Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
Formula One's fundamental ethos is about success coming to those with the most ingenious engineering and best ..............................organization, not to those with the biggest budget. (Dave Richards)
This is Lotus 80.
Colin Chapman intended to exploit ground effect to its maximum and also wanted maximum pitch sensitivity, so the driver would have high load on front tyres at braking and vice versa on acceleration. It was intended that the car would not use wings. Unfortunately, pitch sensitivity was too high, and the car tended to go into resonant "porpoising" motion that made it unstable at high speed.
timbo wrote:This is Lotus 80.
Colin Chapman intended to exploit ground effect to its maximum and also wanted maximum pitch sensitivity, so the driver would have high load on front tyres at braking and vice versa on acceleration. It was intended that the car would not use wings. Unfortunately, pitch sensitivity was too high, and the car tended to go into resonant "porpoising" motion that made it unstable at high speed.
You are correct Sir!
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And an excellent explanation!
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Scheckter had a reputation of a wild man triggering the biggest accident of F1 of his time in France 1973. When he joined Ferrari in 1979 he was pitched against another "wild" man, Gilles Villeneuve. The Ferrari was reliable and so superior in the hands of the pair that Ferrari and Scheckter closed the championships in Monza with a Scheckter/Villeneuve 1-2 and two races to go.
Ironically "wild man" Scheckter beat Villeneuve by consistently bringing the car home in the points and not by his speed. The other irony was that Ferrari's next car was a truck. Scheckter never again won an F1 race and retired after 1980.
Last edited by WhiteBlue on 13 May 2010, 09:52, edited 1 time in total.
Formula One's fundamental ethos is about success coming to those with the most ingenious engineering and best ..............................organization, not to those with the biggest budget. (Dave Richards)
aluminium / composite body on aluminium monocoque (alu sandwich honeycomb)
The non ground effect 312T3 had to be adapted to run venturis and the chassis was a complete redesign in a new monocoque technology. It had to be very narrow due to the width of the flat 12 engine. The venturis also were narrower than the competitor's for the same reason. Ferrari did not win due to aero performance but due to the engine grunt and reliability.
I believe the alu sandwich honeycomb monocoque was revolutionary in F1. It was standard at that time in military aircraft design but very much ahead of its time in F1. The US military aircraft design had used aluminum and steel honeycomb sandwich skin as early as 1960. Alu was the standard solution for subsonic design. Stainless steel was used on the B70 Valkyrie Mach3 bomber. Honeycombe would later be used with carbon fibre skins and remains the technology in use in F1 today.
Last edited by WhiteBlue on 13 May 2010, 10:43, edited 3 times in total.
Formula One's fundamental ethos is about success coming to those with the most ingenious engineering and best ..............................organization, not to those with the biggest budget. (Dave Richards)
