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martingreen: At a recent dinner, a few of us were talking about Formula One.   One of them asked me what’s so special about F1.   If you are into cars, tech or both, read these F1 geek stats and get your car geek on… Acceleration like you’ve never dreamed of: An F1 car weighs about 1,100lbs before driver and ballast.  That’s only 33% of the weight of a fantastic road sports car such as a Ferrari 458, which weighs 3,300lbs.  Less mass = more acceleration for a given amount of power. But an F1 has a ton of power.  An F1 car puts out close to 900hp in current spec.  That’s 60% more power than the Ferrari 458, at 562hp. So the power to weight ratio of an F1 car is a staggering 4.8 times as much as Ferrari 458. That translates into acceleration times as follows: 0-60mph: 2 seconds.  Ferrari 458 takes 3 seconds.  Translating power through the tires is the limiter for the F1 car, otherwise it could do it in about 1 second. 0-125mph: 3.8 seconds.  Ferrari 458 takes over 9 seconds.   0-185mph: 8.6 seconds.  Ferrari 458 takes over 23 seconds.   So an F1 is multiple times quicker than a ferrari 458.  not % quicker.  Multiple times.  say that again. yep. Control: Downforce = The wings and other aero elements mean that the car is pushed and sucked into the road as it moves forward through the air.   At 85mph, an F1 car generates more downforce than it weighs, and therefore downforce overcomes gravity.   Meaning that at speeds above 90mph, you could theoretically drive it upside down on the roof of a tunnel.  But instead of doing that, you can practically turn through corners and remain planted to the road at far higher speeds than in a road car, which would slide sideways off the road. Try that on for size.

martingreen:

At a recent dinner, a few of us were talking about Formula One.  

One of them asked me what’s so special about F1.  

If you are into cars, tech or both, read these F1 geek stats and get your car geek on…

Acceleration like you’ve never dreamed of:

An F1 car weighs about 1,100lbs before driver and ballast.  That’s only 33% of the weight of a fantastic road sports car such as a Ferrari 458, which weighs 3,300lbs.  Less mass = more acceleration for a given amount of power.

But an F1 has a ton of power.  An F1 car puts out close to 900hp in current spec.  That’s 60% more power than the Ferrari 458, at 562hp.

So the power to weight ratio of an F1 car is a staggering 4.8 times as much as Ferrari 458.

That translates into acceleration times as follows:

0-60mph: 2 seconds.  Ferrari 458 takes 3 seconds.  Translating power through the tires is the limiter for the F1 car, otherwise it could do it in about 1 second.

0-125mph: 3.8 seconds.  Ferrari 458 takes over 9 seconds.  

0-185mph: 8.6 seconds.  Ferrari 458 takes over 23 seconds.  

So an F1 is multiple times quicker than a ferrari 458.  not % quicker.  Multiple times.  say that again. yep.

Control:

Downforce = The wings and other aero elements mean that the car is pushed and sucked into the road as it moves forward through the air.  

At 85mph, an F1 car generates more downforce than it weighs, and therefore downforce overcomes gravity.  

Meaning that at speeds above 90mph, you could theoretically drive it upside down on the roof of a tunnel.  But instead of doing that, you can practically turn through corners and remain planted to the road at far higher speeds than in a road car, which would slide sideways off the road.

Try that on for size.

Source: martingreen

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    why i love f1: -
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    For all those curious...these droning mosquito looking machines
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