F1 Acceleration

i think that once you get to 180 mph, you are traveling so fast that the land just flies by. once you reach 200 mph, it's been another half mile or so because you are already going so fast.

sports illustrated said that an f1 car does about a 2.3 second 0-60 time.

 

It all depends on the gearing. Most F1 tracks don't have long enough straights to allow an F1 car to reach it's max speed (aero limited), but rather max out because of RPM (gear limited). Since they race on road courses, they need shorter gears to help accelerate quicker through corners. They could put on taller gears and could reach 230mph+ if they wanted.

Edit: Sometimes F1 cars do reach 220mph+ at Indy because it has the longest straight of all the F1 tracks.

In response to F1 0-60 times. I've heard as little as 1.8 seconds and as much as 2.8 for F1 cars from last year and this year.

 

Gearing, gearing, gearing.

If you ever make it to a race, listen to one leave the pit out. They will shift gears 4 or 5 times before they merge in. One after another really quick. The gears are suited to each track of course but they are very short for the power that is driving them.

 

It has nothing to do with torque, or gearing. The limiting factor is the huge coefficient of drag that a Formula One car has. Albeit a little lower at a track like Indy because they back-off the wing settings relative to the average track, it is still around 1.0.
The cars have power-to-weight ratios similair to Pro Stock dragsters, and at relatively low speeds they accelerate like a dragster. But because of the huge aerodynamic drag they generate (a tradeoff of the massive downforce they create) they are using all of their horsepower to move air.
On the long straight at Indy F1 cars are flat out for more than 20 seconds, and they are not running out of gears (rpm) at the end of the straight. They are geared appropriately to hit the maximum speed possible given there downforce settings.

 

If the teams wanted to drag race Formula 1 cars through the desert, they would easily exceed 400kmph (249mph). Altering the gearing, and a reduction in downforce would achieve that.

In terms of power-to-weight ratio, you can do the math: The cars have an enforced minimum weight of 600kg (car + driver), and the top teams this year have engines which produce around 950 horsepower.

The highest speed achieved in Formula 1 today is not at Indy, despite having the longest straight and the longest period of full throttle, but rather at Monza in Italy, where last year the fastest speed trap time recorded at the end of the start straight was 369kmph (229mph) by Pizzonia in a BMW-Williams.

The reason for this is that Monza is the lowest downforce circuit on the F1 calendar. The top speed reached at Indy on the other hand is compromised by the requirement of the cars to drive the twisty infield section of the track. The added downforce and shorter gearing required for this section directly affects the performance of the cars around the banking and down the straight.

Setting up a Formula 1 car (or any racecar designed to run on road circuits) is all about compromise; finding the right balance of speed through the corners and speed down the straights to achieve the fastest lap times.

 

I've read 0 to 100 to 0 in 4 seconds...

 

zero to 100 to zero is more like 10 seconds

 

In the program at INDY it stated an F1 car can do 0-200-0 in about 12 seconds

 

The stat I love is in the space it takes an F-1 car to go from 0-100 and back to 0 again, a NASCAR car is just getting up to third gear.

BHW

 

More like this.

By optimising all these factors, an F1 car will go from 0-100-0 in about six, yes, six seconds!

This is from F1.com

 

recently on speed durring a practice or something it said BAR was going to the salt flats in nevada? or whereever they are after the season is over to get the "true" top speed or see just how fast they really can go, anyone else remember hearing this? any more info on this?

 

ha i dumb, theres another post here about it, ignore that last one

 

It would be fun to watch F1 race cars do that. They should race them in the salt flats in order to market F1 in the USA.

 

I heard on SpeedTV that Honda is planning on running their car at the salt flats to see how fast it'll go. That's what announcers said.

 

Regarding top speed. Remember that the horsepower needed goes up with the cube of the speed. Drag goes up with square of speed.

 

That is truly amazing. On the warmup laps, when they do those little bursts you get a hint of it. Must be quite the thrill to pilot a car that quick.

 

Just saw a show on Discovery where they used modified snowmobiles and did dirt Drag racing - they claimed 0-60 in 1.1 sec - 3g acceleration out of a 1000cc...Imaging a side by side race with an F1 (Trading paint Part Deux) - gotta love those rednecks!

 

3Gs on acceleration would probably rip your hands off, lol.

Edit: Does anyone know the 0-60 on Top Fuel drag cars?

 

There was a test in Road and Track about 10 years ago, and the 0-100 time alone was around 10 seconds. F1 are not set up to accelerate from a dead stop as are drag cars. I very seriously doubt that even with traction control that modern F1 cars could do 0-100-0 in under 10 seconds; if that....

 

I think you're underestimating F1 cars. They're made for very fast acceleration and braking because they race on road courses. I would say that NASCAR stock cars could not do 0-100-0 in under 10 seconds because they're set with long gears for oval racing. I've always heard 0-100-0 for F1 cars in around 4 seconds, remember, braking is incredible in F1 cars.

Here's a link with stats on the 2000 Jaguar R1 F1 car tested by Road & Track. Keep in mind this is a 5 year old car and Jaguar wasn't the best. It went from 0-181 mph in 9.5 seconds! http://members.fortunecity.com/carstats/jaguar%20r1%20f1%202000.htm

 

Top Fuelers go from 0-60 in 0.84 seconds and cover the quarter mile in about 4.5 seconds nowadays. Not surprising considering the average Top Fuel engine puts out 7,500bhp.
Craziest stat of all: the exhaust gases shot upwards out of the headers create 800 lbs. of downforce at full acceleration!

Now i think the 355 really needs pair of turbos! The Koenig kit looks interesting, but NA is fun.

 

Ten years ago, the cars had around 600hp, revved to 16,000rpm and had no traction control. Also, the carbon-ceramic brakes were not as effective. Today the top cars have over 900hp (+300hp compared with 1995), redline at 19,000rpm and have electronically adjustable traction control. Even still, that 0-100mph in 10 seconds figure for 1995 is very sluggish. Either you misread it, can't remember exactly what it said, or the article is simply wrong.

The 2004 Renault R24 Formula 1 car will do 0-125mph-0 in 7 seconds flat. (0-201kmph-0).

It takes just under 5 seconds for a modern F1 car to reach 200kmph, and just over 2 seconds to brake from 200kmph back to 0.

 

How do these specs compare to the indy cars?

Similar objective different outcome...

Cheers
-Pete