20,000 rpm not in F1

While it seems a bit silly for a business that sees fines of over £100 million as little more than petty cash or small change to speak of “cost saving measures”, F1 development rules still means that achievements are made that we may be cheated of seeing.

I had anticipated seeing engines running to 20,000 rpm in the 2009 season, but the rules outlawed this figure, and capped them at 19,000 rpm in the name of economy.

However, as anyone with an ounce of engineering knowledge will realise, to run reliably at 19 k, you have to be able to perform unreliably at higher numbers, and 20 k is only some 5% more in terms of revs, although that same engineering knowledge will also tell that the energy involved will increase by something more like 10%, and that doesn’t merit the same use of the word “only” that 5% merits.

In a 4-stroke engine this is particularly significant, since it means the reciprocating parts – in particular the pistons – also carry that amount of additional energy, and the con-rods have to haul them to a full stop and reverse their direction 333 times every second, or every 3 ms. These really are speed and energies you wouldn’t want to be too close to when a rod lets go, and the pistons decide to leave the engine.

With that in mind, I was intrigued to see a Cosworth engine test at 20 k, although it may be significant to note that the test was not maintained once 20 k had been reached, but was terminated almost as soon as the figure was achieved.

Piston engines can go much faster, but not as car-sized V8 or V10 designs. These engines are tiny by comparison and can be found in models, and turn at ridiculus speeds by comparison, many times that of their larger brothers, but then again, they are very, very much lighter, but can still be built of exotic materials – they use so much less!

Supercars on show

Too far for me to go and have a look, those nice people at the BBC did a little report about some fast car on show…

It’s a pity they had to go some way towards wasting it, and let someone that thinks an over-loud raucous musical soundtrack was obligatory, had to accompany it get their way – mistake.

 

It’s funny how the arrival of the Veyron a few years ago, lifting the production car top speed to a demonstrable 407 kph (253 mph), has spawned so many challengers, and this report included a British candidate, which has a claim of 261 mph for the title of Fastest Production car.

I always wonder how practical these later challengers are. The Veyron story has been told in some detail, and the power/heat/tyre hurdles are significant, as are the reliability aspects.

Are these later claimants to the title able to do their speed runs with little or no special preparation, and then just carry on driving on the road as normal, as the Veyron has demonstrated it can, or are they highly strung special, in need of fettling before and during their high speed runs, and not really in any condition to carry on driving on the road afterwards?

The other thought that occurs to me relates to the ultimate capability of the Veyron. As noted, we know what’s in it, and the exotic technology that supports it and it 16-cylinder quad turbocharged engine.

Would it be so hard to wind it up a little more and add another 10 mph or so, or turn one into a record maker one day?

Hungary F1 2009 – Sweet and Sour

This weekend’s Hungarian race proved to be something of a mixed bag, and disturbing coincidences.

Felipe Massa

The sour part is, of course, the unfortunate accident which Felipe Mass suffered during Saturday’s qualifying session, just six days after a fatal accident at Brands Hatch involving Henry Surtees, son of 1964 Formula One champion John Surtees, when he was struck on the head by a wheel which had come off another car.

Massa suffered a cut to his forehead, damage to the bone of his skull and concussion after being struck by a coil spring weighing about 1 kilogramme, part of the suspension which had broken off from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn car. Although Massa remained conscious and was able to apply his brakes, he ploughed straight through the next corner and into a tyre wall at high speed, where he remained motionless for a time. The accident occurred during second qualifying, and was the sort of incident that would be almost impossible to organise deliberately. Massa happened to come down the road at the exact moment a solid object was occupying the same piece of space as his head, and helmet. The blow was enough to destroy the visor and cause a deep gash above his left eyebrow, and later revealed to have caused two fractures to his skull.

As we write, we know that Felipe is in a serious but stable condition in hospital following an operation, and is being kept in an induced coma for the following 48 hours. He is woken at intervals to determine his condition, and CT scans are also being taken, with the doctors reporting that his condition is life-threatening, but that his progress is following surgery is satisfactory.

