Comments on: Behind the scenes with Shell & Ferrari at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix

By: Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:17:08 +0000

Richo Says:
March 29th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
“a V8 supercar engine gets more power and torque out of a V8 then lamborhini gets out of a V10 with the exact same capacity and DOHC and direct injection”

While I am not trying to take away from just how good the engineers are in V8 “Supercars” (which is world class), you can’t honestly compare a purpose built V8 “Supercar” RACE engine to the Lambo PRODUCTION CAR engine. How can you compare an engine designed to last a few thousand kms before a rebuild on heavily regulated fuel and top of the line lubricants with regular preventitive maintenance, to an engine that should last over 200,000km before a rebuild and could be owned by someone who doesn’t care what fuel/oil goes into it as well as not servicing it as often as they should? Put a V8 “Supercar” engine in a cooking model Falcon/Commodore and drive it like an everyday car with 12 monthly or longer oil changes etc and see how long it lasts and how driveable it is. It would be an urban pain in the neck in stop start traffic etc.

BTW, the live axle was not ORIGINALLY due to cost cutting. It was due the fact that the Falcon at the time of inception didn’t have a model with IRS and with more Commodores with live axles, the live axle was decided to be the easiest to engineer into the chassis.

By: anthonii

anthonii — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:22:02 +0000

“People like yourself are quick to have a go, but try reading things from a different angle before you attack a site myself and the rest of the team work very hard on.”

You as a reporter have two perspectives to deal with, your own as you witness it and that of your audience. It is your job to consider the perspective and wants of the target audience aligned with with publishers mission statement. If the target audience is left to second guess you and critique your biases then you will just become like every other media outlet and that would be a shame.

Take the leading sentence:
“The fuels you and I buy need to be used in all manner of different engine types, engine ages, atmospheric conditions and altitude, which all playing their part in a fuel’s performance, and it is each of these factors that Shell engineers must account for in formulating road going fuels.”

Devoid of any back ground knowledge (teaching the alien scenario) that sentence implies that Shell engineers make formulate all fuels. Obviously that’s not true, even slightly dramatic to bring up. However, cynical me is not used to such accidental bias that seems to be commercially influenced on this website.

By: Dadd

Dadd — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:04:23 +0000

Thanks for the explanation Richo – very informative.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:59:31 +0000

Nice article, and nicer pictures…:-)

By: Richo

Richo — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:52:50 +0000

Dadd – the live axle is basically cost cutting, why force all teams to design a new rear suspension setup when the current one does the job. At the end of the day the spectators at the track or on TV would never notice the difference.

The reason they don’t use more production orientated cars is two fold, one parity, its just too hard to get two production based race cars to be completely fair and level in a competitive sense, and secondly cost savings again, believe it or not but purpose built race cars are in fact, and always have been, cheaper to race then modified production spec race cars. Group A, which was 100% production based, is the most expensive formula ever used in the Australian Touring Car Championship (what is noe V8 Supercar) and the racing was never particularly close as the cars where so different and lap times between first and last on the grid where often over 6 seconds, today they are less then 2

By: Dadd

Dadd — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:11:18 +0000

Wheelnut – I heard the same thing that many in F1 are impressed with the professionalism of the V8 supercars. Whilst V8′s are not my cup of tea I admire the way these teams are run and the competition is fierce and the whole concept seems to be thriving.
It is a pity , to me at least, that the race cars are not more production oriented. I could never understand why Ford and Holden are compelled to use a live axle setup when both their production cars use IRS.
As I said V8 Supercars do not interest me as a spectator but I have to admire the ability and expertise of everyone involved in it.

By: Grammar Nazi

Grammar Nazi — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:05:00 +0000

Matt – no problems whatsoever with the approach taken to your article, which, by the way, was a great read – fantastic and passionate articles really elevate this site from other local competitors.

The invitation from Shell was as much an endorsement of the quality of journalism on this site as the number of hits/blog threads.

By: Richo

Richo — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:40:31 +0000

Dan – true, but unfortunately thats the case with 99% of professional race catagories now days, very few major racing series are production based anymore.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:30:31 +0000

If only the engineering excellence somehow leaked down into the production cars the public gets to buy, even like small percentage, it would be so much better. Fact is, what’s running in the V8 supercars, and what you get in the showrooms, is like chalk and cheese.

By: Richo

Richo — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:13:12 +0000

Wheelnut – your thinking of Alan Gow who is Coutney’s manager and is still CEO of TOCA (BTCC administration)

Adrien Burgess worked with James Courtney in europe previously as his engineer