Replies to McLaren F1 questions and comments
Discussion
anniesdad said:
Pre-empting the official response my belief is that the car would accelerate all the way to 221mph without any noticeable slow down.
Not unless the laws of aerodynamics have change since I last looked.
Nicest thing about the F1 (IMHO) is it's size. Not big. So many 'super' cars are.
Knowing only one other F1 owner - Le Mans orange - I am now considering passing on the next 5 or six cars to join the Mac club
That blue and wheel colour work baby! Really give it a unique motorsport look. The wing mirrors look rather fetching too.
Another question - who do you trust to respray your car and what kind of quotes would one expect?
That blue and wheel colour work baby! Really give it a unique motorsport look. The wing mirrors look rather fetching too.
Another question - who do you trust to respray your car and what kind of quotes would one expect?
thatphilbrettguy said:
Pre-empting the official response my belief is that the car would accelerate all the way to 221mph without any noticeable slow down.
Not unless the laws of aerodynamics have change since I last looked.
Nicest thing about the F1 (IMHO) is it's size. Not big. So many 'super' cars are.
Surely having enough power compensates for this. For example Bugatti Veyron (1000bhp or just shy and 250+ Vmax) they (VW/Bugatti) are claiming 0-180ish in about 14/15 secs. With this sort of power and acceleration, surely the Bugatti would smash through the 200-220mph region and wouldn't be hampered by aerodynamics. Or are you saying that the "brick wall" would arrive almost instantaneously after surging to to say 200mph. Could the F1 not achieve a similar result as the Bugatti? I would like to think it would.
Do the windows open?Gazboy said:
could someone explain the laws of aerodynamics ?
(er.. I'll get my coat shall I? )
Over simplification:
Air resistance increases square to road speed, or, if it takes 100bhp to crack the ton, it takes 400bhp to crack 200mph.
Could be wrong here, but I always thought it was : double the speed, square the air resistance. So infact you would end up needing 1000 units of force to crack 200mph if you required 100 to crack 100mph. This is ofcourse disregarding things like rolling resistance and my own ineptitude and stupidity.
thebluemonkey said:
Could be wrong here, but I always thought it was : double the speed, square the air resistance. So infact you would end up needing 1000 units of force to crack 200mph if you required 100 to crack 100mph. This is of course disregarding things like rolling resistance and my own ineptitude and stupidity.
I am going to just follow you from thread to thread for my comedy intake today
um... I'm confused now, surely by that logic you are saying that (double the speed, square the resistance)
if 100mph=100 units, then 200mph=100 squared units, which is 10,000 - doesn't sound right to me, Gazboys makes more sense - however I accept that I am probably wrong and missing the point entirely.....
if 100mph=100 units, then 200mph=100 squared units, which is 10,000 - doesn't sound right to me, Gazboys makes more sense - however I accept that I am probably wrong and missing the point entirely.....
Just as a matter of interest, the most exhaustive (if not the only) online forum devoted to the F1 is on AF, and can be found by clicking here.
It's pretty active for a model-specific forum, and there are tons and tons of information here, should you be so inclined. There are also two owners who post (somewhat regularly) on the forums, one of whom owns three F1s (one of 'em an LM!).
The regulars there are walking encyclopaedias of the F1 - they maintain a virtual registry and exhaustively track the locations of each and every car by serial number. It's quite impressive.
In fact, when I mentioned there that an unnamed owner had surfaced here, Peloton (one of the said walking masterminds) immediately and correctly guessed that the car referred to was the blue one with the high mirrors.
Flemke, if it should so please you, joining and saying Hello at the aforementioned forum would invite a lot of joy - these are a bunch of folks who live, eat and sleep the F1. I'm betting you would really really really make their days by doing what you did here over there.
And thanks for speaking up, and with such class and quality of writing at that. I am indebted.
One thing you didn't touch on though, in the way we (I) like to hear, is just how quick your car is in a straight line. Do any adjectives spring to mind (swear words accepted)? Any stories on slaughtering the odd F40 or superbike?
D
It's pretty active for a model-specific forum, and there are tons and tons of information here, should you be so inclined. There are also two owners who post (somewhat regularly) on the forums, one of whom owns three F1s (one of 'em an LM!).
The regulars there are walking encyclopaedias of the F1 - they maintain a virtual registry and exhaustively track the locations of each and every car by serial number. It's quite impressive.
In fact, when I mentioned there that an unnamed owner had surfaced here, Peloton (one of the said walking masterminds) immediately and correctly guessed that the car referred to was the blue one with the high mirrors.
Flemke, if it should so please you, joining and saying Hello at the aforementioned forum would invite a lot of joy - these are a bunch of folks who live, eat and sleep the F1. I'm betting you would really really really make their days by doing what you did here over there.
And thanks for speaking up, and with such class and quality of writing at that. I am indebted.
One thing you didn't touch on though, in the way we (I) like to hear, is just how quick your car is in a straight line. Do any adjectives spring to mind (swear words accepted)? Any stories on slaughtering the odd F40 or superbike?
D
maranellouk said:
I am going to just follow you from thread to thread for my comedy intake today
Why thank you, it's always nice to have an appreciative audience.
guydw said:
um... I'm confused now, surely by that logic you are saying that (double the speed, square the resistance)
if 100mph=100 units, then 200mph=100 squared units, which is 10,000 - doesn't sound right to me, Gazboys makes more sense - however I accept that I am probably wrong and missing the point entirely.....
Me too.
Right ok, just worked it out, I can't read properly. Gazboy was indeed right. It's the increase (1.4x, 2x etc, etc, etc . . . ) that is squared to work out the increase in resistance and not the actual figures. Oops.
