F-1 - Whatever happened to these?

[jdbubb at verizon.net (Dan Bubb)]

Racing, of course, is mostly about racing.
But there have been numerous instances where "racing improves the breed".
Rules for the various racing classes are generally pretty restrictive so out and out technical innovation in racing isn't all that common anymore, but certainly the pace of development of automotive technologies is a lot faster in racing and that carries over when the cost isn't prohibitive.

One of the latest areas that I suspect will be of benefit to the average automaker as CAFE standards get higher and higher are the various surface coating and friction reduction techniques routinely used in Formula 1.
As engine RPM increases friction increases as the square of the speed. As a result you'd expect the engine's torque per unit displacement and BMEP to decrease with RPM. Before F1 engines were limited to 19,000 RPM this year they had been approaching 20,000 RPM for a race distance. What's interesting is that the torque and BMEP have not dropped even at these stratospheric RPM due to surface coating and friction reduction techniques. Maybe not blockbuster technology that you can wave at the world, but good solid development that's applicable to any internal combustion engine to improve its mileage.
Perhaps would have been developed without racing if you had a permanent rescue squad for the bean counters, but nothing like the racing environment to push the development envelope.
Dan


From: "LEF" <rocco16@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "brad boston" <boston813roc@xxxxxxxxx>; "Dan Bubb" <jdbubb@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Scirocco List" <scirocco-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: F-1 - Whatever happened to these?


> Racing, whether it is F1, ice skating, U/C model aircraft, or belt sanders, 
> has never bore much relevance to the real world.....
> 
> larry
> sandiego16v
> 
> 
> 
>> On 11/7/07, Dan Bubb <jdbubb@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> You mean the 6 wheels?
>>> Banned.
>>> Williams F1 engineering was developing a 6 wheeled car with 2 front, 4
>>> rear that got rid of the huge barn door rear tires. Significantly faster,
>>> but banned just in the nick of time.
>>> Thank god the F1 rule makers ban these sorts of things so that the "most
>>> technologically advanced racing series in the world" has NO technical
>>> relevance or benefit to the everyday world!
>>> Dan
> 
>