Understandably, there have been some calls to improve driver safety, and these two incidents indicate that there is never any case for complacency regarding this aspect, but as some of the drivers have already noted, the circumstances were extremely unusual, and some solutions could potentially introduce greater hazards than these events have highlighted. However, if nothing else, F1 always seems to be able to provide significant incremental improvements to just about anything that needs it, so there is bound to be scope for improving safety in this, and no doubt, other areas.

As a further coincidence, I happened to look in on one of those programmes that follows the various emergency services on the road, and reports on the various incidents they come across. This one included a third, very similar event. In this case, a motorcyclist was involved, and he had been unfortunate enough to try and occupy the same piece of space as a pheasant that flew across his path, on a 60 mph road – no-one else was involved, but nearby farm workers witnessed the incident as it happened. The rider had no chance as the bird arrived from the side and flew straight into his helmet, meaning the impact speed was at least 60 mph. Although not knocked unconscious, the rider was blinded as the bird virtually exploded as it hit the area of his visor. Unable to see for the remains, he deliberately steered to left – reasoning that meeting a car travelling at 60 mph the other way would not be a good idea – onto the grassy verge, and into a deep ditch, just missing the only tree for some distance around. In some ways he was fortunate, his injuries amounted to a broken nose and cheekbone, and could have been much more serious.

The

Race

Turning to the race in Hungary itself, it was particularly sweet to watch, and more interesting than the past couple of meeting, which left me without anything to think about, and bother to write a few notes later.

I just can’t get over my loathing of Alonso. Ever since he resorted to whatever dirty tricks he could think of to ensure that he could get any advantage he could over Hamilton a few years ago – regardless of who he took down and ruined along the way – I just can’t stop thinking of him as nothing more than a creep, and someone I’d never want as a team mate, or dare to turn my back on.

The high point of the Hungarian race had to be the coming together of Hamilton’s team, and the achievement of what seemed to be a return to form and an easy win, but one win could still just be a fluke, and we’ll have to wait for the end of the forthcoming four week break before we see if this is a definite change.

The higher point was the sabotage of Alonso’s car by the wheelman during a pit stop, when he failed to locate the brake duct spinner correctly, leading to it flapping loose as Alonso tried to make his way around the track after the stop, but unable to return to the pits before the spinner took its name literally, and spun in the wind. This led to firstly to the loss of the wheel nut, to be followed shortly by the loss of wheel, and Alonso’s limp back to the pits with only “three wheels on his waggon”. Although the crew stuck another wheel on the limping car, Alonso got his dues, and had to retire after completing  only a few more laps.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

This was made all the sweeter by the fact that he had been chasing Hamilton prior to his crews’ sabotage, and got to watch his former team mate and rival speed off into the distance ahead of him – and he couldn’t do a thing about it as both Hamilton, and his points for second place disappeared.

Given the other events of the weekend, and the fact that a loose wheel is no longer connected to the car by the restraining straps that keep the wheel on the car as long as it is still on the hub, it is also fortunate that the loose wheel bounced and rolled away harmlessly into the distance.

VW looks like winnng over Porsche

The story of VW and Porsche buying one another looks as if it is finally going to come to a conclusion – with VW taking over Porsche.

This has been rumbling on and off for some time, but it was all too complicated and political to try and write about. There were tales of a fued between the families behind the two companies, and there was the political side of things, with the presence of laws regarding ownership. While I might have been interested, digging into that sort of stuff and getting it right it too much like work, and not fun. Better to leave it to the journalists and professional writers who have access to better sources of info than the likes of me – and have to get it right, or be fired.

The most interesting aspect seems to have been the effect of the recession on the Porsche campaign to take over VW, and it seems to have rendered moot the legal aspect of ownership which may have influenced, or even negated Porsche’s efforts. Even though Porsche built up a 51% holding in the company, it’s efforts to build that up to a 75% stake were trashed by the financial crisis and the slump in the global automotive sector, which eventually gave the the sports car maker huge debts instead of a large stake in VW

The aim now seems to be to end the deal with VW owning Porsche, but leaving the company with its independence, a process which will achieved in gradual steps, and see completion before the fourth quarter of 2011. This would see Porsche effectively becoming the 10th brand under the VW umbrella. Porsche said it would increase its capital by at least 5 billion euros (£4.3 billion; $7.10 billion).

