//:: What does that wing at the back of your car do?

Does it really make your car look good? Stunning!? Fascinating? Pogi points? ... Do I really need that? What does it really?

They simply call it a rear wing. It's an aero dynamic device usually used in automobile racing that helps produce downforce as the air passes around it. Please do not confuse yourself by thinking I'm talking about the spoiler. A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to 'spoil' unfavorable air movement across a body of a vehicle in motion. Spoilers are often fitted to race and high-performance sports cars, although they have become common on passenger vehicles, as well. Some spoilers are added to cars primarily for styling purposes and have either little aerodynamic benefit or even make the aerodynamics worse.

First of all I want to talk about downforce. Aero Dynamics 101: From the word itself, Downforce. It's a force produced to help push an object down. To make it more imaginable, try to put the palm of your hand on top of a desk without pushing your hand down on the desk. Just put it on top and let it sit on top on it's own weight. Now try moving it sidewards left to right. You will notice that your palm is rubbing through the desk freely. Now Same scenario, put your hand back on top of the desk but this time try to put pressure on it and actually push your palm down and then after applying pressure try moving it from left to right. As you can see, it's much harder to move it because of the weight/force that's pushing it down. It makes the palm of your hand stick on top of the desk. So why is it used in racing?

Below are pictures of The Ferrari F2007. The car that Kimi Raikkonen used to win the World Drivers title in the 2007 season of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.As you can clearly see that this car has some serious design issues. It does'nt look like a car anymore. Only because of it's wheels that you are able to determine that it's a car.

Looking at it's design, you will notice that it has lots of wings on it. The most noticeable once are the front and rear wing. As air passes through this wings when the car is at speed. It will push the car down on the ground (Downforce). Sometimes when it's really going really really fast it sometimes makes the weight of the car 3 times it's normal weight when standing still. So the faster the car goes, the faster the air passes through the wing. The faster the air passes through the wing, the more downforce is generated.

If there is downforce meaning a car can go around bends and corners faster without slipping or sliding the car. Downforce helps push the the tires of the cars down on the road to get more grip. Exactly the same way when you pushed the palm of your hand on the table (with our experiment earlier). That is one reason why racing cars have these wings. So the drivers/pilots can drive the car not just fast on the straights but also quick around the bends or corners.

With the combination of good grippy sticky tires, wings that can generate tremendous amount of downforce and a very big and brutally powerful engine. A car with all these 3 factors can go around a circuit very quick.

How fast or how much time do you think can the F2007 go around a 7 kilometer circuit? A circuit with corners and bends that a car needs to break and slow down to get around it. 7 minutes?, 10 minutes?, 5 minutes?, 12 minutes? Your wrong! Kimi Raikkonen drove the F2007 around the a 7 kilometer circuit (Spa Franchorchamp racing circuit in Belgium) in 1:45.994. That's under 2 minutes around a 7 kilometer road. What the video below to see how kimi does it around the circuit.

Because of the powerful engine the car can really thunder down on the straight line. But if you watch closely and listen to steve the commentator. You'll notice that Kimi is driving the car so fast in the corners and the car is allowing him to do that because of the downforce. It gives him confidence to go really fast in the corners because there is so much grip available because of the downforce.

Downforce is a very crucial element in racing as it gives you the edge to win a race.

//:: The new A1GP powered by Ferrari

Ferrari has signed a 6 year contract with A1GP to produce and supply V8 engines for the A1GP staring with the 4th season which will be launched probably on September or October of 2008. Apart from supplying engines Ferrari will also play a key role in consulting with the development of the new chassis for the coming seasons of A1.

The new chassis is based on the design of the highly successful F2004 chassis, incorporating A1GP’s core values to deliver close, exciting racing among a competitive field where overtaking is an essential part of the entertainment. A1GP technical director, John Travis, is overseeing the design, development and production of the car from premises in Bognor Regis in the UK, with Rory Byrne acting as consultant.

The first image of the new chassis

The Ferrari F2004

Wind tunnel tests of the new chassis

Ferrari A1GP engine

The New A1GP car being tested at Ferrari's test circtuit, Fiorano. With Ferrari's test driver Andrea Bertolini

With the engine now developing about 600hp. According to Danny Watts the first to test the old and the new car it has shown dramatic changes with already 2 seconds quicker per lap than the old car and it producer more downforce. it is also noticeably more powerful with power already coming from the low end all the way up the high revs. It produces more down force compared to the old car. Corpse -- one corner where they have to go down 1 gear to 5th with the old car. Now with the new car they can easily go through it at 6th.

With the car now more powerful and faster in the corners, A1GP promises to create a great racing spectacle for the coming season. It will also help A1GP be more noticeable and will help by educating everyone about the World Cup of motorsport. Ferrari is already a fantastic name/brand/word. With Ferrari now associated with A1GP it will draw more crowd to watch the A1GP races as everyone knows what Ferrari is.

The big question .... Is the new A1GP car really a Ferrari? or Can you really call it a Ferrari?

//:: KERS

Why do they hate F1: KERS?

What on earth is that!? What does it do? What can it do to help me? Is it really important? Or is this article a waste of time to read?

“A regenerative brake is a mechanism that reduces vehicle speed by converting some of its kinetic energy into another useful form of energy. This captured energy is then stored for future use or fed back into a power system for use by other vehicles.

For example, electrical regenerative brakes in electric railway vehicles feed the generated electricity back into the supply system. In battery electric and hybrid electric vehicles, the energy is stored in a battery or bank of capacitors for later use. Other forms of energy storage which may be used include compressed air and flywheels.

Regenerative braking should not be confused with dynamic braking, which dissipates the electrical energy as heat.”

Ok stop right there! It's gonna get really boring if I continue to paste tall the words. Explanations of scientist is too much for a normal ordinary guy to understand. Let me try to explain it as simple as I can....

KERS stands for Kenetic Energy Recovery System. Ok, so what it does basiclly is it gathers energy out of the brakes of a car. So when the driver hits the brakes, the heat generated from the brake disks are then gathered and then somehow convert it into a useable energy. After it has been converted to a useable energy it will be stored in a holding cell where it waits to be deployed or used as a form of fuel to power a car. Ain't that great? So from time to time your car runs on fuel then sometimes it runs on the recovered energy... Simple isn't it? Nope! Your wrong. It's simple to read it just like that and what it does. But to be honest with you KERS is not an easy thing to deal with. Auto manufacturers have been trying to develop this said system and has failed to make it completely stig and work.

So now the big boys are steppin in to help develop this system. I'm talking about Formula 1. For years they have proved that when they do research on a technology for cars they can really make it work. Ferrari has developed the electronics such as the traction control . Mclaren was the first team to capitalize on using carbon fiber in the 80's. So really F1 has helped us a lot in keeping our cars safe. Now they are gonna try to help us again in terms of efficiency. Next year, for the 2009 season the FIA (Governing bodyu of Formula1) has made it mandatory for the teams to use this system.

Guess what? Even F1 giant Scuderia Ferrari has admitted it is a very hard system to develop. Toro Rosso burned their factory because, and BMW had an incident during testing in barcelona. When they tested the KERS system in one of their F1 cars it was working well. When it came back to the pits a mechanic touched the carbon body of the car and got electrified.

So what is the future of KERS? Given the time that F1 engineers will be able to develop and perfect the system. It will soon be available to our road cars as is the case for most of the system that has been studied and developed in F1 and it will help us save more fuel cause this system can help produce an energy that can be used as a fuel to power our cars.

So why do you hate F1?