Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Looks like McLaren could be going with Honda engines in 2015 linky


Bernie eyeing a return to South Africa with a race in Cape town and 22 races linky
Haven't had a race in SA since Kyalami '93


Hamilton's dog secures paddock pass linky lol

One of the reasons for leaving Mclaren was how controlled he was. I'm assuming Merc lets him have a dog and Mclaren wouldn't. Is this why he left? :p
 
hmm so Lewis can then say in a couple of years that his dog gets more affection from his team than he does - that wouldnt happen lol


Thank you Skeeter for the further details on the ERS / rotating (fly)wheel of death :D, much appreciated again (I think I was going wrong thinking that fly wheel had to be connected somehow to the axle or something to generate the energy to be stored, and therefore the flywheel was one part and not contained within the ES part - so thank you for correcting this mis-appreciation)
 
No problem Frank. The Energy Recovery technology is something I'm really interested in, although I think its better placed in GT and endurance racing than F1. Its a technology designed for improved efficiency and range. The 911 Hybrid nearly won the Nurburgring 24 hours a few years back mainly because it was able to do 2 more laps per tank of fuel than all the other 911s. It was only the petrol engine failing towards the end that stopped it.

The flywheels are a kinetic energy store. When braking the energy is passed to a motor that spins a flywheel inside a vacuum at stupid high speed. This then continues to rotate storing the energy. When its needed the motor that spun it then changes to a generator and uses the rotation of the flywheel to produce electricity which is then used to power electric motors attached to the axle. In the case of the Porches GT cars and the Audi LMP cars the power goes to the front wheels, making the car 4WD which produces major acceleration advantages.

The Toyota uses a different system, I think it uses super capacitors and powers the drive shaft to the rear wheels like F1 cars do.
 
Skeeter -Are you an engineer / mechanic by trade, or is this just a hobby /subject you have picked up and become interested in along the way?

(Totally understand if you dont want to say)

Thank you again, Ive had a passing interest in the 24 hr races (esp Le Mans) but never really concerntrated on it. Ive been a Porsche (road) car fan for years which is why its always saddened me that they have never really come into F1 at all.
 
Nope, I'm not an engineer, I've just found this stuff really interesting so I try to keep up with where the technology is at. Same story with the Nissan DeltaWing, I like new and different technology.

The Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid is, to me at least, the best use of the technology so far. It turns the 500bhp RWD car into a 700bhp 4WD car at the touch of a button, while also extending the range, which is ideally suited to endurance racing. Its also quite a low budget solution (basically some extra kit bolted into the proven 911 chassis), as opposed to the high tech high cost developments that Toyota and Audi have been using in LMP. It will be interesting to see what Porsche do when they return to LMP1 next year.
 
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Renault to return to Le Mans!

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=27287

Although it goes much further than that. Its a return of an Alpine branded race car, and is being built in conjunction with Caterham and will run the popular Nissan P2 spec engine.

What with an Alpine branded road car (or cars) coming soon, the Caterham/Renault partnership is really gaining momentum.
 
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Attention please......Attention please

Could the guy with the ice cream van turn off the jingle because it's drowning out the sound the car makes(if any).

Get a vuvuzela that sounds like a F1 car NOW only £4.99 :D

They are actually quite noisey for an electric car. They sound like a large RC car.

Its the track's I'm most interested in. City centre street tracks like the ones seen in Gran Turismo would be great.
 
Ooo, do tell!

Sadly, I can't. But Caterham had a development facility just outside the Lotus factory, and they've swiped a load of guys who were not happy at Lotus anymore. Many were members of the R&D and design teams. From what I gather, many had been changed to contractors under Bahaha's plans. That's now moved to the former F1 factory in Hingham.

Last years F1 car is called CT01, this years is CT03. What happened to CT02? ;)
 
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