Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[wormster]

Anyone mind if I slip in here with a photo.

Not an old black and white one, but this little beauty is a classic antique in it's own way.

Any idea of what it is, and why it's so special ?

I just love the exhaust - Batman before they ever thought about it.

As I've got a lazy day off, I googled & found this on Wikipedia. It's a Brabham & I didn't know how innotive the team was.

Technical innovation
 
The 1978 BT46B ‘Fan car’ won its only race before being banned.Brabham was considered a technically conservative team in the 1960s, chiefly because it persevered with traditional spaceframe cars long after Lotus introduced lighter, stiffer monocoque chassis to Formula One in 1962. Chief designer Tauranac reasoned that monocoques of the time were not usefully stiffer than well designed spaceframe chassis, and were harder to repair and less suitable for MRD’s customers.[59] His ‘old fashioned’ cars won the Brabham team the 1966 and 1967 championships, and were competitive in Formula One until rule changes forced a move to monocoques in 1970.[60]

Despite the perceived conservatism, in 1963 Brabham was the first Formula One team to use a wind tunnel to hone their designs to reduce drag and stop the cars lifting off the ground at speed.[61] The practice only became the norm in the early 1980s, and is possibly the most important factor in the design of modern cars. Towards the end of the 1960s, teams began to exploit aerodynamic downforce to push the cars’ tyres down harder on the ground and enable them to go round corners faster. At the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, Brabham were the first, alongside Ferrari, to introduce full width rear wings to this effect.[62]

The team's most fertile period of technical innovation came in the 1970s and 1980s when Gordon Murray became technical director. During 1976, the team introduced carbon-carbon brakes to Formula One, which promised reduced unsprung weight and better stopping performance due to carbon's greater coefficient of friction. The initial versions used carbon-carbon composite brake pads and a steel disc faced with carbon pucks. The technology was not reliable at first. In 1976 Carlos Pace crashed at 180 mph (290 km/h) at the Österreichring circuit after heat build-up in the brakes boiled the brake fluid, leaving him with no way of stopping the car.[63] By 1979, Brabham had developed an effective carbon-carbon braking system, combining structural carbon discs with carbon brake pads.[64] By the late 1980s, carbon brakes were used by all competitors in almost all top level motor sports.

Although Brabham experimented with airdams and underbody skirts in the mid 1970s, the team, like the rest of the field, did not immediately understand Lotus' development of a ground effect car in 1977. The Brabham BT46B 'Fan car' of 1978, generated enormous downforce with a fan, which sucked air from beneath the car, although its claimed use was for engine cooling. The car only raced once in the Formula One World Championship, Niki Lauda winning the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, before a loophole in the regulations was closed by the FIA.[65]

Although in 1979 Murray was the first to use lightweight carbon fibre composite panels to stiffen Brabham's aluminium alloy monocoques, he echoed his predecessor Tauranac in being the last to switch to the new fully composite monocoques. Murray was reluctant to built the entire chassis from composite materials until he understood their behaviour in a crash, an understanding achieved in part through an instrumented crash test of a BT49 chassis.[64] The team did not follow McLaren's 1981 MP4/1 with their own fully composite chassis until the 'lowline' BT55 in 1986,[66] the last team to do so. This technology is now used in all top level single seater racing cars.

For the 1981 season the FIA introduced a 6 cm minimum ride height for the cars, intended to slow them in corners by limiting the downforce created by aerodynamic ground effect. Gordon Murray devised a hydropneumatic suspension system for the BT49C, which allowed the car to settle to a much lower ride height at speed. Brabham were accused of cheating by other teams, although Murray believes that the system met the letter of the regulations. No action was taken against the team and others soon produced systems with similar effects. See Brabham BT49.[67]

At the 1982 British Grand Prix, Brabham reintroduced the idea of re-fuelling and changing the car's tyres during the race, unseen since the 1957 Formula One season, to allow their drivers to sprint away at the start of races on a light fuel load and soft tyres. After studying techniques used at the Indianapolis 500 and in NASCAR racing in the United States, the team were able to refuel and re-tyre the car in 14 seconds in tests ahead of the race. In 1982 Murray felt the tactic did little more than "get our sponsors noticed at races we had no chance of winning", but in 1983 the team made good use of the tactic.[68] Refuelling was banned for 1984, and did not reappear until the 1994 season, but tyre changes have remained part of Formula One, to the extent that Max Mosley, head of the FIA, claimed in the late 1990s that television viewers found the spectacle of the pit stops more exciting than overtaking on the track.[citation needed]


