Still more replies to McLaren F1 questions and com
Discussion
Flemke,
"speaking from the land of the ignorant".....erm, you appear to have a great deal more knowledge than I about said matters, wonder what that makes me...."completely useless" I should think about sums it up.
Good to see the mods, shouldn't affect the aerodynamics, I'm very interested in the development of your car. Any luck with the wheels?
Was scanning through the Rowan Atkinson/EVO article the other night (F1 v CGT). Is it true the Macca, goes "whoooooooooooooooooooorgh" then "waaaaaaaaargh" then "wiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaarrrrrrrggghhhh" at full tilt? and am I correct in saying you are a friend of EVO?
Cheers
A
"speaking from the land of the ignorant".....erm, you appear to have a great deal more knowledge than I about said matters, wonder what that makes me...."completely useless" I should think about sums it up.
Good to see the mods, shouldn't affect the aerodynamics, I'm very interested in the development of your car. Any luck with the wheels?
Was scanning through the Rowan Atkinson/EVO article the other night (F1 v CGT). Is it true the Macca, goes "whoooooooooooooooooooorgh" then "waaaaaaaaargh" then "wiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaarrrrrrrggghhhh" at full tilt? and am I correct in saying you are a friend of EVO?
Cheers
A
Anniesdad -
On another thread you, I think, raised the question of what sort of time an F1 might do at the Nordschleife.
Like an idiot I forgot to ask the guys at McL today whether they had timed a lap when they took a car there some years ago. I did, however, try to get an answer earlier in the week.
First I asked the fellow who is developing the car's suspension for me and who is one of the world's ultimate drivers on the 'Ring. His guess is that, once we've got the right tyres on it, it would likely do something in the 7:45-50 range. He thinks that the limiting factor would be aerodynamic.
It is true that the car begins to get slightly lighter at 140-150. This instability is marginal until maybe 205, as I have mentioned before. What I cannot opine on is the interplay between that unique circuit's plethora of bumps, undulations and camber changes and the F1's aerodynamics. There are only a few places where one could expect to go faster than 150 or so, and two where 180-190, maybe 200, is possible, so I'm not sure how much of a compromise to one's speed the car's aerodynamics might bring about. I am sure, as said before, that the car would not be as quick as a CGT. Also as said before, the F1 GTR is a different story, but the race cars aren't really usable as street cars, even the few that have been made road-legal.
The other thing that I did that might have shed a bit of light on the question was to do a couple of laps at the 'Ring. In its present form the car has, at last, what should be the right basic suspension geometry. For the first time in my experience the car's handling is integrated and somewhat predictable. The steering is much more precise, and the back end feels reasonably planted.
With a lot more positive castor now, the steering is much heavier. On the circuit this can be a problem, especially in medium-speed bends that seem to be at the "sweet" spot (sour is more like it) of inducing a lot of loading on the outside front tyre while requiring a lot of lock. In Steilstrecke and parts of the Hatzenbach, for example, there were times when I just did not have the strength to add the extra bit of lock that I wanted.
Improving the tyres has always been our highest priority objective. Now that the rest of the package is kind of sorted, the limitations of the high sidewalls are very obvious; their lateral flexibility is no longer being mixed together with other phenomena. You can feel distinctly the tyres' shortcomings when you turn the steering wheel and sense that the front wheels are rotating as you intend them to do, but then there is a momentary (a third of a second?) delay until the contact patch has twisted enough to realign with the longitudinal axis of the wheels.
I hope that before the weather turns we will have some three-piece wheel centres made that will fit the F1's centre-lock hubs and drive pegs. As soon as they are made we can experiment with different tyres and engage someone to make some permanent one-piece wheels.
A friend who was with me video'd some driving of the car on the day (I'm not saying that`anything was recorded at the circuit itself, which would be against the rules). He thought that it might be worthwhile to post on PH a segment of the recording. With the volume turned up enough the reproduction of the engine and induction noises is surprisingly accurate.
Do you think that folks might be interested in our posting part of the recording?
flemke said:
Anniesdad -
On another thread you, I think, raised the question of what sort of time an F1 might do at the Nordschleife......
.....A friend who was with me video'd some driving of the car on the day (I'm not saying that`anything was recorded at the circuit itself, which would be against the rules). He thought that it might be worthwhile to post on PH a segment of the recording. With the volume turned up enough the reproduction of the engine and induction noises is surprisingly accurate.
