August 10, 2009, 06:29 PM
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Cricket Savant
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Join Date: March 9, 2008
Location: Ω
Posts: 35,906
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Quote:
22 Little Known Facts about F1 Race Car, F1 Facts
1. An F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly; it
would still start the race with 80 things wrong!
2. F1 cars have over a kilometer of cable linked to about 100 sensors and actuators which
monitor and control many parts of the car.
3. An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!
4. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the
other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they
quite faithfully DO….that!ˉs the extent towhich the engines r pushed to perform…
5. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration
comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph!!!
6. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the
prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah that!ˉs
right!!!)
7. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.
8. In an F1 car the engine typically revs up to 18000 rpm,(the piston traveling up and down
300 times a second!!) whereas cars like the palio, maruti 800,indica rev only up to 6000
rpm at max. That!ˉs 3 times slower.
9. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of approximately 1000
degrees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every
turn…that is why they r not made of steel but of carbon fibre which is much more harder
and resistant to wear and tear and most of all has a higher melting point.
10. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system would empty in just over a
second.
11. Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replaced regularly to prevent
failure, as they are subjected to very high degrees of stress.
12. The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the steering wheel must be removed for the driver to
get in or out of the car. A small latch behind the wheel releases it from the column.
Levers or paddles for changing gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no
gearstick! The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the gear
paddles.
13. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added downforce can
be such that small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.
14. Without aerodynamic downforce, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to
produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.
15. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front and rear wings and the car
underbody is amazing. Once the car is traveling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate
enough downforce to equal its own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the
CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!
16. In a street course race like the Monaco grand prix, the downforce provides enough
suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets
have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!
17. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 liters of fuel per second. This means it would take
just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litre family-car. They use the same
refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.
18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds.
19. Race car tyres don’t have air in them like normal car tyres. Most racing tyres have
nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a more consistent pressure compared to
normal air. Air typically contains varying amounts of water vapor in it, which affects its
expansion and contraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure
unpredictable.
20. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5kg in weight due to wear.
21. Normal tyres last 60 000 – 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 – 120 km
(That’s Khandala and back).
22. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread
temperature is between 900C and 1200C. (Water boils at > 100C) At top speed, F1 tyres
rotate 50 times a second.
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