BlogF1 » Arrows http://blogf1.co.uk Your Regular Blog and Guide to Formula One Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:08:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Formula One Versus… http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/07/14/formula-one-versus/ http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/07/14/formula-one-versus/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:14:37 +0000 Oliver White http://blogf1.co.uk/?p=1549 Original article by BlogF1.

Formula One Versus…

]]> Over the years Formula One teams have pitched their cars against some of the world’s most formiddable, and on occasion, fiercesome machines. The most common battle is associated with the car manufacturers who supply engines to the motor sporting world, and these companies will sometimes race an F1 car against a fast road-going car and a small hatch-back or similar. Let’s take a look at some of the vehicles Formula One drivers have found themselves racing against.

Stewart-Ford vs. Ford Focus WRC vs. Ford Cougar

Ferrari F310 vs. Ferrari 575M Maranello vs. Fiat Punto

McLaren Peugeot MP4-9 vs. Porsche 911 vs. Peugeot 306

Spyker F8-VII vs. F16 Jet Fighter


Read more about this race on BlogF1 at the post I wrote last year: Spyker F8-VII vs. F16 Jet Fighter

Ferrari F2004 vs. Eurofighter Typhoon


Schumacher got trounced, but at least the Eurofighter has beaten other cars as well, the Bugatti Veyron for example…

Bugatti Veyron vs. Eurofighter Typhoon


…Top Gear tried racing against the Typhoon with Richard Hammond at the wheel of a Veyron, but the plane was just too quick.

Ferrari 126c vs. F-104 Jet Fighter


There’s very little information on this video other than the race taking place in 1981. I don’t know if Gilles Villeneuve won or if the F-104 did, but I’m certain the Ferrari driver had a lot of fun that day.

BAR Honda vs. Superbike vs. Speedboat


Jenson Button beat the lot of the them after he turned off the anti-stall and started to get away from the line properly.

McLaren Mercedes F1 vs. Mercedes DTM vs. Mercedes SL AMG vs. Mercedes CLC


I’m not very good with Mercedes’s model designation system, so if I’ve got the car models wrong, I apologise in advance.
Another predictable race between a variety of road-going and racing cars.

Arrows vs. Lamborghini


Like Spyker, Arrows rarely set the track alight, but when they race other machines, they are in with a fighting chance. Especially when the result is as obvious as this one.

And the prompt of this post? Lewis Hamilton raced a learjet this morning down a runway. Apparently the McLaren driver is a Learjet Brand Ambassador (which I presume means Ron Dennis gets a discounted jet) and Hamilton raced one in his MP4-23. The race was put together for a publicity event for the Farnborough Air Show, and the BBC have a video of it here.

If you like these videos there’s more to see on BlogF1’s video page…

Original article by BlogF1.

Formula One Versus…

]]> http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/07/14/formula-one-versus/feed/ 5 Do The Fins Make The Cars Look Prettier? http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/04/16/do-the-fins-make-the-cars-look-prettier/ http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/04/16/do-the-fins-make-the-cars-look-prettier/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:50:56 +0000 Oliver White http://blogf1.co.uk/?p=1117 Original article by BlogF1.

Do The Fins Make The Cars Look Prettier?

]]> Formula One cars should be awesome to look at. Yes, motor racing is more about the actual event of cars and drivers racing against one another, but Formula One chargers should also be sculptured to perfection and easy on the eye. It may be a bit of a shallow remark, but when millions of dollars are pumped into the designing and building of a bespoke car that is meant to be streamlined and ultimately fast, it really should be a work of art. But colour schemes aside, do the new breed of 2008 machines meet this criteria of mine?

The obvious answer is that in general, they do. However, Red Bull have been racing this year with a fin attached to the engine cover of their RB4, taking away the flowing line that used to go from the air box down to the gear box. Instead, the line from the air box goes almost horizontally backwards until the rear wing before cutting in and in an inversion of the previous iteration, curves down towards the rear.

On Monday, Renault arrived at the Barcelona test session with a similar design on their R28. The implementation of this is apparently mean to help the stability of the car under braking. With the standard ECU now policing certain rules regarding electronics, the effect of engine-braking is less and traction control banned. According to Red Bull earlier in the season, the fin helps keep the car more on-line as it enters the braking zone and limits the sliding under acceleration at the other end of the corner. Understandably, it is now present on the new STR, which made its debut today and is pictured above.

Also on show yesterday were Honda’s Dumbo ears, mounted on the front nose and presumably designed to help with front-end grip. I can’t help but wonder if Honda should be concentrating on the the rear of the car, but I’m not an aerodynamicist probably for this very reason.

So while these additions may be helping the cars go faster, do they actually look good? In the past teams have turned up to races with some extraordinary devices; the Tyrrell 025’s towers, later adopted by Jordan, the Arrows A22’s potato peeler…

Tyrrell 025 Jos Verstappen - Arrows A22

The ‘Bull fin isn’t quite as bad as some of the ideas of the past, but I can’t help but wonder if the designers are turning Formula One into a real-life version of Wacky Races.

Goodwood 2007 - Wacky Races
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Arrows image courtesy or The Cahier Archive.

Original article by BlogF1.

Do The Fins Make The Cars Look Prettier?

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