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The quickest way
to faster lap times

RACE CAR HANDLING OPTIMIZATION

Magic Numbers to better understand a race car

This is the title of both the book and on-line trainings course which every engineer ought to see! No more further inaccurate tuning of the handling by ‘best guessing’ or by ‘underbelly feeling’, but by calculated decisions.

UPCOMING MASTERCLASS

Ton Serné will be giving a Masterclass 'Designing Spring Rates for Race Cars' during the

Professional Motorsport World Europe in the Kölner Messe, Cologne, Germany at Thursday November 14.

This is a great opportunity to combine the pleasure of visiting the fair (with a high chance of meeting a lot of your colleagues and friends) with a four hour, high level workshop about springs and all the other topics you must know when you are assessing your current springs or when designing new springs.

For further information and registration click here.

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BOOK

 

Click here for a detailed description of the content

More than 400 pages of 11 Chapters with very pragmatic calculations and engineering.

Ordering details:

ISBN 978-3-658-35199-1

Can be ordered from Amazon or Bol.com.

Book
Upcoming trainings
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Online course

ON-LINE TRAININGS COURSE

This course is the narrative to the book, plus much more extra background information which simply didn’t fit in the book.

 

It comprises a total of more than 12 hours of education, which makes it very suitable for students at Bachelor and

Masters (1st and 2nd year) levels at the faculties of Automotive Universities. For these purposes we offer attractive group discounts.

For information about price and ordering details:

Send an email to info@handlingracingcars.com to receive a personalised quotation. 

An overview of the course:

 

 

WHAT WE OFFER MORE

What we offer more

Live Trainings

Topics we can cover during life trainings are:

Race Car Handling Optimization:

This is an intensive and very interactive live training at Bachelor level, which lasts two days. 

Target audience: engineers.

Basic Handling of Race Cars:

Basics of the handling, with much emphasize on the interaction between tyres, geometry and spring/damper units. (4 hrs)

Target audience: mechanics and upcoming engineers.

On-demand :

Training adapted to the wishes of the audience, which can be a manufacturer, a racing team, an educational institute, break-out sessions during a fair/exposition etc.

 

LOCATION

Live trainings can be given at any requested location, like in-house.

 

LANGUAGE

- All trainings can be given in either the English, German or Dutch language.

Consultancy

Ton Serné is always glad to share his knowledge and experience by helping teams with problems concerning the handling of their race cars, by educating new-hires, and in all other situations where a helping hand concerning the handling of a race car is needed.

Q&A

Q – How can I order the book?

A - Order ‘Race Car Handling Optimisation’ with ISBN 978-3-658-35199-1 (Authors Pütz and Serné) from your usual supplier, or order a copy from Amazon or Bol.com.

 

Q – How can I order the on-line training?

A – Please send and email to info@handlingracingcars.com for our very attractive group discounts, which make the use of this training attractive for universities and other educational institutes.

Q – Do the book and on-line training cover the same, or is there a difference?

A – In fact the on-line training covers exactly the same content as the book, but the on-line training provides much more extra background information which simply didn’t fit in the book. The book is to be considered as the hand-out of the on-line training. The difference in content can be perceived as a nice ‘extra’.

Q – Can I follow the on-line training without the book?

A – In theory yes, but in reality no. When you order the on-line training, there is no obligation to buy the book. However, it is likely that you want have some sort of handout.

 

Q – Am I obliged to buy the book and on-line training in one package?

A – No. We have de-coupled the sales of book and on-line training. The reason of this is that you are not obliged to buy the book twice after you first bought the book, and later on decided to follow the on-line training.

Q – For whom are book and on-line training most interesting?

A – The book and on-line training are aimed at the men and women who want to become an engineer who is responsible for the vehicle dynamics. This can be a mechanic who wants to develop herself/himself to an engineer, or all bachelor students at an automotive university, as well as master students in the 1st or 2nd year of an automotive university. This book and on-line training provide a very pragmatic, yet theoretical sound basis for becoming a successful engineer.

Q - You mention the functions of mechanic and engineer. What’s the difference?

A – A mechanic prepares, maintains and repairs the car, and applies the changes in settings which are given by the engineer. The engineer, however, is able to calculate the required values of spring rates, damper rates, anti-roll bar rates, ride heights etc. A wise engineer always listens to his mechanic, who often understands more of the technology beneath the bonnet than the engineer might guess….

 

Q – Is there much difference between the English and the German versions of the book?

