Little Trip Out Today
Discussion
Although my C4S got me there, through all the large lakes that covered Oxfordshire, this isnt a Porsche driving story im afraid.
Got chance to go to Lotus Renault F1 Headquaters in Enstone today.
Have to say from the start, considering they are plastic, carbon fibre and some bits of titanium and tungsten, the amount of work and people that go into making these cars is astonishing.
The factory or should i say complex is in the middle of nowhere outside Enstone. Pretty non descript from the road and a few flags to let you know what is there. Pulling into the car park there were few Lotus Evoras but apart from the that pretty normal. I suppose i was expecting loads of flash sports cars!
We were first taken to the CFD building where all the computer generated data is looked at and done in conjunction with the wind tunnel. We also saw this years car.
We were also taken into the computer room which if anyone remembers that film War Games and the computer which tried to start WW3.....times that by 100. Situated in an underground room for temp reasons it had so much computer power that in theory you could copy a DVD Disc in a second. Lotus/Renault work closely with other companies and one of their closest partnerships is with Boeing which surprised me. But apparently they do a lot for the aircraft manfacturer on the CFD side of life and in turn, Boeing let them use some of their software etc.
We then moved off to where the older F1 cars of the Renault Benetton era were on show.
Micheal Schumacher's car.
We then looked at the kilns that make the carbon fibre tubs/chassis and actually seeing some of them being done.
Next was the wind tunnel which is one of the departments that works almost 24hrs a day. They had 2013's car in there so we were not allowed to look at it, but did see one of those 3D "printers" making parts for it. Basically these things can make almost anything out of a special composite from a wheel to a hydraulic gearbox pump with all its internal holes and channels. Awesome watching it form in front of you, but of course couldnt take photos.
Moving on, we looked at some of the electronics and namely the steering wheels, where we got chance to hold Kimi Raikonnens actual steering wheel.
We then got shown the laboratory where they can mimic the suspension movement of any Grand Prix circuit on a car to fine tune suspension components.
Basically the F1 car is strapped to 7 points/rams that reproduce the bumps on a circuit and also mimic acceleration (car pitchs aft) and braking (car pitchs forward). So we watched the car o go through the Monza Circuit and you could work out when it went round a left or right hand circuit. Again, we couldnt take photos as it had this years car but with a lot of its bodywork missing and gearbox/engine parts/mounts on show, but again showing the detail that goes into producing one of these things.
Lastly we saw some of the trophies that Renault and Lotus have won.
Constructors Trophy
This one show the Dubai trophy from this years Grand Prix that Kimi won.
All in all it was an excellent trip and just in awe in the amount of people that work behind the scenes. Its not until you see the final cars being put together that there are others that only get to see the small parts that go towards the final product. And did i see Raikonnen or Grosjean....no, i asked how often do the drivers come to the factory and the answer was that it depends on the drivers and how much they get chance to visit. Apparently though, Lotus Renault isnt one of the "richest" teams but from what i could see there was a lot of money going into what drives around the circuits week in week out.
And finally, not a manual gearbox in sight!!!
Got chance to go to Lotus Renault F1 Headquaters in Enstone today.
Have to say from the start, considering they are plastic, carbon fibre and some bits of titanium and tungsten, the amount of work and people that go into making these cars is astonishing.
The factory or should i say complex is in the middle of nowhere outside Enstone. Pretty non descript from the road and a few flags to let you know what is there. Pulling into the car park there were few Lotus Evoras but apart from the that pretty normal. I suppose i was expecting loads of flash sports cars!
We were first taken to the CFD building where all the computer generated data is looked at and done in conjunction with the wind tunnel. We also saw this years car.
We were also taken into the computer room which if anyone remembers that film War Games and the computer which tried to start WW3.....times that by 100. Situated in an underground room for temp reasons it had so much computer power that in theory you could copy a DVD Disc in a second. Lotus/Renault work closely with other companies and one of their closest partnerships is with Boeing which surprised me. But apparently they do a lot for the aircraft manfacturer on the CFD side of life and in turn, Boeing let them use some of their software etc.
We then moved off to where the older F1 cars of the Renault Benetton era were on show.
Micheal Schumacher's car.
We then looked at the kilns that make the carbon fibre tubs/chassis and actually seeing some of them being done.
Next was the wind tunnel which is one of the departments that works almost 24hrs a day. They had 2013's car in there so we were not allowed to look at it, but did see one of those 3D "printers" making parts for it. Basically these things can make almost anything out of a special composite from a wheel to a hydraulic gearbox pump with all its internal holes and channels. Awesome watching it form in front of you, but of course couldnt take photos.
Moving on, we looked at some of the electronics and namely the steering wheels, where we got chance to hold Kimi Raikonnens actual steering wheel.
We then got shown the laboratory where they can mimic the suspension movement of any Grand Prix circuit on a car to fine tune suspension components.
Basically the F1 car is strapped to 7 points/rams that reproduce the bumps on a circuit and also mimic acceleration (car pitchs aft) and braking (car pitchs forward). So we watched the car o go through the Monza Circuit and you could work out when it went round a left or right hand circuit. Again, we couldnt take photos as it had this years car but with a lot of its bodywork missing and gearbox/engine parts/mounts on show, but again showing the detail that goes into producing one of these things.
Lastly we saw some of the trophies that Renault and Lotus have won.
Constructors Trophy
This one show the Dubai trophy from this years Grand Prix that Kimi won.
All in all it was an excellent trip and just in awe in the amount of people that work behind the scenes. Its not until you see the final cars being put together that there are others that only get to see the small parts that go towards the final product. And did i see Raikonnen or Grosjean....no, i asked how often do the drivers come to the factory and the answer was that it depends on the drivers and how much they get chance to visit. Apparently though, Lotus Renault isnt one of the "richest" teams but from what i could see there was a lot of money going into what drives around the circuits week in week out.
And finally, not a manual gearbox in sight!!!
Thats what i thought, the button marked PRB for instance would be used by the driver to press if there was a problem at a particular point on the circuit. When the car returns to the pits they pull out the computer telementary and on the screen where the driver pressed PRB would be shown on the graph etc.
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