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a couple of golf clubs ...PlatinumZealot wrote:Titanium is not a cheap metal by any stretch. It is the metal of choice though to safely make sparks if I'm right. I have read in various places that this year's rules stipulate that titanium skid blocks are put under the front splitter to make sparks to improve the show. I wonder though, is this a wasteful initiative? If you had to estimate, how much titanium in the skid blocks do you think will be consumed per weekend per car?
Was it tungsten?ian_s wrote:i thought the FIA said they were changing to titanium as it wears quicker than whatever metal they used before. the sparks were an unintended side effect.
i'm not sure i believe that, but that was their official line
Earlier this week at Silverstone, Charlie Whiting took questions from the press on a variety of topics, and his explanation of the substance and intention of the skid block regulation, when quizzed upon it by the BBC’s Andrew Benson, was fascinating.
“To explain: the plank is the long bit of wood, the skids are bits of metal within the plank. The skids have formerly been made of a heavy metal, which has been very resistant to wear, and they put the skids around the points in the plank where thickness is measured. Planks have to start off at nominally 10mm thick and they can’t be less than 9mm thick. However, we only measure them around certain holes in the plank. So they position the skids around those holes.
This metal is extremely heavy and when pieces detach they can be extremely harmful. We saw two punctures in Spa previously because of bits of this metal that lay in a kerb and caused damage. In a worst case scenario they could fly off and hit someone.
The purpose of making them out of titanium is threefold: Firstly, it’s safer, because if they do come off they are about a third of the weight of the existing ones. Secondly, the titanium wears some 2-2.5 times more quickly than the metal currently used. Thus cars will have to be run a little bit higher to manage wear and teams won’t be able to drag them on the ground quite as much as they have in the past. The third effect is that you will see a lot more sparks, which some people think will look a little more spectacular.”
So now that they are using titanium will this effect teams like Redbull who run their cars with some rake and closer to ground??ian_s wrote:according to https://willthef1journo.wordpress.com/2 ... ht-sparks/Earlier this week at Silverstone, Charlie Whiting took questions from the press on a variety of topics, and his explanation of the substance and intention of the skid block regulation, when quizzed upon it by the BBC’s Andrew Benson, was fascinating.
“To explain: the plank is the long bit of wood, the skids are bits of metal within the plank. The skids have formerly been made of a heavy metal, which has been very resistant to wear, and they put the skids around the points in the plank where thickness is measured. Planks have to start off at nominally 10mm thick and they can’t be less than 9mm thick. However, we only measure them around certain holes in the plank. So they position the skids around those holes.
This metal is extremely heavy and when pieces detach they can be extremely harmful. We saw two punctures in Spa previously because of bits of this metal that lay in a kerb and caused damage. In a worst case scenario they could fly off and hit someone.
The purpose of making them out of titanium is threefold: Firstly, it’s safer, because if they do come off they are about a third of the weight of the existing ones. Secondly, the titanium wears some 2-2.5 times more quickly than the metal currently used. Thus cars will have to be run a little bit higher to manage wear and teams won’t be able to drag them on the ground quite as much as they have in the past. The third effect is that you will see a lot more sparks, which some people think will look a little more spectacular.”
Wood golf clubs or titanium golf clubs? Im confused as both materials would be consumed... will Tiger woods opinion count?langwadt wrote: a couple of golf clubs ...
The vid at the end of that link isrich1701 wrote:Interesting, Nigel Mansell explains how he used sparks as a racing tactic.
http://www.motorsportretro.com/2011/03/ ... he-sparks/
I don't think you can pin the use of titanium skid blocks on Senna's death.Manoah2u wrote:to be honest, i could care less about the titanium skid marks. It looks cool incidentally, but if you look at that video below you see just how excessive it is. It looks unneccesary and quite frankly, dangerous. Even though there never has been conclusive evidence or proof on how Senna lost his life, the general consensus is that the car bottomed out and had it straight into the wall. Indeed, in a lot of those skidmark shots you see the cars behaving like they're half-snowboards all of a sudden. That means loss of grip and thus potentially dangerous on high speeds, especially corners.
Add to that the huge shower of burning titaniaum and you have sparks that blind the view of the driver; not the epitomy of driver safety.
imho, in a time where driver safety seems to get more dangerous lately, i'd say this is not a good thing.
above all, its just some unnecesary effect that bores after a season, because after a full season, we're used to it and it no longer entertains.
granted, it's the front wing and not the bottom wooden plate used for measuring; thankfully not, because it would make the sport even more expensive. i just don't see why this needs to be installed and why it would improve the sports' looks.
i'd only expect it to look weird as if it's badly designed / flawed on height.