Heights of technology in Automobile Industry

I started following up F1 only since last 8-10 months. While I am still not fanatic about the sport it was amazing reading some facts about F1. This was a forward I recieved from my friend. Read on - it will simply amaze you!

Here are some interesting facts about Formula 1

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 kilometre 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 high 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 upto 18000 rpm,(the piston
travelling 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 downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds
than F1 cars travel on the track.

14. Without aerodynamic downforce, 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 own 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 contraction 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.