15 replies to this topic

[Mr. Salty]

Why does the "Pinnacle Of Motorsport", with all of the advanced technology they use, carbon fiber, exotic alloys, etc., have that ugly wooden plank on the underside of every car? What purpose does it serve, when was it ruled mandatory, and why?

[Toxicant]

Not sure when it came into effect but the purpose is to ensure that the cars maintain a certain ride hight. If the wooden plank is worn to much the team is DQF.

Seems that wood is a good choice, wears easily and I would think rather cheap. LOL I bet all teams have to buy then from one supplyer and they cost more then their weight in gold

Tox!

[Mr. Salty]

So when they allow teams to "shape" the underside to provide downforce ala CART (couldn't resist, sorry), how will the enforce ride height?

[Damop]

You would prefer slate?

[Toxicant]

Max and Bernie have that all figured out, you see they fill a tumbler with fine single malt scotch whisky, their favorite. One by one the cars drive over the the tumble and God forbid the car that knocks it over

Tox!

[Jonathan]

The wooden plank is a low-cost low-tech solution to controling ride heights.

Back in the early 1980ies the FIA passed a minimum hieght requirement, that the more intelligent manufactures got around by raising the car up to the minimum height only when it was being measured...

[Megatron]

Schumacher was DQ'ed from Belguim 1994 when the plank was worn too thin.

In the 1980's and early 90's the bottoms were steel, which is why we saw those beutiful sparks underneath the car.

I hear Arrows budget is so bad they had to go with compressed wood.

[Pit Babe]

Wow - what's Minardi using, then?

[Todd]

The plank was introduced after Senna lost control of his car over the bumps entering Tamburello. It was claimed by the FIA that if ride heights were raised, cars would be less pitch-sensitive and future accidents like the one Senna died in could be avoided. It seems ironic that a rule intended to stop snap-spins came from the same governing body that later introduced grooved tires.

This is from the motorsport.com Monaco GP report of '94:

FIA's new emergency rules are to take effect starting in Barcelona in two weeks' time. Teams are to modify their front wings, and to reduce the rear diffusers by a still unannounced amount. Additional chassis and engine changes are needed for the Canadian GP, including the use of pump fuel.

More significantly, the teams are to conform to the 1995 rules by midseason, starting at the German Grand Prix, requiring either a new chassis or heavy modifications to the 1994-spec one. Ron Dennis say McLaren will have a car ready for Germany, but smaller teams, such as Lotus, which is just about to complete its new 1994-spec car, may face substantial technical and financial obstacles in meeting this deadline.

The '95 chassis rules were in place before Spa, obviously, but other rash rule changes were already in place by France. One silly rule change that hasn't survived was punching holes in airboxes to reduce power. In '95 engines shrunk and real airboxes returned. Mosley is promising a single tread pattern for dry and wet races. I hope he doesn't get to see it happen.

[F1razor]

I was just wondering why something that you never see is charactized as 'ugly'.

In general, the car doesn't look very good when it's upside down anyway.

[Rogue]

Spot on Todd.

...and the sparks flew before that because, while the cars used Carbon Fibre underbodies, they were sprung so low, that they used Titanium skid plates to prevent damage when they bottomed out over bumps & dips etc.



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Rogue
f.1@altavista.net

[Rogue]

PS - correct me if I am wrong, but I think they decided to use timber as it is generally nice and soft (compared to alternative materials that would have been proposed) and would readily show any scrapping on the ground that had occured, thereby making it a relatively practical material where policing the 10% rule was concerned.



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Rogue
f.1@altavista.net

[Daemon]

When they introduced the plank idea, it was originally intended as carbon fibre, but the FIA said Bernie had to pay, so now they are all made from wood.

[Rogue]

Why would Bernie have been made responsible for the cost of the plank ? They don't normally do that.



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Rogue
f.1@altavista.net

[Yohbi]

Pit Babe

Minardi uses bamboo. But it must come from the Amazon basin. It needs to have Pirana teeth marks on it.

[Mr. Salty]

I couldn't stand to see those imposter threads getting all of the attention, so I had to dust this one off and send it back into the fray.