A1GP car performance

[diabloA1]

Superleague and A1GP(for testing) both ran at Donington a few months back. A1GP was clearly faster

[Kiwi3]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

Question 2 : Why is SF not so well recognised? It's only had one year and it doesn't have a Sheikh backing it.

Because it's a weird concept?

[diabloA1]

I like the idea of a V12 engine racing. However I think A1GP is being taken more seriously now for sure.

In the Oct issue of Race Car Engineering, the story on A1GP Powered by Ferrari states that A1GP are already looking ahead, naturally, at an upgraded version of the current engine. According to my own sources the engine's 'sweet spot' is somehwere between 600-650hp based on bench tests early this year at Ferrari. Naturally it has been detuned for extra emphasis on durability.

Article also stated at the time, that A1GP approached all the main chassis makers, Lola, Dallara, Panoz et al and none can commit to producing the quantity required within the requested time frame.

Also stated that the input from Ferrari with regards to chassis design was that Ferrari allowed A1GP designers access to their F2004 design files however A1GP themselves designed the current car and they made sure it had a proper aero package, lower profile, wider track etc. Ferrari said they could not build the chassis for A1GP. I don't think they had the production capacity anyway.

So it was A1GP Technologies that actually designed the car and they designed it specifically to their requirements rather than adapting an existing design. 'Making it look like an F2004' was part of the brief.

URT Composites in Bognor Regis then manufactured the tub and A1 Teams then built the cars up themselves.

Special attention was put in powertrain design to get the CG right because the engine was based on a production engine and was relatively 'heavy'. This seemed to have worked out well because drivers report very good balance despite the heavy engine. This engine was not designed to be a 'stressed member' in its original form however adaptation of production car engine into single seaters isn't new

The use of suspension torsion bars instead of coil springs was considered but discarded because the cars would be in storage between races and regular service back in UK was not possible.

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Because it's a weird concept?

It is a wierd concept, but it hasn't had the best start either. Whilst I may get stuff thrown at me for saying this, A1 was a rather weird concept at the start too.

The fact that it's a version of a stupid idea with a massive dose of common sense injected is an issue.

The SF car isn't that fast, but it's spectacular. They could modify it to make it a bit faster ... and improve several other things. However, the series is based on a ChampCar spare parts bin and run on about 50p, so it hopefully will improve.