dhess

What is faster in acceleration and top speed?

Does anyone have actual specifications.

e.g. power, weight torgue, power/weight ratio?

ElTianti

They both make similar HP, around 800hp
Champ car (CART) weight 1500lbs
Steel brakes (on road courses)
Wider
More downforce
Highest speed 250mph, Highest lap speed 240mph, Fontana

F1 weight 1100lbs
Shorter
Less downforce
Carbon brakes
Higest speed around 220mph

Most pepole think an F1 would be faster around a given roadcouse
but we'll know for sure when CART races at Montreal this year.

johnyboy32

You sure about the downforce? I thought F1 cars made more.

jvils

Delta Airlines had a great F1 story about 3 months ago. The things I remember are the gross amounts of money teams spend developing those cars ($100M plus), and that they run at something crazy like 20K RPM's. They said taking off from a roll in one of those generates the same G forces as being rear-ended by a Semi doing 80mph. The F1 cars also generate enough downforce that they could race upside down. Now that's something I'd pay to see.

Sorry not more informative, but it was a great read. I'm sure the F1 cars are superior in performance, but maybe one of the avid fans could give more info. I'd like to know more too.

MACH 5

CART/Champ cars are the only turbo powered Indy style cars. IRL cars are normally aspriated as are F1 cars. As for amount of HP, the advantage goes to CART (until next year when they go NA).. As for EVERYTHING ELSE, the advantage goes to Formula One. As quotes by Micheal Andretti, "the only time I'd rather be in a CART car over a Formula One car would be during a wreck."

IRL = Glorified go carts with minor league drivers who think they are big time because they get a free ticket to the Indianapolis 500. Tony George is a freaking moron.. That selfish whore ruined any chance of mainstream popularity for American open wheel racing by creating his "own" IRL..

CART = Until now, the premier American open wheel circuit who uses the the Indianapolis 500 as a personal whore.. In the past two years CART has sent drivers to the Indy 500. In 2000, only one team went and Juan Montoya won. In the second year, seven CART drivers enter, and six finished the race. Those six drivers finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. Who finished 7th??? The only NASCAR driver in the field, Tony Stewart. IRL is a joke!

F1 = By far and away the most advanced cars and skillful drivers on the planet.

Thanks for letting me vent a little..

Tedow

I saw a show on SpeedVision (RIP!) some months ago that pitted Jordan's F1 car against a Ferrari 360 (I think) from a dead stop. The Jordan F1 went from 0 to 100mph back to 0 in less than 8 seconds! Before the Ferrari even reached 100 . Commentators in some of the F1 races have quoted numbers like 4 lateral G's in a turn, and 5 G's under braking. I have also heard about an interview with Kimi Raikkonen in F1 Racing magazine that said when he took his foot off the gas pedal, he got 1.2 G's of deceleration. That's a Z-06 at max braking just by taking his foot off the gas! I don't know much about CART, but those F1 cars are frickin' scary fast.

Cheetah

It's really an impossible question to answer. Specifications will not tell you anything in regards to performance between the two (there were GP cars in the

txst

I remember watching a show about the history of F1. They interviewed someone ( can't remember who, but it may have been Gilles Villaneuve) back in the early 80's when F1 cars were running turbo 1.5 liter engines. The driver said that in qualifying trim they could run over 1200 HP, but the car "was kind of a hand full". Amazing.

A few years ago, Champ cars were producing around 900HP.

By the way, I agree with everything Mach 5 said. I just wish that F1 wasn't so much of a parade...

The Raptor

I saw De Ferran post his 241+ at Fontana in qualifying in 2000 and "Big Mo" Mauricio Gugelmin post his 242+ in practice there two or three years earlier. No race cars have been faster -- anywhere, anytime.

magician

[QUOTE]Originally posted by txst
[B]I remember watching a show about the history of F1.