BAR break the 400 Kph barrier

To quote from www.formula1.com

BAR hit 415 km/h in California

BAR have unofficially broken the 400 km/h barrier during their preparations for a Formula One land-speed record attempt, now scheduled for Bonneville early next year.

After rains at the famous Salt Flats in Utah washed out the team's plans to set a new standard in 2005, a final shakedown was organised at the Mojave airbase in California.

During this test, South African Alan van der Merwe, bettered the 400 km/h mark no fewer three times, with a best of 415 km/h, almost 258 mph. The car was a specially, prepared, but still race legal, version of this year

No rear wing!!!






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Rocker

What an awfull helmet!

thats not van der merwes usual helmet, just a lucky strike emblem.

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Surely no rear wing means not Race legal. So I guess maybe that was a testing run.

TBH, Im not sure its such a big deal. F1 cars arent designed for straight line running. In fact ISTR that Champ Cars run faster on the Ovals. But are slower through a "road course" corner than F1.

Especially as Bugatti have just released a road car that does 250mph. And that thing weights over 3 times as much as a legal F1 car!

...but does have 1001bhp, and 2 mahoooosive turbos!

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

4 of them actually
and
4WD
and
4WS

Im no fan of the car, but 250 mph is 250 mph. And dont consider flat out straight line F1 to be relevant to anything.

i agree

Going quick in a Straight line is boring!!!

I can hop in my Car and Fang Down the road at 180kph no worries but if i tried to make a turn at 100kph i would die

The Corning speed is what makes F1 great

The Thunder from Downunder

The_Ozz_Man Wrote:
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> but if i tried to make a turn at
> 100kph i would die
>

Do you think so? Nah I think you'll be fine mate!

depends what he hit whilst turning at 100kph :p


[www.evoracingteam.co.uk]

my mate was a passenger in a car whose driver wanted to make a 180° turn at 70km/h, they didn't make it and went down the hill for abou 50 meters and straight into a garden. They were OK, but the car (opel corsa) is destroyed.


back to topic:
didn't they say that they will use a car that would be legal with F1 regulations? is that rear wing legal?

And the top speed would be much higher if they would 'cover' the wheels, because they are a big aerodynamic minus.

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Screw all this aero crap, let's go back to the box cars

Quite poor. a Stock Car weighs 3 times more and has 200 less bhp, a 4 speed gearbox and it'll get 250mph.

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F1 cars have alot of drag thanks to the rules. The current speeds are limited by the drag created by the tyres. Stock cars dont have to worry about this. If an F1 car could cover the tyres the speeds would probably be closer to 450kph maybe even more.

They have already removed the rear wing, one of the most draggy parts and fitted a fin which is moveable, so the car isnt legal anyway, so its pointless, so why dont they cover the wheels?

BARs idea of race legal isnt the same idea as the rules

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lol Dave.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

we should check the Fuel tanks on the car to see if there race legal first

The Thunder from Downunder

is there a rule that states a car must have a rear wing? and i thought it was a 2004 spec car yet the front wing looks 2005 spec.

Ok nevermind the above post.

"The car was a specially, prepared, but still race legal, version of this year

No, the rules don't specifically state that the cars have to have wings.

On a more amusing note, on the bonneville400 site,in the 'car' section, Gary Savage talks about how they had to work really hard removing drag-inducing items such as bargeboards and vortex generators

Something that would only make a member of this forum giggle, i guess

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