Ice Challenge 2023: D4S impressive results both in technology and sport!
2023: after years that we decided to support the fast growing International Championship Ice Challenge, we got excellent results, both from technology and sport point of view
Sergio Durante win for the third time and for the second consecutive year with a hybrid rally racing car.
The 2023 Ice Challenge season – International Ice Speed Championship is coming to an end. A really difficult season from the weather point of view, with alternating very cold and very hot temperatures with humidity, the maximum stress for the innovative technologies brought into the field by Durante Space Tech.
With three rounds held, the season is therefore preparing to formalize in its Hall of Fame the verdicts of an exciting and captivating challenge with equally spectacular challenges. Ivan Carmellino boasts of a new overall victory like Sergio Durante, Jean Claude Vallino and Simone Firenze respectively in the hybrid, SSV and 2WD car category.
“Thanks to the teams, the riders, the track managers – concluded BMG Motor Events and D4S Motorsport – to our staff, collaborators, sponsors and partners, to the accommodation facilities that have or should have hosted us. It’s hard to finish like this, but let’s go ahead and think about 2024 from today”.
5 races in Italy and France, new program to annex Austria and Finland in the next year, beautiful cars, famous drivers, television and internet covering.
These are just some of the motivation to push us to be involved in first person. Apart passion, of course…
Sergio Durante in action: photo by Alberto Caldani
The aerospace future is embracing the hybrid technology, but not as you think
Quick question
Why Full Electric is not yet competitive at all with conventional thermal engines? Simply because the energy density ratio between jet A1 fuel and the best battery in the market is 1 to 30. Means that the energy stored in a kg of jet fuel needs to be replaced with 30kg of battery. So the ‘fuel’ will weight 30 times the current one.
Quick conclusion
If we want to build a full electric airplane, and we expect to have the same range of a normal jet airplane replòacing the thermal engine with electric engine… simply we will build an airplane that cannot fly because its weight is over what it can lift up.
By the way
Some innovations are anyway possible, like the one we are bringing ahead, in order to increase the efficiency of the current state of the art, like using system able to convert all the energy wasted in heat, turbulences, and other in electric energy available for the services.
Sergio Durante reveals the new fine artworks totally handmade on recycled carbon fibres
1 December 2022
The background
As already highlighted in the Napster, man is, at the same time, a fugitive from danger but greedy for gains. The creepy AVATAR represents, at the same time, a virtuosity in the processing of recycled carbon fibers, and an extremely impressive and visually powerful work. Entirely made of recycled carbon, it rests on another carbon work that develops vertically in three dimensions.
The meaning
The AVATAR, as a mask and disguise for which anyone can be anything, may appear to be an instrument of freedom, revenge and catharsis. But no: it imprisons and forces us into a false and inconsistent reality. In his investigation, White Blood reveals the deception and through art staging the opposite process. It is the avatar, the fictional character who exists only in the metaverse, who now emerges to become more concrete and tangible than reality itself. The shapeless magma of carbon fiber lends itself perfectly to immortalizing the moment in which the lie is revealed and becomes a physical object by appropriating a material, recycled carbon, which belonged to something that is no longer in the world and which now adapts to represent an object of the imagination that comes to life.
As already highlighted in WhiteBlood Napster, man is, at the same time, a fugitive from danger but greedy for gains.
This is the principle underlying the analytical richness of the philosophy of the great Nicolo Machiavelli.
The dematerialization of wealth creates insecurity in man, but driven by greed, man is driven to ever more daring financial speculations which have been partially offset by the possession of objects representative of wealth such as shares in paper form. The stock was the last bastion of a physical and material representation of wealth. Paper that deprives goods, machinery, desks, men and women of matter and blood and which is definitively extinguished at the digital frontier, becoming simple information, shreds of bits supported by other shared substructures that are defined as real for this reason alone. , the fragile reality, therefore, the theme of the philosophical and artistic investigation of the WhiteBlood collective.
The collective exhumes the paper and the title, now devoid of any value and charges it with substance, art, color and human warmth and thus takes up materiality, strength, value, humanity, uniqueness, gravitational dance between opposite values that disorients, annihilates and that it evokes the primordial pheromone of possession, of control, an archaic thrust in the human being.
The paper thus returns to being real, in its ecosystem that actually brings back the value, the money, the work that that paper represented or claimed to represent.
The title had value because it represented a value recognized by the reference system. The stock title lives on today and becomes Art.
Art that takes on value and therefore returns to being a commodity and to be exchanged between collectors capable of grasping the multiple vibrations and conceptual alliterations that this Work can offer.
