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Making a single bolt for an FL car

thedrive.com

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Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#31

Post by egeozcan »

Ralfp wrote: post #18
neals wrote: post #12

As a sponsor of Formula 3, I got to visit a Formula 3 / Formula 2 team yesterday and have to say, the racing sport it just insane. The amount of knowledge and effort and money it takes for a team to operate, just below break-even, it's on another level. I think racing must have some of the most passionate people in any industry. Also a fun fact on one of the businessmodels in racing: the team operates like a speciali…

And those drivers are called „paydrivers” because they pay for having the seat to sit in.

One has to note though, those paydrivers aren't the best possible people to drive those cars for sure, but many of them are very, very talented drivers - just not enough to be sitting there purely on merit.

We all, for example, made fun of Nikita Mazepin, many calling him Mazespin and such (and hated him for his personality etc.). Even that kid was better (in some ways) than a lot of non-F1 drivers with quite successful racing careers.

There are some embarrassing examples we all know, but I'd say 80% are really good, just not F1 (or 2, 3) level.

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#32

Post by breckenedge »

mysterydip wrote: post #21
sawjet wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is often a popular resentment of "pay drivers" for not being up to the standards of top driver talent. But the fact is that anything but the top levels of the sport would not exist without their involvement. Motorsports is an incredibly expensive venture.

I know someone who was in alcohol funny cars (drag racing) for years. Someone bought his seat out one year. On paper it seemed like a good deal for the team. Their first two races they crashed the car, basically nullifying the money they brought.

Was the driver not responsible for that financially? It’s my (limited) understanding that crashes due to non-mechanical failures are the financial responsibility of the driver.

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#33

Post by johnwalkr »

someweirdperson wrote: post #11

> [...] racing machine that only borderline-superhumans can withstand the g's of. Suggestion: Make cockpits tilt inwards. Sideways-g becomes down-g. Much more pleasurable ride. If the driver is really the limit, and not the added mass for this. It's probably against the rules though.

Why do you presume that would be better? For one, it would make more blood drain from your brain.

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#34

Post by chasd00 »

At my university we had a racing team that competed against other colleges in like a mini F1 type league. Every year they would start with a giant empty table and build their race car from scratch.

The team was very competitive , i think they won the league championship every year I was there, and it was considered a pretty big deal in the engineering school to get on with them. I remember they had guys who could weld coke cans together and every machine tool you could imagine and skills to match. One year, a kid on their team got picked up by Ferrari or some other big racing team and became a minor celebrity on campus. (My university was by no means “top tier”)

I was in a robotics competition team and they let me use their machine shop so I got to know them.

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#35

Post by mysterydip »

breckenedge wrote: post #32
mysterydip wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know someone who was in alcohol funny cars (drag racing) for years. Someone bought his seat out one year. On paper it seemed like a good deal for the team. Their first two races they crashed the car, basically nullifying the money they brought.

Was the driver not responsible for that financially? It’s my (limited) understanding that crashes due to non-mechanical failures are the financial responsibility of the driver.

Not sure what agreement they had. I could see that making sense, though.

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#36

Post by djaychela »

Back in the day, I competed as an amateur in my local round of the WRC. The car I competed in was self-built from a base model Skoda Felicia which cost me £40. (immaculate, low mileage, but with a broken camchain so the engine was dead). Obviously cost me a lot more than that in the end, but still only maybe £6k built.

Motorsports news found a part from a focus WRC which cost the same as the purchase price of the car, which was a single nut. Made for a good comparison and story, and quite a few people mentioned that to me the week when we did the event...

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#37

Post by tokai »

sawjet wrote: post #19
neals wrote: post #12

As a sponsor of Formula 3, I got to visit a Formula 3 / Formula 2 team yesterday and have to say, the racing sport it just insane. The amount of knowledge and effort and money it takes for a team to operate, just below break-even, it's on another level. I think racing must have some of the most passionate people in any industry. Also a fun fact on one of the businessmodels in racing: the team operates like a speciali…

There is often a popular resentment of "pay drivers" for not being up to the standards of top driver talent. But the fact is that anything but the top levels of the sport would not exist without their involvement. Motorsports is an incredibly expensive venture.

Thats a bit like objecting to talking negatively about chemo. Sure it can treat cancer, but it would be better if it wasn't needed at all.

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#39

Post by [deleted] »

djaychela wrote: post #36

Back in the day, I competed as an amateur in my local round of the WRC. The car I competed in was self-built from a base model Skoda Felicia which cost me £40. (immaculate, low mileage, but with a broken camchain so the engine was dead). Obviously cost me a lot more than that in the end, but still only maybe £6k built. Motorsports news found a part from a focus WRC which cost the same as the purchase price of the car…

[deleted]

Re: Making a single bolt for an FL car

#40

Post by otherme123 »

someweirdperson wrote: post #11

> [...] racing machine that only borderline-superhumans can withstand the g's of. Suggestion: Make cockpits tilt inwards. Sideways-g becomes down-g. Much more pleasurable ride. If the driver is really the limit, and not the added mass for this. It's probably against the rules though.

The driver is not the limit. The grip + downforce is the limit: if they try to do the worse corner (e.g. Copse-Silverstone ~4G) any faster than they do, the problem won't be the driver fainting (like it could happen in extreme maneuvers at a fighter jet), but the car slidding out of the track.
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