November 17, 2008

SuperAguri Sighting!

During tonight's episode of Top Gear (Season 12, episode 03, for those reading sometime in the future), the lads were given a challenge: make what is essentially a minivan as quick as a Mitsubishi Evo 10... on a budget of 9000 quid.

After new brakes, a new suspension, removing the roof and windows and replacing them with thin plastic, servicing the engine and putting on new tires (or tyres as they would call them), they were still about eight seconds off the pace of the Evo around the Top Gear track.

Then Jeremy Clarkson said, "Hammond, did you say you bought a spoiler the other day?"

"Well, at a charity auction, yes."

"What type of one?"

"A Formula 1 cars', actually."

Yep.  That's the rear wing off a SuperAguri F1 car.

It added a second to the time.

Seems appropriate, that.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:31 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 It surprises me a bit. Traction for them wouldn't really be an issue, so what good is down-force for them? And you'd think that the ornament on the back would increase the drag.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 17, 2008 01:34 AM (+rSRq)

2 "Well, it works for F1 cars."  No, really, that's exactly the reasoning they used.

Of course, one of the reasons it works for F1 cars is that they are rear-wheel drive.  The minivan wasn't.

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 17, 2008 02:15 AM (hplPV)

3

*Wiping away a tear*

A wing on a minivan...that just doesn't look right.

 

Posted by: Mallory at November 17, 2008 07:55 AM (WJ2qy)

4 Well, we know full well that they tend to do things for "good television" reasons rather than "good engineering" reasons. The first episode of this series comes to mind... 

Posted by: GreyDuck at November 17, 2008 08:50 AM (o5Lvb)

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