Home  
Site Partners: SpotterGuides Veloce Books  
Related Sites: Your Link Here  

Go Back   TenTenths Motorsport Forum > Racing Talk > Racing Technology

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 30 Dec 2000, 01:33 (Ref:54861)   #1
marcus
Ten-Tenths Hall of Fame
Veteran
 
marcus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Australia
Australia
Posts: 12,053
marcus has a real shot at the podium!marcus has a real shot at the podium!marcus has a real shot at the podium!marcus has a real shot at the podium!
I have a bit of a question about "the plank" used in F1..

now I understand the old system of ground effects and how that worked and then the FIA decided to ban ground effects and introduced the plank..fair enough ..but what does the plank do and why did they choose this big piece of wood in this modern day of carbon fibre and kevlar and space age materials ..so i dont understand why they introduced this thing..

can anyone explain what the plank is for and what it does please ???
marcus is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 01:40 (Ref:54863)   #2
DAVID PATERSON
Veteran
 
DAVID PATERSON's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Australia
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
Posts: 5,549
DAVID PATERSON should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridDAVID PATERSON should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridDAVID PATERSON should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
The plank is a means of forcing teams to maintain the minimum ride height THROUGHOUT the race. It wears away on contact with the gorund at a measured rate, so by measuring the thickness of the plank at the end of the race the scrutineers can tell how close to the ground the car was during the race. Also, the plank leaves no debris as it wears and does no damage to the track.
DAVID PATERSON is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 01:47 (Ref:54866)   #3
Craig
Race Official
Veteran
 
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 11,005
Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!
During a recent day out I had cause to inspect the underside of one of the latter Rothmans-Williams (unsure which year) and was admiring the quality of the carbon fibre, the effort which had gone into the exhaust systems, etc... It looked most odd to see a bit of shuttering ply attached to the underside of this multi-million pound machine with no.8 woodscrews!

Get rid of it - we want the cars back which used to kick up all those sparks when the car bottomed out - was so much more dramatic!
Craig is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 02:15 (Ref:54870)   #4
DAVID PATERSON
Veteran
 
DAVID PATERSON's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Australia
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
Posts: 5,549
DAVID PATERSON should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridDAVID PATERSON should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridDAVID PATERSON should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Yeah, the sparks were waaay cool, but bottoming out created a whole 'nother set of problems.
DAVID PATERSON is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 02:17 (Ref:54873)   #5
Craig
Race Official
Veteran
 
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 11,005
Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!Craig has a real shot at the championship!
They still bottom out now - they just leave sawdust instead of sparks...
Craig is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 02:58 (Ref:54879)   #6
marcus
Ten-Tenths Hall of Fame
Veteran
 
marcus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Australia
Australia
Posts: 12,053
marcus has a real shot at the podium!marcus has a real shot at the podium!marcus has a real shot at the podium!marcus has a real shot at the podium!
Great ..my 2000 post and its about a piece of wood

I used to love the sparks ..especially on the first couple of laps when the cars were all close ..it was like fircracker night..and then of course there was Mansells tyre blow at Adelaide in 86 ..spectacular or what ??

so the only thing it is there for now is simply ride height..I can remember Schumacher being DSQ'd in belguim back in 94 for to much wear on the plank...what is the amount of wear allowed on the plank ...anyone know that ???

silly question ..but does it stiffen the chassis in any way at all???

I think i have seen smoke coming off the bottom of a few cars these days and no it wasnt from locking a brake ..so i guess they were right on the limit of ride height and the plank was rubbing and generating a hell of alot of heat to make it smoke.

thanks anyway guys
marcus is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 13:00 (Ref:54942)   #7
THR
Veteran
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
United Kingdom
Wolverhampton, England
Posts: 727
THR has a lot of promise if they can keep it on the circuit!
if the plank has worn more than 1mm in any area its illegal.

well its attached to the car so it would make it slightly more rigid yes.. but thats not its intention.

wood was used because its cheap, easy to see where the plank has worn (cos its ply). and circuit damage limitations.

1mm, is quite a lot of wear really. and the car will only wear it out if its bottoming out a lot. like a whole straight for a whole race.

this is why in qualifying u see more dust coming off the back of the cars. as they run them lower.


