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Racing cars have always been built for speed but their design has changed radically.
Formula 1 racing cars are capable of speeds in excess of 200mph. They need to pass the strictest of safety tests.
Roll over the image below or click for a text description to see the safety features in a modern racing car.
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Sensors throughout the car monitor parameters like its acceleration, cornering speeds and breaking. This "telemetry" is transmitted back to the pits and recorded. It helps to improve performance but can also be used to investigate what happened during an accident. The
carbon fibre chasis is designed to withstand
survive impacts at over 200mph. The front
nose cone and side pods will shatter to
absorb the energy. This looks dramatic
but it means that as little energy as
possible is transmitted to the driver.
The driver sits in a strong
safety cell. It should survive the
nost extreme impacts. The engine, gearbox and rear wheels are quite heavy. They are designed to break off from the chassis in a severe accident. This looks spectacular but removes the energy they carry away from the driver. Fires were big problems after a crash. Spilled fuel would often ignite on hot exhaust pipes. Modern F1 cars carry about 135 litres of fuel. The tanks are reinforced with kevlar. This is extremely strong and the tanks also have a self-sealing mechanism to prevent fuel escaping. In a tragic accident, racing driver Ayrton Senna was killed as a wheel from his car broke off and hit him during an accident. Wheels are now tied to the chassis so that they should not fly off in a crash. Carbon-fibre composites: strong and light |
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The racing car's composite carbon fibre body shell combines strength and lightness. Carbon fibres are woven into a roll of carbon cloth which are cut out and layered in to a mould to make the required component. To make the driver safety cell, there will be five layers of cloth on either side of a honeycomb filling. This gives it enormous strength. The fabric is impregnated with a resin. The moulded sheets are baked under high pressure in an oven and the resin binds all the fibres together to form the hard, tough carbon-fibre component. Carbon-fibre is 5 times lighter than steel and 2 times stronger. It can be formed into complex shapes but it is very expensive and must be scrapped after an accident. |
Carbon fibre nose cone from Reynard Indy Car.
Racing cars produce about 10 times the power of a family car but weigh only about half as much. Carbon-fibre allows the chassis to be made to weigh around 35kg.