Ferrari F60

[RacingManiac]

Likely gold foil at the back of the seat to reflect heat, considering the engine is right behind him...

[Metar]

Perhaps gold-plated for thermal conductivity reasons? The McLaren F1 (roadcar) had such a thing on the engine.

Interesting that it's not entirely symmetrical, though.

[wesley123]

Yep it is for isolation, mclarne have actually covered the whole bodywork from the inside with it, the whole engine cover has gold inside.

[siskue2005]

WOW after all these years i never knew they had gold on their seats
Thank u guys for enlightening me on this subject =D>

[RacingManiac]

Perhaps gold-plated for thermal conductivity reasons? The McLaren F1 (roadcar) had such a thing on the engine.

Interesting that it's not entirely symmetrical, though.

Not sure how well carbon fibre works in a plating process...McLaren F1's gold is around the engine bay, not the engine itself. Same idea though.

[di44ety]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QphZWNYj7g0[/youtube]

[jddh1]

WOW after all these years i never knew they had gold on their seats
Thank u guys for enlightening me on this subject =D>

We have our CF seats gold-plated where the engine is, in our formula SAE car.

[PlatinumZealot]

Why gold?

[andreas4]

Because gold is the best heat reflector. And the price doesn't matter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXUPU4O00f4

[Miguel]

OT question regarding "underpants protection"

Is gold better than silver? Silver has always been on my list as the best electricity and heat conducting element, which I suppose is the key point for heat reflection (abrupt change in conductivities). Wikipedia confirms that silver is a better thermal conductor than gold, although carbon (in diamond form) is much better.

I know that gold is used in several places as radiation protection (EA-6B prowler for electronic warfare, F-16 canopy, windows in all space ships), but I always interpreted that malleability was the main reason (i.e. you can protect a window with gold without losing too much visibility)

[andreas4]

It is not about heat conductivity but about heat reflection, i.e. light-reflectivity in the IR-range. At our institute, we used gold-plated mirrors for the IR-thermography cameras...

[Miguel]

It is not about heat conductivity but about heat reflection, i.e. light-reflectivity in the IR-range. At our institute, we used gold-plated mirrors for the IR-thermography cameras...

Thanks for the tip. I'll try to do some "homework" to see the differences between gold and silver.

EDIT: I suppose one could arrange then a multilayer coating similar to high quality mirrors and lenses in order to further improve heat reflectivity. Or am I pushing things a tad too far?

[timbo]

I suppose one could arrange then a multilayer coating similar to high quality mirrors and lenses in order to further improve heat reflectivity. Or am I pushing things a tad too far?

Because you aim at IR range every layer should be sufficiently thick, and multilayer coating might become somewhat cumbersome. But I don't see why same general principle shouldn't work.

[zgred]

[MattyT]

A new element at the rear of the endplates?