I really didn't want this to get missed.

[skeggysteve]

For hard core fans only but it was in danger of being lost in the other thread.

35secToNuvolari said:

With the season now over, I am reading through the archives of the fantastic technical features Peter Wright wrote for grandprix. What a delight.

Here's two of my favorites.

http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00215.html

http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ftpw021.html

Thanks 35secs.

[tossbag]

Gordon Murray said:

The satisfaction I derived from doing the F1 was a bit of a surprise. The thing that really threw me was that so many people came up to me when they heard I was going to give up racing and said: "You'll really hate it. There are so many regulations, you're going to die!" In the end I nearly got cold feet. Then, when we started, I have to say that it was totally the opposite. Once you have it in your mind that the headlights have to be so high, the bumpers so high, and the wiper has to clear so much screen, those regulations are peanuts. I could still design the worlds weirdest windscreen wiper system that doesn't squeak when the screen is dry. I could exorcise all those things that I hate about normal motor cars. When it actually comes to designing the car, it's exactly the opposite to Formula 1. There are no performance regulations that I can find. You want moveable aerodynamics - you can have them. You want active brake cooling - let's do it. I loved all the hard bits like HVAC and the doors. We were pushing so hard on weight we had to do our own everything. We knocked over 50% of the weight out of the exhaust system - more than 50 kg. I didn't know how a fly-off handbrake worked until I started investigating how to lighten one. Getting all the little details right is just as fascinating as doing the same in Formula 1.

A great read, thank you!

[Jacobyte]

Sorry for the necropost, but I bookmarked this page back in 2008 and have only just got round to reading it.

Great stuff, thanks again for the links.

[timbob]

Good stuff - thanks for bringing this up, I'd missed it first time round