While this might have been a reason for dismay a few years ago, it’s probably not the tale of woe that purists might have (and maybe still will) portray it as. VW has marques such as Bugati, Lamborghini, and Audi (which it has done wonderful things with eg R8 and R10, and the recent TTRS). Those three marques have survived, and have models that are head and shoulders above their predecessors. Again, some purists just carp about the use of the odd switch from the parts bin, but in the real world, using those parts probably saved the cars concerned, and avoided some delay while a bespoke part was designed and tooled for.

Provided they do as per their publicity, and Porsche is allowed to retain its independence, but is able to draw on VW’s resources, things should be better in the future, and we get Porsche’s that are not only good at being road and track cars, but see the motoring journalists’ jibes regarding trim and suchlike come to a silent end.

Fingers crossed.

BT dumps Phorm

Insidious online snooper Phorm has been ditched by former key player BT.

BT may have made some mistakes in the past, but this at least is one of the company’s better decisions.

The controversial Phorm system tracks users using DPI (deep packet inspection) to analyse their viewed content and habits, and target them with relevant advertising on subsequent pages.

BT carried out secret test using the system in 2006 and 2007, but without customer’s consent, and this is now being investigated by the European Commission which considers the UK government failed to protect its citizens online.

BT, which received complaints from its customers about Phorm, said the decision reflected its need to conserve resources as it prepares to invest £1.5 billion in its plans to provide a next-generation, super-fast broadband network for 10 million homes by 2012. Privately, BT bosses have become increasingly concerned about consumer resistance to advertising based on monitoring their online behaviour, and specifically about the backlash against Phorm.

The two remaining players, Virgin Media and Talk Talk still control about 75% of the UK broadband market: Virgin Media is reported to still be interested, due to the services it offers, but is now less enthusiastic with regard to to Phorm as its reputation slips; and Talk Talk is reported to have stated that it is watching, but would only implement the system on an opt-in basis, but has stated it has no time-scale in place for deployment.

One of the nastier aspects of the original Phorm system is that it was configured as an opt-out service, in other word, you were automatically rolled into it whether on not you wanted to be, and had to deliberately register your desire not to be tracked and targeted by the system.

Losing BT, its original partner in crime, and provider of secret tests carried out on unsuspecting BT customers, is a significant event, and Phorm is burning significant finds without making returns. If the backlash continues, then even though it is winning funds on the basis of future advertising returns, continuing delays and the unpopularity of being associated with the brand must just see it go belly up before it can make a profit and sustain itself.

Ford Focus RS/ST – just doesn’t do it

While there’s no denying Ford’s motorsport success and pedigree, but I just can’t get excited about the Ford Focus RS or ST.

Although the words on paper say it is good, whenever I see one, it does nothing for me. There’s nothing interesting about it’s appearance, nothing to draw the eye, and little to suggest that it is desirable. Bigger wheels and a twin exhaust are really only noticeable to the expert, and a casual glance just bypasses it altogether.

The writers and journalists might keep on about it being a challenger to the Impreza and Evo, but it’s simply not in the same class. Even at their most boring, these two give the Ford a run for its money.

An orange RS passed me and stopped at the lights last night, and I’m guessing the owner is in the midst of tweaking it.

The thing sounded like a box of nails – and I don’t mean it was pinking or anything like that. It was literally making the same noise that a box of 4-inch nails makes as you rummage around in it when fishing out a handful. He was driving very slowly, and as he pulled away from the light, the exhaust went through all sorts of resonances – it was very odd, and the resonances were at relatively high frequencies, as if there were narrow pipes in the system, rather than the more usual wide bore efforts.

I couldn’t fathom it at all – and the only thing that came to mind was that he had perhaps blown the turbo, and was limping around with the remains until he could afford get it fixed.

That’s always been my worry about owning one of the Japanese cars, as the turbos on the road cars seem to be a bit fragile. I’ve been to a few track days, and it’s not unusual to see at least one of them come to a crawling and embarrassing stop in the midst of a demonstration of their power, as something goes “pop” and the engine dies, leaving them to limp, or be pushed off the track.

