Formula 1 Car Facts....

Know the F1-loco !! strange facts about the cars used in

formula one races...

01. An F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled
99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

02. Formula 1 cars have over a kilometer of cable, linked to about
100
sensors and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the
car.

03. An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR
seconds !!!!!!!

04. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of  racing mostly
before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us
for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully 
DO....thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...

05. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences
retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving
through a BRICK wall at 300kmph !!!

06. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one
race due to the prolonged exposure to hi gh G forces and temperatures
for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)

07. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight  of a Mini.

08. In an F1 car the engine typically revs up to 18000 rpm,(the piston
traveling up and down 300 times a second!!) wheres cars like the
palio, maruti 800,indica rev only upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3
times slower.

09. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating  temperature of
approx 1000 degees Centigrade and they attain that temp while
braking before almost every turn...that is why they r not made of
steel but of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to
wear and tear and most of all has a higher melting point.

10. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system
would empty in just over a  second.

11. Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replaced
regularly to prevent failure, as they are subjected to very high
degrees of stress.

12. The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the  steering wheel must
be removed for the driver to get in or out of the car. A small latch
behind the wheel releases it from the column. Levers or paddles for
changing gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no gearstick!
The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the
gear paddles.

13. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and
added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds
than F1 cars travel on the track.

14. Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance  racing cars
have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of  control at
160
kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.

15. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by  the front and
rear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car is
travelling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate enough downforce to
equal it's o wn weight. That means it could actually hold itself to
the
CEILING  of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!

16. In a street course race like the monaco grand prix, the 
downforce
provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the  race all
of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to
prevent this from happening!

17. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second.
This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of  an
average 50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigs used on
US military helicopters today.

18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3
seconds.

19. Race car tyres don't have air in them like normal car tyres. Most
racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a more
consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typically contains
varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects its expansion
and contract ion as a function of temperature, making the tyre
pressure
unpredictable.

20. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5
kg in weight due to wear.

21. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed
to last 90 - 120 km (That's Khandala and back).

22. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best
grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils
boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.