Simtek S941

A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
slotcar
slotcar
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Joined: 06 Jan 2011, 01:53

Simtek S941

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In 1994 there was the F1 team Simtek S941 HBD6 Ford 3.5 V8?

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747heavy
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Joined: 06 Jul 2010, 21:45

Re: SINTEK

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Welcome Slotcar,
I´m not sure what your question is, but if you would like some info about Simtek F1
maybe this helps a bit.

http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/simtek/profile.html
"Make the suspension adjustable and they will adjust it wrong ......
look what they can do to a carburetor in just a few moments of stupidity with a screwdriver."
- Colin Chapman

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Leonardo da Vinci

slotcar
slotcar
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Joined: 06 Jan 2011, 01:53

Re: SINTEK

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Thanks for your help!

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GTO
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Joined: 09 Jun 2005, 01:16
Location: Oil Country

Re: SINTEK

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Welcome to this forum slotcar.
I really liked this car. It had a cool looking design & color. The most amazing stat..."The company employed 35 people, the least amount of any team competing in Formula One during 1994, and only 10% of the number employed by Scuderia Ferrari."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simtek

gridwalker
gridwalker
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Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Simtek S941

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Back in 1995, I sat in the 94 Simtek at the Autosport International show ... I thought that it was a great looking machine, it was such a shame that a driver died driving one (and that Roland's death was forgotten in the wake of Senna's death) ...
"Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine ..."

sticky667
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Re: Simtek S941

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andrew
andrew
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Location: Aberdeen, Scotland - WhiteBlue Country (not the region)

Re: Simtek S941

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Apparently the 1994 Simtek had quite a good chassis, however is was let down by the engine. Really nice looking car (design and colour scheme) that stands out in my mind from my first season of F1.

Sadly, their season was marred by Roland Ratzenberger's death during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino GP.

More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simtek

Richard
Richard
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Re: Simtek S941

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Roland's death was caused by his front wing breaking off. Nick Wirth was designer, owner and team principal for that team. It was unnerving that there was another front wing failure when Wirth returned as team principal in 2010 for Virgin.

Back to OP, yes Simtek was one of the last small indie teams that relied on passion and clever thinking to fight with the much bigger teams.

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FW17
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Joined: 06 Jan 2010, 10:56

Re: Simtek S941

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richard_leeds wrote:Roland's death was caused by his front wing breaking off. Nick Wirth was designer, owner and team principal for that team. It was unnerving that there was another front wing failure when Wirth returned as team principal in 2010 for Virgin.
Misconception there!! Roland Ratzenberger damaged the wing running over the kerb the lap before, did not pit for a new wing and crashed when the wing detached got under the wheel.

andrew
andrew
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Re: Simtek S941

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Confirmed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Ratzenberger
Ratzenberger was killed during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola circuit on Saturday 30 April 1994. He went off-track on the previous lap, damaging his front wing, but rather than come into the pits he continued since he was competing for the final grid spot.[3] The high speed on the back straight, and therefore high wind pressure, finally broke the wing off, sending it under Ratzenberger's car. His car failed to turn into the Villeneuve Corner and struck the outside wall at 195.68 mph (314.9 km/h).

wesley123
wesley123
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Re: Simtek S941

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Am I wrong here or is ´detached´ and ´breaking off´ effectively the same thing here?
"Bite my shiny metal ass" - Bender

andrew
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Re: Simtek S941

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Same thing but different methodology.

lotus7
lotus7
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Joined: 13 Feb 2010, 16:23

Re: Simtek S941

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richard_leeds wrote:Roland's death was caused by his front wing breaking off. Nick Wirth was designer, owner and team principal for that team. It was unnerving that there was another front wing failure when Wirth returned as team principal in 2010 for Virgin.

Back to OP, yes Simtek was one of the last small indie teams that relied on passion and clever thinking to fight with the much bigger teams.
I remember at the time seeing pictures of a weird ( to me in any case ) front suspension design by Wirth . Does anybody have knowledge/piccies of this ?

gridwalker
gridwalker
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Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Simtek S941

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I just went searching for images of that front suspension and found something that I had never seen before : actual video footage of Roland's fatal crash ...

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/597098/ro ... mola_1994/

Although this happened just over half my lifetime ago, seeing this just made me very sad.
"Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine ..."

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Tim.Wright
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Joined: 13 Feb 2009, 06:29

Re: Simtek S941

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Did you see Senna in that video at the crash scene? After seeing the crash, he commandeered the safety car and drove up there to check on Roland.

Tim
Not the engineer at Force India