The meaning
Pfizer’s work is heavy, full of meaning, it represents dissolution and recomposition, it presents a point of contact with the title because art exists, if enjoyed, possessed, touched, exchanged.
And all these meanings seem compressed in the Work which is pushed, broken, compressed, closed, dissolved and reassembled with sudden and uncontrolled escapes.
the desire for contact and possession is also amplified by a lively, seething, erotic and rampant aesthetic.
Pfizer is the first work to be represented as a 9-piece original artwork from Pfizer Inc.
The present work “Pfizer Wall” which leads the collective to the creation of a wall dedicated to the pharmaceutical company Pfizer capable of offering a historical and current cross-section of contemporary society.
The wall will be composed of 9 original pieces and full of the artistic warmth of our collective of artists, researchers and craftsmen.
We like to change every now and then. This year, as usual, we took part in the famous HillClimb Race Cesana Sestriere, but instead of using a real racing car, we opted for a pure sports car, the fantastic Porsche Gt3.
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national and regional Porsche Carrera Cup and GT3 Cup Challenge series, as well as the international Porsche Supercup supporting the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The car used in the climb has a 4.0 liter engine, 510 hp at 9000 rpm, an incredible sound and a racing car setup.
Driving impression
The first thing that you appreciate in the GT3 is the perfect seat position and alignment with the driving wheel. The driver position is comfortable and permit to concentrate on the driving.
Being a ‘almost’ racing test, first thing to appreciate is the launch control, that permit to leave the start line in a very effective way despite the still cold tyres. The rear tyres are kept by the electronic at the adherence limit to the ground and some skids happens but easy to control. At the first U-turn you understand that the brakes must be pressed with a lot of energy, but they are very effective, and the ABS intervention is very rare on the clean asphalt. The suspensions are very effective and the car does not show any disturbing roll and pitch.
The steering is direct and precise, very effective both on the slow and fast turn. Personally I would have keep a bit more distance, ergonomically speaking, between the gear pads and the other commands (turn lights and wipers). In fact, if you have big hands or wearing gloves the space is not enough.
The suspensions are excellent, in particular on this type of roads, used everyday by the normal traffic, so a bit bumpy and irregular.
The engine is powerful and very effective, specifically at high revs, over 5000 rpm. Personally I prefer to change manually the gears with the paddles shift, and i prefer to do it earlier than the 9000 rpm limit, to preserve a bit the stress on the mechanic. But this is the typical engineers paranoia :-). Sound is beautiful, metallic, very aggressive. And you can reach high speed very quickly.
Despite the test was carried out at high altitude, between 1000 and 2050 m over the sea level, the engine, atmospheric, was still pushing quite good. Of course the turbo version like the Porsche GT2 or Turbo are practically not affected by the altitude.
In conclusion a fantastic car, fast, very fast and pleasant to drive. Very similar to a race car, and very effective. In a timed test I think that can leave behind a lot of race cars.
Man is a fugitive from dangers but also greedy for gains. This is the principle underlying the analytical richness of Machiavelli’s philosophy.
The dematerialization of wealth creates insecurity in man but driven by greed, man is pushed to ever more daring financial speculations which were partly offset by the possession of objects representative of wealth such as shares in paper form.
The stock certificate was the last bastion of a physical and material representation of wealth. Paper that deprives goods, machinery, desks, men and women of matter and blood and which is definitively extinguished at the digital frontier, becoming mere information, shreds of bits supported by other shared substructures that are defined as real for this reason alone. , the fragile reality, therefore, the theme of philosophical and artistic investigation of the collective WB.
WhiteBlood interpretation of the titles
The collective exhumes the paper and the title, now devoid of any value and charges it with substance, art, color and human warmth and thus takes back materiality, strength, value, humanity, uniqueness, gravitational dance between opposing values that disorients, annihilates and which evokes the primordial pheromone of possession, of control, an archaic thrust in the human being.
The paper thus becomes real again, in its ecosystem which brings back into reality the value, the money, the work that that paper represented or pretended to represent.
The title had value because it represented a value recognized by the reference system. The paper stock option today comes back to life and becomes Art.
Art that takes on value and therefore returns to being a commodity and to be exchanged between collectors capable of understanding the multiple vibrations and conceptual alliterations that this Work can offer.
The Meaning
The Napster work is heavy, full of meaning, it represents dissolution and recomposition, it presents a point of contact with the title because art exists, if enjoyed, possessed, touched, exchanged.
And all these meanings seem compressed in the Work that is pushed, broken, compressed, enclosed, dissolved and reassembled with sudden and uncontrolled escapes. The desire for contact and possession is also amplified by a lively, seething, erotic and rampant aesthetic.
