts.
Copyright by Cosmic Motors LLC / Daniel Simon
www.danielsimon.com
Porsche is not far, far away
Porsche has now announced that some of its own designers will work with the Lucasfilm team to design a ship for the world premiere of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”.
“Developing a spacecraft with clear Porsche design DNA is exciting and challenging,” said Michael Mauer, Vice President Style Porsche at Porsche AG. “Though they don’t seem to share many elements at first glance, both worlds have a similar design philosophy. The close collaboration with the Star Wars design team inspires and fascinates us – I’m sure that both sides can draw major benefits from this exchange.”
I’m not sure about the similar design philosophy bit (not that I am any sort of expert) but the major benefit to the exchange is fairly obvious. Alongside the model starship at the premiere, Porsche will showcase the Taycan. US deliveries start at the end of this year and Hollywood is packed with early adopters, so why not tie the electric sportscar into the PR maelstrom and give it the blessing of Skywalker?
I can see the scene now: “Hello, 911. May the force be with you.” “Hello Taycan. I’m not your father.” I need a t-shirt of this.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or to engage with me in other ways, you can:
Porsche’s recent announcement of a collaboration with Boeing is part of a wider Boeing push for upbeat PR. In the aftermath of the tragic 737 Max air crashes that led to the death of more than 300 people, Boeing’s share price needs good-news stories to reverse recent losses and to remind its investors that the company is focused on the future.
Porsche investors also like a good news story. Stuttgart’s push towards defining electric vehicle mobility for the 1%, and the constant reminders that innovation is at the heart of ‘new Porsche’ made this year’s first flight of the electric aircraft under development by Boeing subsidiary, Aurora Flight Sciences, an ideal PR platform for both organisations.
Having signed a (non-binding) Memorandum of Understanding to develop a concept for a fully electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, the artist’s impressions of what a Porsche-Boeing flying car might look like is guaranteed to grab a few headlines, but there is a long way to go before we see flying cars. Both organisations have serious issues to resolve before high-flying Porsche buyers can reach for the skies.
Several hundred deceased 737 passengers and the row over Boeing engineers carrying out the US Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) safety approvals of the 737 MAX are not going to go away quickly.
Across the pond in Germany, the emissions cheating scandal continues to dog Volkswagen AG, with Brunswick public prosecutors recently bringing charges against Hans Dieter Pötsch (Porsche SE exec board chair), Dr. Herbert Diess (VW’s board of management chair) and the former Chairman of the VW Management Board, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn.
With headlines like these dominating recent business pages, some flying car artwork will come as a blessed relief for the press departments. It will also lead to some people describing the idea as Porsche’s latest bid to keep tabs on Tesla’s challenge to become the high-end personal mobility brand of the future, but that is a whole other story.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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