Now that's an expensive musical instrument

[Guest aw11]

Yes, you too can play "When The Saints Come Marching In" on your F1 engine...

(engine is warming up until about 23-24 secs)

link

[Guest aw11]

quote:

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According to Tim Blair in Oz, the Asiatech folks

have programmed

their F-1 engine to play music. I quote:

First you'll hear a 10-cylinder, 750 horsepower

Asiatech F1

engine being warmed up. Then it performs a

rousing version

of "When The Saints Come Marching In", to the

delight of

assembled pit staff and journalists.

Here's how the magic was achieved

(technical/musical details

via F1 Racing magazine):

As we all know, a V10 engine produces five

combustions per

revolution at a frequency per second of 60/(5 x

revs per

minute), which equals 12/rpm. Therefore, to

work out the

revs you need to hit a particular musical note,

you multiply

the note's frequency by 12. To play a 440Hz

'A', for example,

you need 5,280rpm. For 'C', use 3,139rpm, for

'F' 4,191rpm,

and so on.

Asiatech's French technicians (the engine,

despite its name,

is derived from a Peugeot design) simply

programmed their

engine to run through the various rev/note

ranges in the

correct sequence. The result is delightful. And

think of the

possibilities - BMW's F1 engine, which howls

all the way to

19,050rpm, could rip through the entire Hendrix

songbook.

Even better: imagine a massed NASCAR choir

performing "The

Star Spangled Banner"! Being eight-cylinder

engines, the

frequency per second would be 60/(4 x revs),

which means

you'd multiply the note frequencies by 15

instead of 12: 'A'

would arrive at 6,600rpm, 'C' at 3,923rpm, 'F'

at 5,238rpm,

etc.

Mark my words, someone will be getting rich at

Daytona next

year selling a CD of NASCAR patriotic anthems.

Send some of

the royalties my way.

That's straight off my e-mail list. It's pretty cool-sounding,

really, and it says a LOT about exactly how much

control the

pit guys really have over the cars and engines

these days. Give

it a listen. I don't know if they take requests,

but Jordan/

Honda and BAR/Honda could probably do "Purple

Haze" in honor of

their ever-grenading motors!

Mike

PS: I like the idea of a NASCAR sing-along, but

if "A" arrives

at 6600rpm on a V8, I don't think they'll be

hitting the high

notes. I guess "Free Bird" will be out of their

repertoire...

[Gradenko]

Thats damn cool. Now, if they'll just play the opening credits from Buffy...

[Pva_Glue]

some people can play them with their butts...:uh-huh:

no not me...

cheers

Joe