iMatt :: The Blog of Matt Clare

As is my habit, more information about each link can be found via the WikiPedia links – they’ll open in a new window, but they’ll all share it.

Why do I love Formula 1 racing? If I had to give on reason it would be the sound. The 3.0-litre, ten-cylinder naturally aspirated engines sound amazing as they rev to 17,000 rpm, 18,000 RPM, and perhaps more. It’s one thing to hear these things on TV, but the two GPs I’ve been to in Montreal’s took that experience to a new level. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is on an island, and as you approach it during warm-up the whole waterfront is consumed by the sound of cars screaming to the hair-pin, thundering down the gears to break, then screaming off again.

An F1 Car the 3.0-litre, six-cylinder naturally aspirated engine in most mini-vans put out between 170HP and 200HP and can hit about 6,500 RPM. The 3.0-litre in an F1 car puts out around 900HP. The valves in F1 cars (which let in the air for the combustion inside the cylinders and allow the exhaust to escape afterwards) use hydraulics because conventional springs can’t open and close fast enough to handle 18,000RPM. The aerodynamics and tyres enable these cars to corner at speeds fast enough to create G-forces that would make you or I black out. The engine, the aerodynamics and the tyres combine to make F1 cars faster than any other single-seater circuit racers and the ‘Formula’ behind Formula 1 the most high-tech and expensive there is.
Read more... (827 words, 8 images, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

Good ‘ol Wikipedia. What a great resource it is. I know it shouldn’t be in the bibliography of a high school essay, but it’s always a good place to start.

Today I was thinking how I could embiggen my blog, especially with this lousy Smarch weather we’ve been having. Wikipedia had the answer in it’s entry: Made-up words in The Simpsons

I just upgraded to WordPress version 1.5 – still no spell check Please let me know if you notice any problems.

The Changes: So far the themes interface has been updated, and a few other management things have been tweaked and now you can easily build an entire site beyond the main blog page. The only other change is that pages should load faster.

Fresh from this year’s autoshow, the new Mercedes SLK. Which is a better car than the previous all-looks version.

My drive back to St. Catharines on Sunday took a good three hours because of the snow storm, but it could have been worse. This car is pointed west in the east bound lane of the QEW Niagara. As we crept up on the accident I managed to snap this photo.

The autoshow was interesting, but not as good as other years. Only Honda brought a race car (an F1 mock-up), not even Subaru brought a rally car. The street-mod scene was the big thing, again. It was cool three years ago Mini had a DJ booth setup, but when GM did it the effect was lost.

My highlight was a poster of historic Ferrari race cars and the Subaru Rally similator. I asked the guy working on belting people into this system to co-drive for me and apparently did the second best drive of his shift.
If you’re wondering if you should go this year: only if you’re out for a new car, otherwise wait until the next one. This year was a great year for high end cars (The Ferrari F430, the 360′s replacement is sweet) but for the modest ones we all drive… engh.