Eco friendly F1 car

[Shrek]

I saw in Popular science about an F-1 car made from stuff so its eco-friendly could this really be possible The onw cool thing is the brakes are made of cashew shells

[Giblet]

Popular Science tends to take the smallest bit of scientific truth to something, then run with any possible concepts they can think of.

Modern F1 cars engineered from real world data, built using tough light materials like CF still fail crash tests form time to time. About 1 team per year has to do a redesign to pass the test.

I think you could maybe make a car out of bark and woven grass, with cashew nut brakes and tires made from tree sap (oh wait they are already) piloted by a hippie, but an F1 car? Unlikely.

I am guessing the car was a mock-up drawing or paragraph?

[Shrek]

I am guessing the car was a mock-up drawing or paragraph?

no there was a picture
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009 ... vegetables

[Jersey Tom]

Dumb, and a gimmick. Plus 135 is pretty damn slow

Brakes made of cashew shells.. why? Just because something is made out of a plant doesn't make it more eco-friendly than its alternative.

What's not eco friendly about iron?

Takes X amount of energy to melt old iron, cast it and re-machine it into a brake rotor.

Takes Y amount of energy to grow cashews, harvest them, collect the shells, and do whatever extravagent process to turn it into a brake rotor that works.

Maybe X > Y, maybe Y > X.

[nosh]

it is actually an F3 car

[ISLAMATRON]

Iron is very energy intensive to mine, and then machine

cashew shells are a by product of a human foodstuff which would normally go to waste... they wouldnt be growing the cashews just to make brake rotors, dont be an ass.

[The FOZ]

...dont be an ass.

Iron-y.

[James_graham]

Modern F1 cars engineered from real world data, built using tough light materials like CF still fail crash tests form time to time. About 1 team per year has to do a redesign to pass the test.

They only fail because they try to get it as light as possible to pass the test it is a design issue not a material issue. The result is usually done on FEA of CF and that doesn't always correlate with the material as it is hard to predict non-linear results

I think the car is great! The idea of using by prodicts from food production or natural fibres to make racing green is good. It may not be an F1 car but startting off with something slower and building up is never a bad idea

[Jersey Tom]

Iron is very energy intensive to mine, and then machine

cashew shells are a by product of a human foodstuff which would normally go to waste... they wouldnt be growing the cashews just to make brake rotors, dont be an ass.

How much energy does it take then, to recycle an iron brake rotor? How does this compare with the process to collect and process cashew shells into an equivalent rotor?

[ISLAMATRON]

Iron is very energy intensive to mine, and then machine

cashew shells are a by product of a human foodstuff which would normally go to waste... they wouldnt be growing the cashews just to make brake rotors, dont be an ass.

How much energy does it take then, to recycle an iron brake rotor? How does this compare with the process to collect and process cashew shells into an equivalent rotor?

Taking into account that all the recycled scrap steel is shipped to china, melted down, and then the energy to form the rotor and then shipped back the US, i'd say a good deal, but of course not nearly the amount of energy if mined from original ore.

The whole reason they ship the scrap to china is because the process is such a dirty one that it has become too expensive to be done cleanly in the US. The chinese dont care bout environmental standards, they already are paying the price for such recklessness.

There is no energy to collect the cashew shells, they are already collected for food, just the energy to ship it to the processing plant and then to form into the rotor.

[Giblet]

Modern F1 cars engineered from real world data, built using tough light materials like CF still fail crash tests form time to time. About 1 team per year has to do a redesign to pass the test.

They only fail because they try to get it as light as possible to pass the test it is a design issue not a material issue. The result is usually done on FEA of CF and that doesn't always correlate with the material as it is hard to predict non-linear results

I think the car is great! The idea of using by prodicts from food production or natural fibres to make racing green is good. It may not be an F1 car but startting off with something slower and building up is never a bad idea

Of course, but that razors edge of lightness vs strength will be of a lower magnitude if the cars are made out of rattan and wicker and hippie snot. F1 cars are supposed to be the ultimate, so making it out of biomass will make them _very probably_ less extreme. I am not saying that something on the car couldn't be replaced by something green, but if you find a green product that is better than a current used one in F1, you have likely found a magic bullet and fame and fortune will be coming your way.

Cashews shells might be a useless by product of cashew shelling, but is cashew farming a green practice? Was rainforest cut down to grow one kind of tree to sell the fruit? If this is the case (again I don't know either way) then cashew shells might not be green at all.

A for effort and the concept of a green racing series, but 'space age' materials were designed to fill a void left by natural product.

I was surprised to find out that steel brakes work almost as well as carbon ones, so who knows? Maybe the smell of burning cashews will be associated with racing for our kids.

[stl0]

The materials that an F1 car is made of and the fuel it burns are such a small percentage of the energy consumed by the racing operation that I tend to view any effort to make the cars out of recycled milk jugs and run them on hippie snot (which is a fuel, and not a material as you implied Giblet), as a bit too condescending. Although it is better than Honda painting the planet on the side of their car or Bridgestone painting a green stripe around the soft tire instead of a white one, it's still just greenwash.

Making racing "green" is a very different and more worthwhile exercise than making racing cars "green". My guess is that just transporting team members and guests to and from their hotels uses a lot more fuel than the race cars going around. Alternative fuels would be great (remember the Corvette GT1 won LeMans last year running e85 cellulosic ethanol made from wood fiber), but even if F1 teams burned baby seal fat for fuel it wouldn't be that big of a deal environmentally. There's just not that much fuel being burned or material being used by the race car. Obviously, they should do whatever they can wherever they can, but unless cashew shell brakes dissipate heat and resist fade better than carbon brakes it would be an insult to the integrity of racing to use them.

If F1 wants to project a positive image they should simply incentivize the teams to be carbon neutral. Like a cap and trade system for carbon emissions, but instead of getting money you get in season test days. Incentivize ticket holders to take busses to the track instead of driving (no more parking problems at Silverstone) with free booze or something. Then they could say that F1 is the most environmentally responsible entertainment on the planet, and it wouldn't be bullshit.

If anyone addresses the big and real issues I will be impressed. When someone tries to sell me corn-starch mirror housings on an F3 car as salvation for the environment I'm just insulted. If they would only paint the planet on the bodywork, now that would be something.

Can I change my username to "hippie snot"?

[ISLAMATRON]

It is not about making the actual racing greener, it is about advancing greener technology, but it seems that is waste to many of you as well, guess you'll all go back to your home planet after this one is fully destroyed.

Just as racing helped advance safety technology, and braking tech & engine technology, it can do the same for greener, environmentally responsible technology.

[flynfrog]

so explain to me how kers or hybrids in general are green. Or how having KERS in f1 had done anything to help road cars. They are a marketing ploy nothing more.

[Jersey Tom]

Yep. All just gimmicks. Green is just a buzzword to drop.