THR is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 19:46 (Ref:54965)   #8
duckers
Rookie
 
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location:
London. England
Posts: 17
duckers should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
I dont know if im right in saying this, but if i remember from the summer when Martin Brundle had his mini series on the regulations on the ITV,s race coverage he discussed on this topic and he said that the material used was not in fact wood but a fibreglass composite type material which is similar to wood. Correct me if I,m wrong.
duckers is offline  
Quote
Old 30 Dec 2000, 21:55 (Ref:54995)   #9
Gerard
Ten-Tenths Hall of Fame
Veteran
 
Join Date: Jul 1999
Posts: 1,291
Gerard should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
I believe the plank is made of compressed wood.
It was introduced in the aftermath of Imola 1994, and was essentially a means of reducing the car's speed. This was because the plank would increase the gap through which air flows under the car, effectively reducing downforce.

Originally, the plank was just that - a plank of wood. Outsiders laughed that F1, the most sophisticated sport on the planet, a sport where 1/1000th of a second can be the difference between winning and losing, was reduced to using a thin piece of wood as a safety measure.

As time has gone on however, certain teams have modified their 'wooden' planks out of all proportion. Certain F1 teams are using expensive metals in their planks - which is having the opposite effect to that originally intended - it's helping the cars to go faster!

By introducing a metal (such as tungsten) into the plank, you increase it's weight. At the same time, you are further lowering the car's centre of gravity - thus making the car more stable and consequently faster through corners.

Normally, a F1 car's centre of gravity is approximately 25cm off the ground. With the right plank, this can be reduced by a further 1mm - effectively 1 second a lap!

It's believed that Ferrari, Williams and McLaren are the guilty parties, with smaller teams claiming they can't afford the high costs involved - said to be in the region of £90,000 a plank. As an afterthought the small teams claim that if detached in an accident, the 'metal' planks would be more dangerous.
Gerard is offline  
Quote
Old 31 Dec 2000, 06:37 (Ref:55124)   #10
elephino
Veteran
 
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location:
Sydney, Australia
Posts: 2,058
elephino should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridelephino should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
There were allegations of teams not using wood, and the plank is not 100% wood but there is a maximum density for it.
elephino is offline  
Quote
Old 31 Dec 2000, 11:47 (Ref:55159)   #11
Dino IV
Veteran
 
Dino IV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
MagnetON
NL
Posts: 1,101
Dino IV should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridDino IV should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
That's what I thought as well, elephino, Gerard and duckers. The rules are sharpened since last year if I am correct. It has to be a certain lenght, width and height with a maximum density. Indeed to prohibid teams to use tungsten or wolfram blocks with a 1 mm layer.

Not that they don't use tungsten or wolfram blocks but there minimum height is specified this way. Some teams (yeah the rich ones ) feature wolfram splitters (you know the curved thing which connects the bottom with the tub, under the drivers knees) as well and that's no surprise coz they have some 80 kg of ballast to play around with.
Dino IV is offline  
Quote
Old 31 Dec 2000, 20:38 (Ref:55333)   #12
Sodemo
Veteran
 
Sodemo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000
United Kingdom
Solihull, West Mids, UK
Posts: 11,316
Sodemo has a real shot at the championship!Sodemo has a real shot at the championship!Sodemo has a real shot at the championship!Sodemo has a real shot at the championship!Sodemo has a real shot at the championship!
why don't they just use a titanium plank?

If they used a metal plank it would still increase the ride height, but just forget the rule anout minimum wear. This would probably increase downforce slightly so just to reduce it, make the max number or rear wing elements to 1.
Sodemo is offline  
Quote
Old 2 Jan 2001, 12:42 (Ref:55769)   #13
Dino IV
Veteran
 
Dino IV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
MagnetON
NL
Posts: 1,101
Dino IV should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridDino IV should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
The height of the car remains the same in absolute terms, whatever material the plank is made of, that's right Sodemo.
With the plank being at the lowest point of the car it's a very interesting point to bring the virtual Centre of Gravity(CoG) - the lower the CoG, the better the handling of the car - down by using very high density materials instead of the low density wood in that position. So titanium is just the opposite metal one should prefer in that position coz it's way too light per volume. Instead of that teams use very high density metals like tungsten or wolfram.

[Edited by Dino IV on 2nd January 2001]
Dino IV is offline  
Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Plank Edmonton Formula One 21 25 Dec 2003 17:18
Quote "Coudn't drive a nail into a plank of wood " Billy_Hunt Formula One 8 1 Apr 2001 12:35


All times are GMT. The time now is 14:16.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Original Website Copyright © 1998-2003 Craig Antil. All Rights Reserved.
Ten-Tenths Motorsport Forums Copyright © 2004-2021 Royalridge Computing. All Rights Reserved.
Ten-Tenths Motorsport Forums Copyright © 2021-2022 Grant MacDonald. All Rights Reserved.