Fifth Gear’s fraud reporter

Sad to see another episode of Fifth Gear with Johnny Smith still bringing the quality of the program down.

Even the other presenters used the expression “run out of talent” as we saw the lacklustre Smith destroy yet another Smart Car, as he rolled his “wheelie car” onto its roof. Even when his more talented co-presenter landed his larger wheelie car on Smith’s car, he failed to crush Smith’s roll cage with the additional weight. Sadly, some real design failures going on there.

Unfortunately, unlike an earlier incident in a previous series, where one of the other presenters managed to end up with a broken foot after his modified Rascal van had an off, Smith managed to thwart the assassination attempt, as the crew had done an unacceptably responsible job on the Smart’s roll cage, and rather than collapsing in the incident, it stayed complete and protected him.

I guess we can thank Health & Safety for this mistake, and no win no fee claims, which even he would have been able to use if he had been killed.

We were then subjected to his excruciating attempts to be clever, as he tried to make some funny remarks while driving the Ghostbuster’s car.

Laugh? I nearly stopped sticking pins in my eyes just stop the tears so I could see ECTO 1.

The funniest part of the whole thing was the fraud presenter had chosen to invite a psychic to partner him during the piece. A fraud accompanied by a psychic – appropriate or what?

Typical of the pathetic attempts he makes to present a report was the hackneyed and clichéd scene he put together using low-light cameras shooting in the dark in a supposedly haunted room.

That must have taken all of nearly a second to dream up, and then he adds to the insult to our intelligence by trying to convince us that everyone’s really really scared, and that strange things happened in the room.

Please Fifth Gear, just give him the order of the boot, and your standing against Top Gear will take an immediate rise.

British F1

Not really much happening at the British F1 meeting at Silverstone, especially if you wanted to cheer on the British drivers at home.

Maybe the hiccup I suggested, back at the start, that might arise after the circus moved to Europe is actually arriving.

Notably, there was the announcement that it could host next year’s event if Donnington is not ready, so removing a possibility of no meeting at all in Britain had the latter not been ready.

The capping story rumbles on, with some of those involved saying all is more or less ok, the dust had settled somewhat, and that things were advancing, also pointing out that there is no limit imposed on any teams committing to the next five years – I hadn’t picked up that point in the earlier announcements. However, there is still the breakaway group, and it seems to be saying that things are not settled, and they are pushing ahead with the new event.

Well. I’m staying as a casual, but interested observer, and not digging into these claims. If it sounds like nonsense, then maybe it all is, and Max Mosley is maybe not too far off the mark when he makes the observation that some of those involved in the opposition are loonies, or appear to have a desire to do what it takes to make power plays.

Politics – don’t you love them?

Fred Pearce – What’s you point caller?

I’ve no idea if Fred Pearce is a Green Loony, or suffers from SFB (shit for brains), but I wonder just what the point of his Guardian article, mocking car maker Lamborghini, under the heading of Greenwash is.

If we accept that cars are one of the great evils of our time, throwing out tons of various pollutants and hastening the end of the world in the great global warmer burn-up, then it makes senses to target car manufacturers and expose the various levels of pollutants their products pile out into the atmosphere. We probably have to accept the same complaint against cows as well, as they pass tons of methane into the atmosphere – yet there are no tables comparing the various breed, or taxes on the farmers that own them.

Does it make sense to single out Lamborginhi?

Perhaps giving someone like Fred Pearce a platform like the Guardian is not really such a good idea, as he can hijack for his own personal agendas, rather than globally relevant matters.

While the volume car makers produce millions of cars globally, and rather than do something that would cut pollution, are propped up by things like government funded car scrappage schemes – paying car owners to scrap a perfectly good old car, and replace it with a shiny new one, thereby keeping car manufacturers in business, while ignoring the environmental insanity that says producing a new car to replace an existing old car also produces more pollution than continuing to run the already manufactured older car – minority specialist manufacturers like Lamborghini (even if grouped together with their peers) only produce a few thousand cars in any given year. Even if their vehicles produced ten times the emissions of an ordinary car, their number (and perhaps more importantly, usage)  are simply insufficient to make any other than a negligible contribution to global warming.