A – Yes, quite a bit. Of course some minor corrections were made during the translation, but the major differences are: 1) changes in the chapters about test drives and simulations, and 2) a complete new chapter has been added concerning the calculation of the Five Magic Numbers in a very clear way!

 

Q – Ok, but I still want to buy the German version of the book, how can I do that?

A - Order ‘Rennwagentechnik – Praxislehrgang Fahrwerktechnik’ (Authors Pütz and Serné) with ISBN 978-3-658-26703-2 from your usual supplier.

 

Q – You mentioned ‘Five Magic Numbers’, which are they and why are there not more?

A – The Five Magic Numbers we are covering with book and on-line training are:

%-front static mass, % front Load Transfer, % front Roll Resistance, % front Aerodynamic downforce and last but not least histogram of the shock absorbers. Now, let’s face the facts: it makes sense to first build up the knowledge and experience with the calculation of these 5 MN’s, before you move on to more. First one should understand the difference between the effects of roll and load transfer, or the difference between load transfer and weight transfer, or the difference between the motion ratios of springs and shockabsorbers. It is not before you have these concepts under control before it makes sense moving on to more MN’s. And believe me, this will be much more work than you might guess…. But the book and on-line training are providing clear explanations to help you!

Wegligging klassieke auto's

Downloadable Publications

Publication in ‘Klassiek & Techniek’: sequence of 4 articles published at Oct ’22, Jan ’23, Mar ’23 and June ’23 (Dutch / Nederlands)

Publication in AMT, August 2021 (Dutch / Nederlands)

Publication in Fontys Automotive MME, September 2018 (Dutch / Nederlands)

Publication in Start’84 Autosportmagazine, February 2019 (Dutch / Nederlands)

Publication in Curbs, Juni 2014 (German / Deutsch)

ABOUT TON SERNE

About Ton Serné

 

Ton Serné finished his study Mechanical Engineering in 1977 with a thesis about ‘Handling of Race Cars’. During and after his study he was mechanic in miscellaneous Formula classes, a.o. Formula 1 with the Ensign based Boro team. At the picture Ton with the wet tyres from Gijs van Lennep at the grid of the Dutch GP (In the foreground James Hunt's Hesketh) . Also he raced Formula Ford himself. During the period that he lived in Germany, Ton was team manager of the Bross Formula 3 team, with which team he won the European EFDA cup in 1987. 

Later on he raced various saloon cars like Seat Ibiza and VW Golf GTi. Also he is visiting lecturer ‘Vehicle Dynamics’ at two Dutch universities for Automotive Studies. 

Ton is hired by teams for helping them with questions concerning the dynamcis of the car. As an example: he was involved in the development of the handling (design of the suspension, geometry, dynamics of the springsystem, laptime simulation etc) of a GT4 project.

Currently Ton is teaching Vehicle Dynamics at the ‘Minor Motorsport Engineering’ from Fontys Automotive, Eindhoven. Besides that Ton teaches the young talents of the KNAF Talent First Academy. Some well known names Ton has educated are Job van Uitert (Winner Le Mans LMP2 2019), Rinus Veekay (Indycars) and Max Verstappen.

Together with Prof.Dr. Ralph Pütz from Germany he published a German language book titled 'Rennwagentechnik - Praxislehrgang Fahrdynamik' in August 2017. This book was the basis of the english book ‘Race Car Handling Optimization’ as mentioned on this site. Ton also runs seminars for engineers and drivers, o.a. with Max Verstappen (WC F1), Rinus VeeKay (IndyCars) and Job van Uitert (LMP3).

AND MORE….

Besides being a mechanical engineer, specialized in race car engineering, Ton Serné also is educated as a non-executive officer at the prestigious university of Nyenrode. Ton adds technical knowledge and Beta-thinking to the board

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Met banden van Gijs van Lennep GP Zvt 19

Contact

Ton Serné

iepenlaan 8

5248 AK Rosmalen

The Netherlands

Mobile: +31 6 50128765

E-mail: info@handlingracingcars.com 

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CONTACT FORM

Thank you very much for your message. Ton will answer you at short notice.

Educational Institutions where Ton Serné is/has been a Visiting

Teacher at the Bachelors and Masters faculties for Vehicle Dynamics from race cars:

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Examples of projects where Ton Serné contributed to:

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Besides that, Ton Serné is a performance Engineer to many race teams in various classes in Europe.

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