I was but a star in my mother's eye when Hunt and Sheene ruled the motor racing world in 76. Wish I could have been around during that era.
Just been reading up about the changes. There's loads, result will be ugly cars and doubtless reliability problems as they get used to what is a completely new set up. The fact that the power of KERS (now called ERS) is doubled to 160bhp and lasts 33 seconds per lap rather than 6 seconds might be fun.......
What is that ERS caper Stan? Some sort of emergency power boost? Also, do you think there'll be more mechanical problems as the teams will have to squeeze so much power out of the new tiny 1600cc units?
They are turbo engines, 1.6 will be almost as powerful as the 3 litre normal engines and ERS will be operable for about 5 times as long as the KERS system...
The old 1.5 turbos used to put out 1200bhp they were significantly more powerful than the normally aspirated engines we have had over the past 20 years. The new rules should make it more interesting, which is sorely needed.
Sorry I missed your earlier post mate. Aye they'll be turbocharged but that's what I'm getting at. They'll be stressing those little motors to breaking point. Can you imagine how hot a turbo on an 800bhp, 1.6 Liter would get? Bloody thing would be like a red hot poker. The smaller you make the engine yet keep pushing out more power, the more stress you're putting them under, therefore the greater chance of summat going "ping". Innit? (P.S. Any chance we could get this merged to the Auto thread? Loopy won't mind I'm sure)
Just for you Swordie.... Just seen that the Toyota Corolla & Mazde 3 were biggest selling cars in Oz again last year !! Top selling company was Toyota wich outstripped Holden by 27K cars i believe. The days of the big V8's are numbered as petrol prices are catching up fast.. PS..Happy now ?
I've now seen the film Rush (on a plane naturally). Very highly recommended, I'll be watching it again on the next plane....
Corollas and 3's in a Country that traditionally loved its large motors. Times they are a-changin' alright. Well Stan, did my post above about the 1.6 L engines in Formula One sound as much like a chap that has not one iota of a clue regarding F1 as it felt when I wrote it? P.S. What's Rush?
Not at all mate, I reckon you feign ignorance to get a conversation going sometimes anyway. Rush is a newish film about the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, culminating in the 1976 season when Hunt was world champion after Lauda burnt half his face off and ruined his lungs in a crash, but was back in a car 3 races later. I have no idea how accurate the film is, but these blokes were polar opposites in character and it makes very good drama. Just read up some more about it, apparently they were mates and had huge respect for each other, although their approaches were very different. Lauda was involved in the film and very happy with the result, his only regret being that Hunt didn't get to see it. And on reflection I can remember Hunt being very pro Lauda when he was commentating in the 80s.
No, he sold it to Austrian Air, which I suspect is at least part owned by Lufthansa, quite a long time ago. I looked at quite a few interviews with Lauda on YouTube last night, as well as some racing of course. He's an amazingly direct bloke, takes a bit of getting used to, but grows on you.
