Posted on 08/16/2012 6:50:55 PM PDT by the scotsman
'It may sound a bit like Zippy from Rainbow, but the boffins at Red Bull have managed to get one of their Formula One cars to 'sing' the American national anthem.
The Austrian team managed to rig the engine so it could rev the relevant notes to make up the Star-Spangled Banner.
The stunt was performed by the team's showcar in New York's Liberty Park in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
The tuneful performance was to promote the 2013 Grand Prix of America at the Port Imperial Street Circuit in New Jersey.'
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.eurosport.yahoo.com ...
‘Zippy was a fictional character on the British children’s television programme Rainbow. Zippy is a brownish-orange puppet with a huge rugby ball shaped oval head, big blue eyes and a zip for a mouth, hence the name. The perennial question concerning Zippy is what kind of creature he represents: While Bungle is obviously a bear and George a hippo, Zippy bears no obvious resemblance to any real animal. Some have even speculated that Zippy may have been an extra terrestrial life form, possibly from the moon.’
http://en.wikipedia....y_%28Rainbow%29
That’s good!
Ping....*shruggs*
I’ve always been of the opinion that the vehicular ABS systems engineered in Michigan could be rightly programmed to play a few bars of “Hail to the Victors” while in efficient operation.
Excellent.
Truth be told.......
The melody for our National Anthem was actually stolen from an old British drinking song called “Anacreon in Heaven”.
This of course explains all the bizarre intervals and ridiculous range.
I’d buy one.
good throttle response...
make mine Glazed...
One glazed Reuben, coming up...
hehe cool
Right up there with the German Shepherd barking out “JINGLE BELLS” on the radio.
Good thing it has a light flywheel.
Exactly what I was thinking. Changes revs instantaneously.
And it’s a French engine.
I have a motor with a heavy flywheel that would sound like it was drunk.
.
I have to admit that’s pretty bad. Interesting, but the car sounds drunk.
This video, on the other hand, is cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RXA-jLKREcQ
It’s been done... Not sure what team it was, but they had it on Top Gear a few years ago.
It was a Renault team, I don’t remember any other particulars. That was the one where they were letting Richard Hammond try to drive the car and he kept spinning because he wasn’t driving it aggressively enough to get enough heat in the brakes, and they kept locking up. Then at at the end, they programmed the car to play a few bars of God Save the Queen.
}:-)4
Checked up on it: Season 10, Episode 8, back in Dec. 2007.
"Richard Hammond is challenged to go find out how hard it could be to drive a Formula One race car. The F1 car Hammond will be driving is the Renault R25, the car entered by Renault in the 2005 season and won Fernando Alonso a World Championship. It's the last of the V10 era where the cars were producing nearly 1,000 hp. Hammond's challenge is to pilot the R25 for two laps around the Stowe Circuit at Silverstone. The fastest road car Hammond has ever driven was the Bugatti Veyron which has a power-to-weight ratio of 530 horsepower per ton. The ratio for the Renault R25, however, is 1,500 horsepower per ton. Due to all the power in the car, Hammond has to go back to school.
Hammond's first lesson is in a Formula Renault race car, which he promptly stalls while trying to exit the pit. The Formula Renault car has a 2.0 L engine from a Renault Clio, so Hammond believes it should be rather simple to get around the track. However, he discovers that's not quite the case. The car has only 1/5 the power of its Formula One counterpart and Hammond realizes how far he has to go. Just as he's getting used to the Formula Renault car, Hammond is thrust into the next one.
Next comes a car from the World Series by Renault with twice the power of the Formula Renault car. Hammond can cope with the straight-line speed, but has trouble thinking fast enough to react in the corners. He can't drive fast enough to put heat into the brakes and thus has little to no braking power. Summoned to look at the telemetry from his car, Hammond is informed he's been severe on his down shifting. If he had done that in the Formula One car, then he might have spun it and wrecked the engine. An engine rebuilt is about £150,000 to £200,000 (roughly $310,000 to $412,000). Hammond goes back out to get more time in the World Series car, but his neck has trouble coping with the cornering forces and stops.
Moving onto the Renault R25, Hammond puts the car into perspective through money. The engine costs £170,000 (roughly $350,000), the gearbox casing with no gears in it is £60,000 (roughly $124,000), the wing is £20,000 (roughly $41,000), a wheel is £500 (roughly $1,000) and the socket to remove it is £1,000 (roughly $2,000), a side view mirror is £800 (roughly $1,600) and the steering wheel is £30,000 (roughly $61,800). The entire car is very fragile and highly strung. The engine tolerances are so fine that it can't be started cold but must be heated up by constantly pumping 80 degree warm water around it while in the pits. The oil also must be warmed and fed into the car.
Pulling the Renault R25 out of the pit, Hammond attempts to set off but stalls it. And stalls it again. And again. Five more stalls later, the car is rolled back into the pit. The car is reset and Hammond is sent onto the track. Half a lap later, Hammond spins it as he isn't going fast enough to put heat into the brakes and is sent back to the pit. Looking at the telemetry, a race engineer informs Hammond that he has too big a gap between letting off on the accelerator and applying the brakes. This big gap is just half a second. Going back out onto the track, Hammond manages to get the R25 around the circuit twice.
Back in the studio, Clarkson informs everyone that he found out the Renault F1 team had to pull the R25 back to the pit to reheat the tires because Hammond was driving so slowly that no heat was getting into the tires. Hammond retorts out that he did go full throttle in the Formula One car, but May points out it was only for 0.2 seconds."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.