Acceleration formula 1 car
Grand Prix cars and the cutting edge technology that constitute them produce an unprecedented combination of outright speed and quickness for the drivers. Every Formula one car on the grid is capable of going from zero to 160 km/h and back to 0 in less than 5 seconds. During a demonstration at track circuit in Britain, an Formula-1 car driven by David Coulthard gave a pair of Mercedes Benz street cars a head start of 17 seconds, and was capable to beat the cars to the finish line from a standing start.
Being fast in a straight line as well, Formula-1 cars have incredible cornering ability too. Grand Prix cars could negotiate corners at significantly high speeds. Cornering speed is so high that F1 drivers have strength training routines just for the neck muscles . Former Formula-1 driver Kimi Raikkonen claims to be capable to perform 350 reps of 50 pounds with his neck. Since a lot of tracks are clockwise, most drivers have the neck muscles built up on one side of their neck, because making counter-clockwise tracks a much more testing race than even the high speed Monza or the tight and narrow Monaco.
The combination of light weight (615 killograms in race trim), power (970 bhp with the 3.1 L V10, 732 bhp (554 kW) with the 2006 regulation 2.4 L V8), aerodynamics, and ultra-high performance tyres is what gives the Formula-1 car it's performance figures. The principal consideration for Formula-1 designers is acceleration, and not simply top speed. Acceleration isn't just linear forward acceleration, but 3 types of acceleration could be considered for an Formula-1 car's, and all cars in general, performance:
1) Forward acceleration
2) Forward deceleration (under braking)
3) Turning acceleration (centripetal acceleration)
Unless a car is to be raced solely on high-speed ovals, all 3 accelerations should be maximised. The way these one acceleration are obtained and their values are:
Forward acceleration
The 2007 Formula-1 cars have a power to weight ratio of 1,255 horse power (934 kW) tonne (0.8 kW/kg). Theoretically this would allow the car to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than one second. However the massive power can not be converted to motion at low speeds due to traction loss, and the usual figure is 2sec to reach 100 km/h (62 mph). After about 135 km/h (80 mph) traction loss is minimal due to the combined effect of the car moving faster and the downforce, hence the car continues accelerating at a very high rate. The figures are (for the 2006 Renault R26):
0 to 100 km/h (62 mph): 1.7 seconds
0 to 200 km/h (124 mph): 3.8 seconds
0 to 300 km/h (186 mph): 8.6 seconds
Figures might alter slightly depending on the aerodynamic setup.
The acceleration figure is usually 1.55 g (14.24 m/s²) up to 200 km/h (126 mph), which means the driver is pushed back in the seat with 1.44 times his bodyweight.
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