[edit] Controversy
The fan car and hydropneumatic suspension exploited loopholes in the sporting regulations. In the early 1980s Brabham was accused of going further and breaking the regulations. During 1981, Piquet's first championship year, rumours circulated of illegal underweight Brabham chassis. Driver Jacques Lafitte was among those to claim that the cars were fitted with heavily ballasted bodywork before being weighed at scrutineering. The accusation was denied by Brabham's management. No formal protest was made against the team and no action was taken against them by the sporting authorities.[69]

From 1978, Ecclestone was president of the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA), a body formed by the teams to represent their interests. This left his team open to accusations of having advance warning of rule changes. Ecclestone denies that the team benefited from this and Murray has noted that, contrary to this view, at the end of 1982 the team had to abandon their new BT51 car, built on the basis that ground effect would be permitted in 1983. Brabham had to design and build a replacement, the BT52, in only three months.[70] At the end of the 1983 season, Renault and Ferrari, both beaten to the drivers' championship by Piquet, protested that the Research Octane Number (RON) of the team's fuel was above the legal limit of 102. The FIA declared that a figure of up to 102.9 was permitted under the rules, and that Brabham had not exceeded this limit.[71]

[tikay]

Congrats to Ding on her third cash in successive nights.

After busting early in the DTD £300 on Saturday, with KK v AA, she played the £50, & did a 4 way deal, getting £600+.

At Luton on Sunday, in the £100, she chopped it heads up for £1,200+.

Tonight, at Luton, she was second in the £50+£50+£50, & took £800+.

[relaedgc]

Congrats to Ding on her third cash in successive nights.

After busting early in the DTD £300 on Saturday, with KK v AA, she played the £50, & did a 4 way deal, getting £600+.

At Luton on Sunday, in the £100, she chopped it heads up for £1,200+.

Tonight, at Luton, she was second in the £50+£50+£50, & took £800+.

 

[technolog]

Well done DingDell 

[Laxie]

Flippin heck...WELL DONE CHICKA!!!   

[Snatiramas]

Congrats to Ding on her third cash in successive nights.

After busting early in the DTD £300 on Saturday, with KK v AA, she played the £50, & did a 4 way deal, getting £600+.

At Luton on Sunday, in the £100, she chopped it heads up for £1,200+.

Tonight, at Luton, she was second in the £50+£50+£50, & took £800+.

You are a different class...............well done you!!!!

[cia260895]

Well done DingDell 

[Gamblor21]

Congrats to Ding on her third cash in successive nights.

After busting early in the DTD £300 on Saturday, with KK v AA, she played the £50, & did a 4 way deal, getting £600+.

At Luton on Sunday, in the £100, she chopped it heads up for £1,200+.

Tonight, at Luton, she was second in the £50+£50+£50, & took £800+.

More importantly what language do they speak in Latvia?

I also feel tricked, we had a cordial agreement that you would double me up during in the evening... You broke that agreement by knocking me out, some may say targeting the weak!

All in all welldone and you were a pain to play against, i'm still suing you though!

[littlemissC]

Congrats to Ding on her third cash in successive nights.

After busting early in the DTD £300 on Saturday, with KK v AA, she played the £50, & did a 4 way deal, getting £600+.

At Luton on Sunday, in the £100, she chopped it heads up for £1,200+.

Tonight, at Luton, she was second in the £50+£50+£50, & took £800+.

[kinboshi]

Steve Gascoigne will be proud .

[Dingdell]

Thank you. Proof if proof were needed that you have got to have luck! I was on my way home all in against Edna's set of 9's against my pocket aces until the ace on the river and other such poker nonsense. I was lucky enough to win some races, the difference at the moment is that I'm in the race whereas before I was running away.

Knocking 3 people out (including Tikay) on the final table, all of us all in, me with Ace high was a very funny one as we were all standing up peering at the board trying to find someone that had hit something but with 8 live cards none of us had.

Long may the bravery/stupidity of loose calls continue - obv enabling everyone to get their chips back off me!  

[steeveg]

Congrats to Ding on her third cash in successive nights.

After busting early in the DTD £300 on Saturday, with KK v AA, she played the £50, & did a 4 way deal, getting £600+.

At Luton on Sunday, in the £100, she chopped it heads up for £1,200+.

Tonight, at Luton, she was second in the £50+£50+£50, & took £800+.

brilliant well done

[Dingdell]

Congrats to Ding on her third cash in successive nights.

After busting early in the DTD £300 on Saturday, with KK v AA, she played the £50, & did a 4 way deal, getting £600+.

At Luton on Sunday, in the £100, she chopped it heads up for £1,200+.

Tonight, at Luton, she was second in the £50+£50+£50, & took £800+.

brilliant well done

To celebrate, the Red Arrows have just flown overhead - how bizarre - very nice formation - obv on their way somewhere but nice of them to go past here!

[booder]

congrats Trace

[Claw75]

whoo - well done Trace!!!