Zircotec ceramic thermal barrier helps resolve BTCC car’s heat problem

Zircotec’s ceramic exhaust coating has helped a British Touring Car Championship team reduce its car’s underbonnet temperatures. Team Dynojet’s Toyota Avensis has seen an improvement in performance and reliability since using Zircotec’s ThermoHold coating, delivering a string of podium finishes. Race engine developers X CTech R selected the ThermoHold-based thermal barrier to deliver close to a 37 per cent drop in under-bonnet temperatures. This protects the gearbox from the effects of heat, allowing the team to focus on other areas of performance, resulting in three podiums in the last two meetings.

New for 2011, the NGTC-spec Avensis uses a road-derived Toyota 2000 cc engine. Modifications by the engine developer X CTech R push output from 140bhp to around 300bhp, requiring careful packaging and heat management to increase reliability. “The Toyota 3ZR engine is a lightweight, compact package which we have optimised to ensure delivery of the required performance and durability,” says X CTech R technical director Mark Faulkner.

The introduction midway through the season of Zircotec’s thermal barrier coating was vital in this optimisation, according to Zircotec’s sales director Peter Whyman: “Our lightweight and very thin coating provides excellent thermal protection even in tight packaging spaces such as a touring car engine bay.”

The ceramic coating was assessed on the engine dyno and also in the car with back to back comparisons showing that performance gains were also achieved. “On the dyno the ceramic coated exhaust gave an improvement in turbocharger response, as more energy was retained within the exhaust rather than radiated as heat,” adds Faulkner. “In vehicle, a significant reduction in underbonnet temperatures was achieved with the Zircotec coated exhaust. This contributes to reduced air intake temperatures, releasing more power.”

With this specification of engine to be adopted by all BTCC runners in 2013, Zircotec is hopeful its coatings will become as widespread in touring cars as they are in Formula One, where nearly all the teams use its coatings technology to solve heat, reliability and performance issues.