Napster is the first work to be represented as a single work composed of the original stock of Napster Inc.
Napster, Inc. was a pioneer of music sharing via the internet, questioning the conceptual and legal framework within which the musical work was protected and the investigation of the collective lends itself to unleashing conceptual, legal and social reflections with their work. about the untouchability of the Art that Napster vainly sought to demolish.
Napster has spread the idea that art belongs to everyone and that the legal enclosures in which it is compressed are fallacious, fragile reference systems that need a total rethinking so that art returns to being vivid and alive.
Future work
The next work on the Pheromone theme is ‘Oil Art Wall’ already commissioned and which leads the collective to the creation of a wall dedicated to a famous Oil Company to recall the links to the Cracking art project.
The wall will be made up of 9 original pieces and loaded with artistic warmth from our collective of artists and craftsmen.
This will be followed by another work “Pfizer Wall” which leads the collective to the creation of a wall dedicated to the Pfizer Pharmaceutical company capable of offering a historical and current cross-section of contemporary society.
Durante reveals the new fine artworks totally handmade on recycled carbon fibres in artistic collaboration with the Whiteblood Foundation
26 April 2022
The “Seven Seas” is a new fine artwork concept made by hand entirely in recycled carbon fiber (the live carbon).
The artwork is the exclusive result of the artistic merging of design, materials and prototyping of our artist and technicians. The Collections is a masterpiece of combination of art, technology, experience and specialized hand manufacture, whose extraordinary workmanship, unique and of rare stylistic value is manifested in every detail, starting from the chromatic balance to the harmony of lines and contours.
The work is thus capable of enhancing the table and the foods offered and presented to the guest in a unique setting capable of enhancing the colors, textures and shapes of the food, allowing the chef a unique and unattainable stage.
The collection could be created on demand, using motifs or hand painting that act as a reference to art plovers , thus rediscovering spaces, emotions and sensations of nautical contexts characterized by a stylistic and cultural caliber.
Our group, an active member of the Whiteblood Art Foundation, has been engaged for many years in the fields of advanced research and high-tech materials and, in the spirit of its founders, pursues and pursues with its work an artistic aim capable of embellishing and emblazoning every single realization.
‘Art leads us with kindness and passion, through high technology, towards new exemplary beauties of circular economy’
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante presents new artworks made on recycled carbon fibres in collaboration with Cracking Art and the Whiteblood Foundation
26 April 2022
The link between Technology and Sustainability that has always accompanied Durante industries strategy, married the Cracking Art philosophy, in an even more intense commitment.
Today we need to work by minimizing waste, reducing the environmental impact, following the Circular Economy, creating new models of production and consumption that involves sharing, lending, reuse, repair, reconditioning and recycling of existing materials and products for as long as possible.
This pushes the artistic collective towards the use of the second life of some high-performance materials.
The message of Durante and Cracking Art is now even stronger and sees the launch of a new super exclusive collection of limited-edition Artworks in Recycled Carbon.
PLASTIC AND CARBON: A COMMON ORIGIN
Just like Plastic, Carbon also sees its origin from oil.
Acrylonitrile is, in fact, a chemical produced through a complex oil-based process on an industrial scale. The fibers are obtained from synthetic chemical compounds derived from coal and petroleum reduced to filaments of various lengths.
Among the characteristics of carbon fiber stand out the high mechanical strength, lightness, thermal insulation capacity, resistance to temperature changes and to the effect of chemicals.
RECYCLED CARBON AND ARTWORKS
The process of creation of the Artworks in recycled carbon fiber is particularly complex, both in terms of materials, know-how and handwork skills; it is in fact carried out by gifted specialised personnel that follows the process in its entirety, from the realization of the components to the operations of recovery of the fibers and, together with the collaboration of the artists , works in the creation of Artworks in limited edition.
FROM CATALYTIC CRACKING TO A PHYSICAL RUPTURE.
The term Cracking Art comes from the English verb “to crack” and describes the act of breaking, collapsing. With the name of catalytic cracking is also called the chemical reaction that transforms crude oil into plastic: for the Artists this is the moment when the natural becomes artificial, the organic is transformed into synthetic, and it is this process that they intend to represent through their art.
Similar process happens with the recycled carbon fibres, where the end-of-life components are reduced to their original basic materials through a complex process.
Every sculpture is unique and special because it comes from a physical break, from the piece of a car, the wing of an airplane, or from the mast of a competition boat, to cite some examples.
Each piece is totally handmade, supervised at each stage and customized. Starting from the material of origin and the artistic flair that intervenes from time to time, we witness the birth of a modern Prometheus that through its uniqueness becomes the vehicle of a powerful message.
