Month: August 2016

Formula 1 -Current State of Affairs

Posted on by Dan K.

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I have been following Formula 1 racing for about 30 years now, where I have not missed a single race on TV. The”formula”, otherwise know as the rules and regulations, are continually tweaked, year after year. Sometimes, the changes are relatively minor, whereas other times, they can be quite extensive.

The biggest change to have taken place in recent years is the switch to hybrid turbo technology. It combines a turbocharged gas motor with a kinetic energy recovery system. It isn’t the 1st time that turbos were part of the formula, but it is the 1st time hybrid technology has been incorporated. I am not quite sure how I feel about the current formula. Hybrid technology is certainly available to the general public in our road cars, but have enough been sold to warrant the technology in Formula 1? For me, the answer is no.

The 1st complaints to arise was the sound. Fans were missing the glorious bellow of a normally aspirated motor, particularly glorious if said motor housed 12 cylinders, which sadly have not been around for a while.

The cars are also down on power. Back in the day, when turbos were part of the formula, they were utilizing motors that were 1.6-liters in displacement, but producing well in excess of 1,000bhp in qualifying trim. Nowadays, the manufacturers are claiming to be getting equal power to what they used to get when normally aspirated V10s were the formula, but are in no way approaching what the old turbos did. I would have loved to see what the engineers could come up with if they were given the same 1.6-liter displacement requirement, but impose current turbo technology with no restrictions. I bet they would get close to the 2,000bhp mark!

The amazing thing is that the cars keep getting faster and faster. The advancements being made in aerodynamics, braking, and handling are a big part of the reason why.

Currently, the most dominant team in Formula 1 is Mercedes. They have won the Championship the last 2 seasons, and are well on pace to win their 3rd in a row. The drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, seem to go back and forth with respects to winning races. Personally, I think when all is equal, Lewis is the faster driver. Lewis has won the Championships for Mercedes these last 2 years, Nico hasn’t won any. My money is on Lewis to win it again this year.

Other teams appear to be making some progress in catching the Mercedes at the front, most notably the Red Bull team. Ferrari were looking very good at the beginning of the season, but seem to have dropped off in performance. In a situation where such a dominant team wins the vast majority of races, you look at the rest of the teams in the field to hopefully provide some excitement. If the 2 Mercedes drivers are closely fighting it out, that can be exciting as well.

Lots of on-track passing, and wheels-to-wheels racing is why I watch F1. With the current formula, I have seen quite a few races that I found to be very exciting, other races – not so much.

There is one driver, Max Verstappen, who is the son of a former Formula 1 driver, who is making things very interesting. He is the youngest race winner ever, and looks like he will go on to win many Championships in his future. He is scrappy, fearless, and one heck of a driver. He started on Red Bull’s junior team, Torro Rosso, but was driving well enough for him to swap seats with one of the Red Bull drivers. He has done nothing but impress since making the switch. An amusing tidbit on Max is that when he started his F1 career, he was too young to possess a driver’s license for road cars, yet here he was driving the fastest machines on the planet!

I love Formula 1, and I still watch every single race. Perhaps we will see the day where they are using all-electric motors. This will be the day I stop watching Formula 1. I hope it never happens!

The Greatest Sports Car of All Time

Posted on by Dan K.

Everyone has their own criteria they will use to determine what they feel is the greatest sports car of all time (G.O.A.T.). Some may not even be able to choose one. It is a tough task, for sure.

I started out liking the sports cars that were prevalent in my neighborhood as a kid, but dreamed mostly of Porsches. Ask anyone who knew me as a teenager, and they would confirm my early lust for the brand. I remember them announcing a new concept, called the “Gruppe B”, which was eventually produced as the 959. I found a picture of the concept car, and had it displayed on my bedroom wall. It was surrounded by many other pictures of various Porsches. This was around the same time that Ferrari had the F40, but I was more drawn to the Porsche. The 959 could have easily been the one I would choose as the G.O.A.T., but as time went on, more intriguing candidates made their debut.

Naturally, my focus shifted to Ferrari once I started selling them. I got to drive so many of them, but the most notable ones were the Enzo, the 288 GTO, the F40, the 599 GTO, the 365 Daytona coupe, and a 458 Speciale. The Speciale is the least valuable mentioned, but is the greatest sports car I have ever driven to date. Any one of these could easily be part of the GOAT conversation, yet my pick for GOAT is not one of the above.

Certainly, many might consider a Lamborghini as their GOAT, yet no Lambo enters the equation for me. Perhaps a Countach can present an argument, simply because it was really the very 1st wild looking exotic, and is timeless. It still would get the same amount of looks today as it did back then. My favorite Lambo would either be a Miura (late ’60s – early ’70s), or the 350 GT from the mid ’60s.

Aston Martin falls into the same category as Lamborghini for me. They have had some notable models throughout their history, but none would enter into the conversation on which sports car is the GOAT.

My choice? None other than McLaren’s almighty F1, produced during the ’90s. To date, I feel the F1 has the strongest link to Formula 1. Yes, even stronger than anything Ferrari has ever produced. The car was none other than the legendary Formula 1 designer, Gordon Murray’s project. He spared no expense in the car’s design and development , wanting to produce a Formula 1 car for road use. I feel that he succeeded, in spades. Heck, it even has a central seating position, just like an F1 car, that would pretty much eliminate any sense of body roll, as sitting dead center should do. Strangely, back in the day, McLaren had a lot of trouble finding homes for the F1s it wanted to produce. I recall reading that an unsold F1 sat in a showroom for years. Funny, because today, they are highly sought after, and command prices over the $10 million mark. It is a car I long to own the most, yet I have never even seen one in person!

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