>> Edited by thebluemonkey on Wednesday 4th August 18:20
>> Edited by thebluemonkey on Wednesday 4th August 18:36
flemke
Welcome to PH. Some years ago my wife visited London and came back with tales of a fantastic sports car she had seen. This was the first time ever she had shown any enthusiasm for anything automotive. This enthusiasm on the part of the missus was matched by my own ! I could almost see this car on the drive. Of course after much grilling I discovered it was an F1. I was gutted until she presented me with a 1/18th scale model ......
Welcome to PH. Some years ago my wife visited London and came back with tales of a fantastic sports car she had seen. This was the first time ever she had shown any enthusiasm for anything automotive. This enthusiasm on the part of the missus was matched by my own ! I could almost see this car on the drive. Of course after much grilling I discovered it was an F1. I was gutted until she presented me with a 1/18th scale model ......
Ameritech did not import the seven F1s, eight including Leno's, plus two Bugatti EB110s as "kit cars". Mr. Fritz called himself a manufacturer and using appropriate influence "imported" the cars. DOT knew what was going on and this is evident from a memo between DOT legal Taylor Vinson, Ken Weinstein, and Dick Merritt. They refused to recall the cars. Subsequently Mr. Fritz tried to bring in one EB 110 through Canada but was denied. At the time Ameritech was not an ICI or RI.
Ralph Lauren and Pual Allen had nothing to do with Show and Display. Bill Gates paid $20K to lobbyist Warren Dean, who had previously done some work for Ralph, to get Rep Billy Tauuzin to attach S&D to the Transportation bill of 1998. A 959 owner Brian Milazo was also involved.
I can tell you from first hand experience that the problems with legalizing an F1 in the US has to do with OBD regulations. Bottom line is it can't be done. But it has been and DOT and EPA have attempted to explain it away. Carl Brinager did most F1's through JK Technologies.
Ralph Lauren and Pual Allen had nothing to do with Show and Display. Bill Gates paid $20K to lobbyist Warren Dean, who had previously done some work for Ralph, to get Rep Billy Tauuzin to attach S&D to the Transportation bill of 1998. A 959 owner Brian Milazo was also involved.
I can tell you from first hand experience that the problems with legalizing an F1 in the US has to do with OBD regulations. Bottom line is it can't be done. But it has been and DOT and EPA have attempted to explain it away. Carl Brinager did most F1's through JK Technologies.
anniesdad said:
anniesdad said:
Pre-empting the official response my belief is that the car would accelerate all the way to 221mph without any noticeable slow down.
Not unless the laws of aerodynamics have change since I last looked.
Nicest thing about the F1 (IMHO) is it's size. Not big. So many 'super' cars are.
Surely having enough power compensates for this. For example Bugatti Veyron (1000bhp or just shy and 250+ Vmax) they (VW/Bugatti) are claiming 0-180ish in about 14/15 secs. With this sort of power and acceleration, surely the Bugatti would smash through the 200-220mph region and wouldn't be hampered by aerodynamics. Or are you saying that the "brick wall" would arrive almost instantaneously after surging to to say 200mph. Could the F1 not achieve a similar result as the Bugatti? I would like to think it would.
Whatever your car's top speed, if it is limited by the point where drag beats power, you are going to feel a dropping off of acceleration as you approach it. It will be similar(ish) to the drop off on a 100mph car above 95mph.
It is very different if you still have plenty of spare power at your top speed, but you are limited by the red line or a speed limiter. An SL55 will keep charging quite hard up to 155.
Gazboy said:
could someone explain the laws of aerodynamics ?
(er.. I'll get my coat shall I? )
Over simplification:
Air resistance increases square to road speed, or, if it takes 100bhp to crack the ton, it takes 400bhp to crack 200mph.
No, it takes 800. Force increases as speed squared, but power is force times speed, so power needed is proportional to speed cubed.
Northernboy said:
guydw said:
could someone explain the laws of aerodynamics ?
(er.. I'll get my coat shall I? )
Over simplification:
Air resistance increases square to road speed, or, if it takes 100bhp to crack the ton, it takes 400bhp to crack 200mph.
No, it takes 800. Force increases as speed squared, but power is force times speed, so power needed is proportional to speed cubed.
Now that's starting to get complicated, and you still haven't thrown in work done by the engine wasted as noise, overcoming the rolling resistance of the tyres, mechanical drag from less-than-perfect lubrication, windage from the moving internal components...
By the way - the pictures of the car are stunning, and I'd describe it as 'sultry' rather than 'cute'.
Nothing with enough power to tear an anrgy rhino in half is 'cute'..
enjoyed reading the first post so much i read it twice! Northernboy,
I'm not sure....but are you saying it takes 800bhp to crack 200mph?
If you are...this of course is not the case.
Was thinking about this last night and not having access to this sort of info first hand, an F1 GP car has about 850-900bhp and does about 210mph approx top end. Light as
of course but about as aerodynamic as a brick. In light of the relatively short straights of a GP track, is there any opportunity for a GP car to reach its top speed? and is there any tail off in acceleration?
I'm not sure....but are you saying it takes 800bhp to crack 200mph?
If you are...this of course is not the case.
Was thinking about this last night and not having access to this sort of info first hand, an F1 GP car has about 850-900bhp and does about 210mph approx top end. Light as
of course but about as aerodynamic as a brick. In light of the relatively short straights of a GP track, is there any opportunity for a GP car to reach its top speed? and is there any tail off in acceleration? Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff