With a speed of more than 150 km/h, the snowmobile event is a combination of skill and technology, which can be called ice F1.
Text/ "Autobot" Michael
The highly anticipated Beijing Winter Olympics opened triumphantly, and ice and snow projects that were relatively unfamiliar to Chinese audiences for a while began to refresh their heat.
Compared with the traditional advantages of the mainland such as winter sports such as speed skating, figure skating, and freestyle skiing aerial skills, track racing such as bobsleigh and bobsleigh is less well known. However, as the absolute speed champion in the unpowered racing Olympic event, snowmobiling incorporates quite a few modern technologies, including cutting-edge technologies such as materials science and aerodynamics.
Bobsleigh originated in Switzerland at the end of the 19th century, when the Swiss installed a steering rudder on the sleigh for hundreds of years after it had become a means of transportation in snow-covered areas – the bobsleigh was born.
In 1987, the world's first snowmobile club was born in St. Moritz, Switzerland, which also meant that bobsleigh officially became a competitive sport. On November 23, 1923, the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation) was founded in Paris, France, which is currently the highest international organization for snowmobile projects.
Legend has it that the first brother to drive the first snowmobile (made up of two bobsleighs assembled from the front and back) down the hill was named BOB, so the bobsleigh was named Bobsleigh (Bob Sleigh), or Bob for short.
The modern bobsleigh program is divided into Monobob, 2-Man Bob and the most traditional four-man bobscar according to the number of occupants. Among them, the four-person snowmobile has the longest history and is also the prototype of snowmobiling. The four-person bobsleigh is also the fastest of all snowmobiles and bobsleighs, and after continuous technological innovation and improvement, its maximum speed can exceed 150km/h.
The basic structure of the snowmobile consists of a chassis, a cockpit, a coaster, a protective cover, a steering rudder and a brake, and there are three sets of handles on the outside of the snowmobile. From front to back, the driver's handle, side handle and tail handle are the parts that the snowmobile is in direct contact with when pushing the snowmobile.
As the only one of three shared track racing events (bobscar, steel frame bobsleigh and bobsleigh) with steering and braking functions, the bobsleigh is equipped with steering control handles inside the bobscar, and the driver controls the steering of the body through pulling motions.
Unlike bobsleighs, bobsleighs and steel-framed bobsleighs do not sit in the car until the race starts. The initial power of the snowmobile race comes from the athlete's running aid outside the snowmobile, and after pushing the car to help run, the athlete jumps into the car to start the race, and the scene is very exciting.
Only the single-player steel frame bobsleigh race, although closer to the sled in terms of equipment, is consistent with the snowmobile in the starting style. The steel frame snowmobile runner provides the initial speed by running on its own, and then flies on the steel frame snowmobile to start the race. It is worth mentioning that in this Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Zhao Dan, the standard-bearer of the Chinese sports delegation, is a female steel frame snowmobile athlete.
The S (Skeleton) in the four letters of the International Snowmobile Federation - IBSF stands for steel frame snowmobile. The steel-framed snowmobile equipment does not provide steering and braking, and the control during the race depends entirely on the movement of the athlete's center of gravity, which is achieved through the deceleration zone at the end of the track.
Since we are talking about the deceleration zone, we have to talk about the venue of snowmobiling - the slopes.
At present, there are 17 official pistes certified by IBSF, distributed all over the world, and the China National Bobsleigh Center Circuit, which will host the bobsleigh event at the Beijing Winter Olympics, is one of them, and it is also the longest and newest of the current 17 tracks.
The National Bobsleigh Center Circuit, also known as the "Snow Dragon", is located on Xiaohaituo, Yanqing District, Beijing. The new 1,975-metre track, which was just delivered in July 2021, features the world's only 360° regular circular curve (Turn 11). The track of the bobsleigh and bobsleigh race needs to be covered with ice throughout the whole process, and the flatness error must not exceed 1 mm, which requires extremely high design technology and construction and maintenance accuracy.
And the snowmobile speeding on such a high-precision, high-tech track requires a very high level of technical support. Whether it is the structure or material process, it has reached the level of aerospace grade.
While China's automobile industry is gradually catching up with the world's advanced level, snowmobiles, as another unique "vehicle", are also pursuing localization, so that The Chinese team can use Chinese cars, which is the wish of every Chinese who pays attention to and loves snowmobiling.
