HP of F1 car

[Zagan]

F1 cars get their speed via the driver and the drive train being made to put down the power perfectly.

Ferrari, wn last years F1 and looks like they will win this years as well.

A normal car might have say 50 to 60% traction a F1 car would be 90 to 100% traction at all times, for a normal car that wouldn't be all the time.

[Hail]

As everyone has said hp doesnt make a huge difference there is a whole host of different factors from race to race...like tuning, their set-up in all aspects, the cars center of gravity, aerodynamics........the list goes on but all you can make a 100% certain call about is that they are one crazy racing car

[skyline33]

Defintely the speed is attributed to alot more factors than just HP, and in F1 the maker and breaker is Aerodynamics + Setup.

[nmcmahon83]

no point having 1000hp if you are driving a brick.

[hungry6]

The ashtonishing thingabout f1 racing is their ability to change direction instantaneously, been to plenty of race and seen the car weaving around rubbish and, you have to question whether is there a huge magnet sucking the car to the ground, as they do a virtual 90 degree cnr at about 160+, try that in any other race car and you quickly find out that what metal is under the paint of the roof.

[skyline33]

that whats called downforce

[knore]

Yeh, ALOT of money and time is spent on perfecting the aerodynamics and downforce of the car

[DSKYLINE2C]

hehe put it this way, that big rear spoiler isnt there for rice

[FATGTS-R]

From what i understand the F1 cars ability to rev to insane engine speeds is attributed to a very very short stroke, somewhere in the region of 30mm lower than the bore size i read somewhere.

It said that because of this bore/stroke ratio the cars have very little torque and that an F1 car would struggle to tow another F1 car behind it. Do you reckon that could be true?

I know that engines with lower stroke than bore measurements have a better ability to rev but suffer in torque ( RB20 ) compared to engines with equal ( RB30 ) or greater ( old V8s ) stroke measurements but its hard to picture a F1 not being able to tow another behind it.

Has a decommisioned F1 car ever ran a quarter mile pass? I would be interested to know what time they would run.

[Emre]

Posted by DSKYLINE2C  

i thought the exact same until I heard james alan on the commentry saying that it was american based....Im sure that Jordan and Jag are using the new spec cosworth engine although I am deffinite that Minardi are using a lower spec but better in reliabilty, having said that their lap times are 2sec quicker than last years and are fairly close to Jordon this year.

Cosworth was founded and is based in UK, however, because of their heavy involvement in Champcar and Indycar racing, they have a facility in US as well. That is a bit of an understatement today, as all the teams in Champcars have been using the Cosworth engine since 2002.

They were bought by FORD a few years ago, which is why they may be considered as a US company today.

In F1, Jaguar uses the CR5, Minardi uses the CR3 and Jordan uses the RS1 engines.

[DSKYLINE2C]

Cosworth was founded and is based in UK, however, because of their heavy involvement in Champcar and Indycar racing, they have a facility in US as well. That is a bit of an understatement today, as all the teams in Champcars have been using the Cosworth engine since 2002.

They were bought by FORD a few years ago, which is why they may be considered as a US company today.

So I was right Thats also why I thought they were US based since the engines are commonly reffered to as "ford-cosworth"

In F1, Jaguar uses the CR5, Minardi uses the CR3 and Jordan uses the RS1 engines.

Im fairly certain that Jag uses the CR6, proven to be the only reliable component of the car for Webber

[Emre]

So I was right  Thats also why I thought they were US based since the engines are commonly reffered to as "ford-cosworth"

re: think the problem with jag is cosworth......americans are useless pricks!

Right abour what...? Cosworth being useless or American...?

Cosworth USA only services US based racing events.

Cosworth UK services the rest.

Both of them have been very succesful in the past.

So, i'd have to say that you were wrong on both counts.

Re Jags engine:

Cosworth referres to it as the CR5, Jag-Racing refers to it as the CR5 and CR6.

Needless to say, we are talking about the same engine which is different to what Jordan and Minardi uses.

[DSKYLINE2C]

they are both quite ordinary...they are a budget engine manufacturer today in f1....results speak for themselves and nothing you can prove in the last 2 years of F1 can alter that

[Emre]

If you are only looking two years back in F1, the results aren't there. They still do not deserve to branded useless for it. As you said the results speak for themsleves and their achievements are on the board in a greater time period.

Jaguar, Jordan and Minardi, not Cosworth, have a less budget than the top teams. Cosworth just builds the engines which are only as important as tyres in a race meet and not as important as the chassis setup. So, if you are blaming Cosworth for the lesser teams' lack of race wins, i suggest you read into it a little more.