Do you think that folks might be interested in our posting part of the recording?
Do you even need to ask???? Videos of one of the most exclusive cars in the world on one of the worlds legendary tracks??
Post them! POST THEM!!!!
!!
For anyone who might be interested in the clips:
Please don't expect anything especially memorable. I was doing a couple of medium-speed laps in order to assess changes in geometry, some different bushes and a larger steering wheel. I was not even conscious that my friend was filming it as I chatted away to him while he sat behind me.
I'm not sure what we'll select, but the maximum speed was about 150 and there wasn't much traffic to overtake. The audio seems the better part, as you can hear induction, exhaust and tyre sounds fairly clearly.
The camera was hand-held and it bounces around some, my friend's good efforts to keep it steady notwithstanding.
Please don't expect anything especially memorable. I was doing a couple of medium-speed laps in order to assess changes in geometry, some different bushes and a larger steering wheel. I was not even conscious that my friend was filming it as I chatted away to him while he sat behind me.
I'm not sure what we'll select, but the maximum speed was about 150 and there wasn't much traffic to overtake. The audio seems the better part, as you can hear induction, exhaust and tyre sounds fairly clearly.
The camera was hand-held and it bounces around some, my friend's good efforts to keep it steady notwithstanding.
flemke said:
For anyone who might be interested in the clips:
Please don't expect anything especially memorable. I was doing a couple of medium-speed laps in order to assess changes in geometry, some different bushes and a larger steering wheel. I was not even conscious that my friend was filming it as I chatted away to him while he sat behind me.
I'm not sure what we'll select, but the maximum speed was about 150 and there wasn't much traffic to overtake. The audio seems the better part, as you can hear induction, exhaust and tyre sounds fairly clearly.
The camera was hand-held and it bounces around some, my friend's good efforts to keep it steady notwithstanding.
I personally don't care if it was done with an old Movietone 16mm and a Victrola.
Contact Ted and let him post every last bit on his servers.
You've gone and opened a can of worms now - you really must post a video pronto!
Not wishing to douse the flames, but bear in mind that once released into the PH collective, you can bet-your-ass that the video will doubtless circulate the net across thousands of PCs for years to come.
If you have no qualms with this, then bring it on!
Not wishing to douse the flames, but bear in mind that once released into the PH collective, you can bet-your-ass that the video will doubtless circulate the net across thousands of PCs for years to come.
If you have no qualms with this, then bring it on!
Flemke, will you be up for bringing your can to VMAX? (see www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=128910&f=133&h=0).
Although spaces are all sold out, I'm sure Craig would make an exception, else you can have my place and you pick me up en-route
Although spaces are all sold out, I'm sure Craig would make an exception, else you can have my place and you pick me up en-route
Hi,
Just registered on PH to say how much I appreciated reading flemke's posts here. Needless to say, well written and very well informed posts, not to mention all those small tidbits about the Mac F1, Derek Bell, Nordschleife, etc, etc.
Much appreciated flemke!
PS Can't someone set him up with a 'Ring video permit?
Just registered on PH to say how much I appreciated reading flemke's posts here. Needless to say, well written and very well informed posts, not to mention all those small tidbits about the Mac F1, Derek Bell, Nordschleife, etc, etc.
Much appreciated flemke!
PS Can't someone set him up with a 'Ring video permit?
Regarding the video, I have been advised that 2-3 minutes of running time would be about right, so that's what I'll aim for.
Seriously now, this video is just little old me doing a test lap in a road car that is under development, and I was not even aware that it was being filmed, so no one should get their hopes too high.
If you want to see a truly fantastic in-car video of a lap of the 'Ring, the Derek Bell one is fine, but there's one that was made this spring that is off the charts: Hans-Joachim Stuck, driving the M3-GTR in which he was shortly to win this year's 24-hour race, was filmed doing an absolute blinder of a lap. The DVD of it is available on some German website (Can someone help here with the address? If not, and anyone's interested, I'll try to locate it).
I would not be going to VMAX. As mentioned, the car is still under development. I have never done a standing-start blast either - in-gear acceleration is kinder to the car and, to me, a lot more exhilirating.
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