In truth, most of these cars spend their lives in garages or museums. Most of the owners bring them out only at weekends and special occasions, even the well-heeled look to the single figure miles-per-gallon figures their expensive toys return. In the past few years, I have seen one Diablo and one Murcielago actually on the road, or parked at a house near me. The only Countach used to sit in a car museum year on year, until it closed a few years ago. Even when they’re on the road, many of these cars only register a few thousand miles in any year, and many cover only a thousand, being sold on after ten years with 10,000 miles or less on their odometers.

I’m not even going to venture far into America, where the multi-millionare celebrity rubbish seems to have a garage with at least 20-30 cars from stables like Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin etc etc. Those cars aren’t going anywhere far or fast – not unless the owner lives in them and drives them 24/7. They probably waste more water as their slaves wash them, and more polloution from the waxes and polishes they use to keep them ready for the media to come and film them, and worship at the altar of their god-like owners.

No, I’m afraid the only reason I can see for Fred Pearce running his story and putting the boot into Lamborghini for daring to announce that it was making a gesture at environmental concerns (and it had to, as its customers and fans would expect it, whether or not it made any real difference – and there is the small matter of the company being owned by the Volkswagen Group, which does make lots of cars, and doesn’t want anything adverse in its catalogue) is that he harbours deep seated feelings of jealousy and resentment of Lamborghini, and has the tool to express that to a wide audinence, in the hope of winning some popularity amongst those with the same problem.

Fred Pearce would do better to just come out and say he disapporves of Lamborgini, call for it (and presumably any other similar make) to be consigned to the nearest scrapyard, and get on with writing the much better, more balanced, and usefull Greenwas articles that I found he had written in the past.

Personal issues should be kept for blogs (yes, like this one), and editors should be more careful with what they allow their contributors to publish.

Ford Focus RS versus Evo X – tut tut

As Fifth Gear makes its way back onto our screens this week, I thought I might lose my shirt when they placed the Ford Focus RS in a dogfight with the Evo X – suspecting a surprise result, and shaking my head as the two cars don’t belong together in a fair fight, I placed my marker firmly on the Evo X wiping the track with the RS’s upholstry.

They’re different animals, and while I was pleased to see that the Evo technically thrashed the RS by 2 seconds, it wasn’t a fair fight – but that doesn’t make the result any less interesting.

The producers need to find a skip though, and drop the dirty looking little schookid Johnny Smith into it. He always looks as if he needs a wash, and has facial hair that looks as if he draws it on with a magic marker every mornig, to make himself look a bit older.

And, he should have been fired on the spot fro the report he turned in on the V10 Audi R8 with the Lamborghini engine – even the other presenters first remark on his joke of a report on the car was to observe that he never actually drove the car. He might as well have let it roll down a hill and just steered.

PLEASE – DUMP JOHNNY SMITH FROM FIFTH GEAR – HE’S DRAGGING THE WHOLE PROGRAMME DOWN TO HIS OWN VERY POOR LEVEL.

I think this every series, and look in dismay when his magic markered face re-appears with the start of a new series. His presentation is lack lustre, and if he’s responsible for thinking up the largely trivial articles he presents, then he’s also guilty of fraud if he’s getting paid for them.

But… Cheapskate – ideal for Johnny Smith.

The first programme ended with the superb Hot Wheels like loop-the-loop stunt completed with the Toyota Aigo – watch again on the Fifth Gear web site.

(I posted the Fifth Gear video of the stunt, but some clown had set it to autorun, so you would be obliged to wait ages for it to buffer up, even if you didn’t wan to watch it, and I noticed it was also wrapped inside sponsor tags,. Since they aren’t paying me to show their adverts, I’m certainly not showing their adverts for free, or letting them steal space or time here).

Congratulations to all the team  – except Mr Smith of course. He should have been standing under the centre of the loop, ready to cushion the car and protect the driver, had they fallen out of the loop.