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Can someone explain what the positive attribute was that Senna was describing about the engine?Ayrton's final season with McLaren came in 1993 – what are your memories of some of those fantastic performances with that incredible car, MP4/8?
"At the beginning of the year, I was trying to get him to come over from Brazil, telling him: 'Don't worry about the money, come and try the car.' He was saying, 'You can't win with a Ford engine. I don't' think I want to drive.' And our conversations were going back and forth. Eventually, he arrived at Silverstone, got in the car and went out and did one flying lap. Then he came back in – I was about to plug in the intercom when he pulled off his seatbelts and jumped out of the car.
"I wondered what was going on, so we went into the motorhome, and he just said: 'I get it. This engine is amazing: you lift the throttle and it just keeps on going. We can win with this!'
"That car was one of the best we ever made – no question. It was mind-blowing; it was intelligent – it would know where to change gear; we could reset the suspension eight times in every corner. Ayrton was beyond happy with all the toys he had to play with – it played to his strengths, he loved scrutinizing all the data and optimizing the car."
how ??apexspeed wrote:So there is this Q&A quote from Ron Dennis that has appeared in other cuts of that article:
........"That car was one of the best we ever made – no question. .......it was intelligent – we could reset the suspension eight times in every corner...... "
Active suspension? Also it had great traction control - it was one of the ingredients that let Senna do what he did in Donnington that year.Tommy Cookers wrote:how ??apexspeed wrote:So there is this Q&A quote from Ron Dennis that has appeared in other cuts of that article:
........"That car was one of the best we ever made – no question. .......it was intelligent – we could reset the suspension eight times in every corner...... "
apparently then, they actually raced with a software implemented 'preview' of every part of every corner ?the user wrote:Active suspension?Tommy Cookers wrote:how ??apexspeed wrote:So there is this Q&A quote from Ron Dennis that has appeared in other cuts of that article:
........"That car was one of the best we ever made – no question. .......it was intelligent – we could reset the suspension eight times in every corner...... "
Maybe this is a dumb question, but didn't McLaren and Benetton drive the exact same Ford V8 engine in 1993? Of course it was significantly underpowered, but that would have been true for both cars.NoDivergence wrote:The car was actually quite good in terms of mechanical bits and aero. The engine was beyond underpowered. It was 30 hp down from the Benetton Ford motor, and even more from the Renault V10. That characteristic did allow Senna to be balls to the wall and open the throttle earlier. But it was definitely slower. That lack of power did help in the rain though.
Benetton was "partner" while McLaren a mere client. Somewhere around mid-season McLaren managed to negotiate same conditions but for the start of the season they were running different versions.thomin wrote:Maybe this is a dumb question, but didn't McLaren and Benetton drive the exact same Ford V8 engine in 1993? Of course it was significantly underpowered, but that would have been true for both cars.
Actually I remember I read something like that.Tommy Cookers wrote:apparently then, they actually raced with a software implemented 'preview' of every part of every corner ?
Would that be similar to the system Ducati are running in Moto GP that caused Cal Crutchlow to crash a few races back (something along the lines of GPS or Time-Based system that adjusted for each corner)timbo wrote:Actually I remember I read something like that.Tommy Cookers wrote:apparently then, they actually raced with a software implemented 'preview' of every part of every corner ?
One of the things I remember reading is that a few spins Senna and Andretti (and Berger in a Ferrari) had were caused by improper suspension action which raised right height in a corner. Whether that was by position miscalculation (apparently before 2000 GPS was limited in precision for civil uses, they probably used something else) or some other error I don't know.ChrisF1 wrote:Would that be similar to the system Ducati are running in Moto GP that caused Cal Crutchlow to crash a few races back (something along the lines of GPS or Time-Based system that adjusted for each corner)timbo wrote:Actually I remember I read something like that.Tommy Cookers wrote:apparently then, they actually raced with a software implemented 'preview' of every part of every corner ?