F1 Cars

The most luxury, expensive, travelled and the pinnacle of motor sport is by far Formula 1. With each car being created from scratch for racing and to be as efficient, light weight and durable as possible it is no wonder that each car costs over 7.5million to make. Teams spare no expense when it comes to developing its cars and spend hours upon hours studying figures and creating lighter and faster systems. This attention to detail is placed on every nut, screw, wing, buckle, pedal or anything else you can possibly imagine to be on a car. It all counts in the end.

F1 has had some changes in the past 10years for safety reasons as the cars were performing at such a high level that the safety precautions could not protect the drivers anymore. The cars were being run by V10’s blasting out over 950bhp which combined with the power to weight ratio was 1500bhp per ton. BAR Honda was recorded doing 256mph on a straight during the 2005 season. The engines used were a 3.0 litre V10 that could reach well over 20,000rpm, which compared to a normal sports car with an average 7,000rpm, you can see the difference. The F1 tried to slow the cars performance some by ending the V10 era and introducing rules that specify more aerodynamically restrictions and the use of a 2.4litre V8 intended to help slow the speeds being reached. Any kind of turbo or supercharger or intercooler was forbidden. The result was a drop of 950bhp down to 750hbp, but did it slow the cars down? It was simply a minor speed bump in the production of the F1 car and didn’t slow the cars a great deal but just enough to help keep the drivers safe. The revs now only max out at 18,000rpm compared to the old 20,000. The cars might not be reaching 256mph in races but they are still pushing the 230-240mph in some races depending on the set-up. To give you an idea of the performance levels of these cars a F1 car can go 0-100 and back to 0 in under 5 seconds. During acceleration the drivers experiences over 2G’s which is twice his bodyweight. Drivers say that touching the breaks on a F1 car is like hitting a wall and with the aerodynamics creating so much down force. It is reported that a F1 car driving at 200mph could drive upside down in a tunnel and not fall. Not only do these cars go fast straight but can go round corners at break neck speeds. Simply the great Car engineering in the world is displayed every year within these F1 cars.

Specs

Engine:  2.4litre V8. 18,000rpm

Power:  750bhp

Power to weight ratio: 1500 per ton

Weight:  Roughly 100kg

0-60mph:  1.9seconds

0-125mph:  3.8

0-190mph: 7.9

Cost:  $7.5million

(I do not own these pictures. Pictures taken by McLaren at press release and Photo shoot)