Jaguar, Jordan and Minardi are a lower budget F1 team compared to Ferrari, Williams, and McLaren. That, i don't have a problem with.

[saff_cossie]

Emre - Couldnt agree more. Think you have hit the nail on the head.

You only have to look at what Cosworth did when money was of little object back in the RS500 days. Even today over here the cosworths are regularly over 500bhp. The Cosworth road engine has immense capabilities. Mine is approx 270bhp and has nothing mechanically go wrong in its life. I will sort some new bits for it soon but Cosworth in the UK is big money in tuning and the results in touring cars both here and in oz speak for themselves.

[Nizman]

Thanks Maxx for posting that info, Honda have the HP but they need reliability.

Originally Posted by aybee

whens nissan gonna make a vg30 v10 and start racing f1?

Nissan is majority owned my Renault so in effect they already are F1 racing, you'll never see Nissan powered F1 cars.

Originally Posted by knore

Yeh, ALOT of money and time is spent on perfecting the aerodynamics and downforce of the car?

I think it was Sauber that just spent 35 Million Pounds on a massive wind tunnel.

[T0nyGTSt]

I'm a diehard McLaren-Honda fan for obvious reasons.

I very much prefer the modern F1 era pre-Schumacher.

I remember in that era the famed BMW turbo 1.5 four cylinder turbo motor did a massive 1,300hp in qualifying. This engine could trace its roots back to the BMW 318i!

Back then the #1 motor was the Honda 1.5 v6 twin turbo - massive power, 'good' power curve, bulletproof reliability. Well it powered the infamous 1988 F1 season!

I watch in wonder these days to see how my beloved "McLaren" and "Honda" are doing now... Ron Dennis is having his worse season in living memory... Takuma Sato is blowing up more Hondas than the combined efforts of various VTEC modders (Button seems ok though).

In my little universe, McLaren Honda rule the roost while Ferrari gets DNF.

I wonder how the 2.4 litre V8 rule will fly? I imagine same power, crap power curve!

T.

[DSKYLINE2C]

If you are only looking two years back in F1, the results aren't there. They still do not deserve to branded useless for it. As you said the results speak for themsleves and their achievements are on the board in a greater time period.

Still can't agree with you in that respect. One must look at the position in the present time frame and not the pre-historic.

Jaguar, Jordan and Minardi, not Cosworth, have a less budget than the top teams. Cosworth just builds the engines which are only as important as tyres in a race meet and not as important as the chassis setup. So, if you are blaming Cosworth for the lesser teams' lack of race wins, i suggest you read into it a little more.

Consider that Cosworth produces engines for 3 manufacturers from an accounting perspective. There are no two teams on the grid with the same engine in F1 today. Therefor it recieves thrice the revenue. My OPINION is that most engine manufacturers spend more money on r&d than on direct material costs. Therefor instead of spending minor r&d on three engines wouldn't it be beneficial to make one engine? and delivering at the same or a minor increment in price to the 3 manufacturers? maybe they lack the resources in this era which makes them a BUDGET and LESSER manufacturer!

I believe that Jag are getting the most out of their package, but can not go further with a useless engine!

[rsx84]

a few bits of info that has stuck in my mind over the last few races: for a v8, to compere, it would have to produce something like 2500hp, one of the lesser teams has just finished a new wind tunel and has since been able to improve there overall lap times by something like 0.5 to 1 second.. no increace in hp its all how well it'll carry the speed in and out of the corners....

[Silver-Arrowz]

Back then the #1 motor was the Honda 1.5 v6 twin turbo - massive power, 'good' power curve, bulletproof reliability. Well it powered the infamous 1988 F1 season!

Ah the days when Prost and Senna were banging wheels! F1 back then was better. The 80's with the turbo cars and all the big names like Lauda, Jones, Mansell and of course, Senna and Prost.

It was very simple back then. The cars were rough as guts and racers RACED. Not pit wall racing the cars.

If you think the engines are amazing, you should check out the braking systems on these cars. They stop even better than they accelerate. Some stats of last years BMW-Williams FW25:

Accelerate from 0 to 192 then decelerate 0 km/h in 7.0secs.

0 - 92km/h in 2.4 seconds.

0 - 200km/h in 5 seconds.

but this figure I find most amazing;

200km/h to 0 in 1.9 seconds or 55 meters!

Eye popping stuff!

With stats like this it's no wonder why you need super-human drivers to pilot such machines.