In 2019, the 703Th Research Institute of the First Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd. began to develop domestic snowmobiles. Integrating aerospace technology, 703 has boldly innovated in terms of aerodynamic shape and process materials, which has reduced the wind resistance of the first generation of domestic snowmobiles by 8% while ensuring structural strength.
In terms of the chassis structure and handling performance of the snowmobile, the first generation of domestic snowmobiles still has room for improvement, and at this time, the Chinese automobile industry provides an indispensable boost for the design and manufacture of snowmobiles.
In January 2021, shortly after the commissioning of China's first-generation snowmobile prototype, China FAW Group, once the founder of China's automobile industry, officially joined the development of the second generation of domestic snowmobiles.
Through years of accumulation and innovation, China FAW has strong R&D capabilities in the automotive industry such as chassis and transmission structure, which also injects strong technical impetus into this "aerospace + automobile" R&D portfolio.
Soon, in September of the same year, the second-generation domestic snowmobile, which poured aerospace technology and cutting-edge automobile technology, not only met the strict standards of IBSF in terms of materials, processes, quality and size, but also further improved its performance was finally delivered to the Winter Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sport.
The delivery of domestic snowmobiles not only witnesses the convergence of aerospace science and technology and Olympic projects, but also means that the research and development of high-tech sports equipment and technological progress representing national honors have been integrated into the background of the automobile industry. The First China FAW, which contributed to it, took this opportunity to reach a strategic cooperative relationship with the Winter Games Center of the General Sports Federation, and the Hongqi brand will be on the stage of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games together with the Chinese Winter Olympic athletes.
In addition to presenting the Hongqi H9 sedan to the Chinese Winter Olympic delegation, the Hongqi H5, HS5, HS7 and Hydrogen Energy Vehicles will also shoulder the task of providing all-round, whole-process and all-weather vehicle support for Chinese athletes during the Games. After years of serving the military parade, major conferences and other big scenes, Hongqi Car has now added color to the Winter Olympics for the first time, showing a new image of China's automobile industry under global attention.
The "New Red Flag" born in 2018 took 3 years to achieve a performance explosion of 42 times compared with before the transformation, which can be called a beautiful talk in the history of China's automobile industry.
The target of "100,000 sales in 2020" set at the time of the announcement of the new strategy of the Hongqi brand in 2018 had been doubled at that time. The vision of "300,000 vehicles in 2025" was also reached four years ahead of schedule in 2021.
The reborn Hongqi car not only has greatly evolved in design, showing the grace and atmospheric style of "the first brother of the national car", but also achieved first-class standards in terms of product power details. According to the latest data, the sales volume of the Hongqi brand reached 42,100 units in January 2022, an increase of 30% year-on-year.
Under the dual needs of electrification transformation and "double carbon target", Hongqi brand launched a high-end electric car product - Hongqi E-QM5, which pointed to the 200,000-250,000 yuan car market with the most fierce competition and the strictest requirements for brand premium ability.
Hongqi E-QM5 adopts a high-resistance torsion cage body of 42846Nm/°, and has active safety functions such as FCW forward collision warning, AEB automatic emergency braking, and driver fatigue monitoring reminder to ensure the safety of both active and passive aspects.
In terms of battery safety, Hongqi E-QM5 adopts the original honeycomb all-aluminum super battery pack structure, which strictly prevents battery fire and explosion through 16 safety verifications including extrusion and high-temperature fire.
The national car protects the journey, and the red flag is given to the athletes. China FAW not only escorted the race on the road, but also brought a truly sophisticated domestic snowmobile to the Chinese snow team. In the snowmobile race called ice F1, Chinese will drive a Chinese car on the Olympic stage for the first time.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics snowmobile event will officially start on February 10, and a total of four gold medals will be decided on the 14th, 15th, 19th and 20th respectively for the women's single, men's double, women's double and four-person snowmobile. The steel frame bobsleigh event will start on February 7, with the women's and men's finals on the 11th and 12th respectively.
At that time, Chinese snowmobile athletes will represent the national honor to gallop on the Yanqing "Snow Dragon" track, no matter what the final result, the moment to witness the history of China's snowmobile will be staged, don't miss it! 【Copyright Notice】This article is the original manuscript of Automan Media, and may not be reproduced without authorization.