THE PENGUIN, THE FIRST ARTWORK
The first artwork is the famous Cracking Art Penguin, chosen for its strong symbolism: it is a social animal whose survival is linked to the problem of global warming and the consequent melting of the ice.
The Penguin, a much-loved animal but constantly endangered, reminds us of the fundamental commitment to reduce CO2 emissions.
The material that composes it comes from a Porsche Prototype race car.
The Penguin in recycled carbon is a limited edition artwork realised in 8 copies, signed and numbered.
49 x 48 x 120 cm 19,2 x 18,8 x 47,2 in
THE CAR DONOR OF THE CARBON FIBRES
This car has a rich history of events and emotions.
Born as a road sports car in 1999 it was acquired by Ing. Sergio Durante after a few years of life in traffic, to be transformed into a race car for ice rallies and uphill races.
The original body has been completely rebuilt in carbon fiber to drastically reduce the weight, essential in ice racing, the enhanced engine and all internal parts modified for the safety of drivers. The car has distinguished itself with results of extreme value.
It participated and succeeed in famous endurance races such as the Ronde Hinvernale. It competed also in the 12Hours on Ice, in France on famous circuits such as Serre Chevalier, winning events, and shone in the Ice Series on the Italian and Austrian Alps. During the summer season it won the famous European Mountain Championship of Cesana Sestriere three times in a row in its extreme category.
The most stressed pieces, such as the bumpers and the rear wing were disassembled and subjected to the process of recovering carbon fibers, and then reused in the creation of an iconic animal such as the penguin Cracking Art.
New clusters of projects for sustainable energy production
New clusters of projects for sustainable energy production
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante announced the new clusters of projects for sustainable clean energy production, from nuclear fusion to wind power
25 April 2022
The EU aims to become climate neutral by 2050, and to achieve this goal, wind energy technologies will need to unlock their full potential for affordable and reliable clean energy production.
Today the energy crisis related to the current complex political situation in the East of Europe is pushing even more the needs to migrate to alternative sustainable energy.
The wind
The next generation of wind farms will be much more powerful and need to be supported with an even more innovative set of physical and digital tools, as well as operational controls, collectively referred to as wind farm control, to improve overall farm power generation and improve the overall reliability. The wind park is growing from year to year (for example, in 2021, more than 80% of new electrical capacity was renewable), while solar and wind energy accounted for 91% of new renewable energy sources. We proposes to use the latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence AI, offering obvious advantages through Big Data management and machine learning strategies, bringing to significant impacts on the overall reliability and efficiency of the complex electro mechanical system of the wind turbine. New IPR protected ideas are on the lab development.
The Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion can become a promising option to replace fossil fuels as the world’s primary energy source and can have an important role to play in addressing the climate change. Benefits to society from fusion include: the abundance and accessibility of fuel, the carbon free footprint, the absence of high-level radioactive waste.
We are investigating a new way to improve the control of the thermonuclear plasma with the ultimate goal to generate electricity at commercial scale.
Our internal project aims at bringing into the reality an innovative Fusion Nuclear Plasma containment system based on AC and fully controlled by AI based efficiency management, predictive maintenance, stability and fluctuation compensating unit. The system is based on AI electronic controller of a new AC managed plasma nuclear reactor power unit (HW and SW) to be integrated into the nuclear power generator, reducing as much as possible installation issues further enhancing their acceptance on the market enabling to operate at zero emissions, respecting the environment and complying with all upcoming nuclear safety legislations. This is expected to have a huge impact initially in the power energy industry.
New clusters of projects for sustainable energy production
New concept of hybrid hypercar 2100 HP
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante announced the project on a new astonishing 2100 HP hybrid car
15 December 2021
The project upscale and integrate a new concept of Artificial Intelligence into a human interface and total management of a super efficient, high performance green Hybrid powertrain based car, in two market sectors: the high-exigent market of the daily life utility cars, using as commercialisation strategy the penetration in the hand made ‘a la carte’ exclusive cars market and then in the everyday car through supporting OEM.
The concept of the car proposes a integrated customised self learning interface avatar (with specific features, among the others: face recognition, health check of the driver and passengers, transferability of the virtual assistant to other platform like the phone or other devices of the user), block chain system to encrypt all the access to the car, innovative token on the value of the car and for the investors in the startup company. The technologies explored are the extended use of Energy Harvesters, a new concept of axial flux electric engine, new high performance batteries and revolutionary management and interface. The activity approach will keep into the account from the critical rare materials savings to the test on the road for final homologation to the commercialisation of the concept and the product.
