Fiat vs Ferrari vs F1

June 6, 2006 2:33 PM

Funny "experiment" conducted by the folks at leftlanenews.com. Can a Ferrari 575 catch up to a Fiat hatckback after a 31-second head start in a single-lap track race? Better still, can an F1 car catch up to both after waiting 1:27? The results aren’t necessarily surprising, but it’s pretty stunning to see.
posted by jonson (51 comments total)

The last 20 seconds are the best.
posted by ducksauce at 2:39 PM on June 6, 2006

Did you know that a Bugatti Veyron is actually faster then an F-1 car?
posted by delmoi at 2:39 PM on June 6, 2006

Very similar to this. David Coulthard, McLaren F1 car, A-class, E50 AMG, Silverstone, Murray Walker. They're both good videos, but the F1 car in the Ferrari one looks ancient - mid-90s?
posted by matthewr at 2:40 PM on June 6, 2006

- mid-90s?

I think you're right. Read the comments in the article, they imply a 1996 or 1997 date for this.
posted by jonson at 2:41 PM on June 6, 2006

delmoi, yep. =)
posted by ducksauce at 2:42 PM on June 6, 2006

Faster in what sense, delmoi? Top speed - probably (252mph for the Veyron, less for an F1 car). But by any other measure, the F1 car wins by a huge margin.
posted by matthewr at 2:42 PM on June 6, 2006

delmoi writes "Did you know that a Bugatti Veyron is actually faster then an F-1 car?"

Faster in what sense? The top-speed of F1 cars are limited by its aerodynamic setup.
posted by mullacc at 2:44 PM on June 6, 2006

As ducksauce's link says, the Bugatti is faster than a McLaren F1 car, a mid-90s road car, as opposed to a Formula 1 car, which is a whole different kettle of fish.
posted by matthewr at 2:44 PM on June 6, 2006

Ah, I've seen a video like that before, with three Mercedes Benzes, one of which was a mini van. I liked the editing on this though.

Also, I kind of doubt that "leftlanenews.com" actually conducted the experiment.
posted by delmoi at 2:45 PM on June 6, 2006

Anyway, great video. God, I love the sound of an F1 car.
posted by mullacc at 2:47 PM on June 6, 2006

I think all three of them passed me on Hwy 101 one evening last week. It was not fun.
posted by wendell at 2:51 PM on June 6, 2006

Not much cooler than an F1 car. Next to a fighter pilot, that has to be the best job in the world.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 2:52 PM on June 6, 2006

Well, according to this the record is something like 243mph, slower then the Veyron's 253mph. Also the veyron can go from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, while what I can find from quick googling is that F1 cars can get there in "under three seconds".

I'm sure the f1 cars would be better on a track, but the Veyron is really fucking fast.
posted by delmoi at 2:52 PM on June 6, 2006

The 2005 Renault R25 does 0-100km/h (approx 60mph) in 1.9 seconds.
posted by matthewr at 2:54 PM on June 6, 2006

Holy snap, truly, best of web.
posted by eurasian at 2:57 PM on June 6, 2006

That would have been pretty stunning to see. Really, why go to all this trouble if you're not going to give some overview of where the cars are in relation to each other? You couldn't see how quickly the cars were catching up. They must not have had all three cars racing at the same time. They just edited together the individual laps and staged a finish. Which , you know, I guess really demonstrates the same point. But not quite as good, somehow.
posted by team lowkey at 3:02 PM on June 6, 2006

The guy driving the 575 could have shaved another couple seconds off if he weren't so sloppy. He had a couple nice flubs there, including a pretty embarassing one through the hairpin at around 1:20.

(There may have been some before that, but it was the one which took me from idly watching to saying, "Hey, that was ugly. Was that just a mistake, or is he really that bad?")
posted by jammer at 3:03 PM on June 6, 2006

Fans of Top Gear might like this on-car video of The Stig lapping their test track in the 2004 Renault F1 car.
posted by saladin at 3:04 PM on June 6, 2006

delmoi: There is no comparing the Veyron and an F1 car. An F1 car is limited by all sorts of things--aerodynamic packages tuned to handle twisty road courses, gearing/transmission set-ups customized for each track, FIA regulations on tires, engines, etc. The Veyron is built to be a street legal road-car--yes, the bleeding-edge of what's allowed and what's possible, but it is inherently limited. F1 teams, with budgets in the hundreds of millions per year, are building the fastest machines on four-wheels. The thing is they're concerned at being fastest at a particular task--Grand Prix racing, not straight-line acceleration or anything else.
posted by mullacc at 3:05 PM on June 6, 2006

The newspaper was a nice touch.
posted by caddis at 3:10 PM on June 6, 2006

A F1 car can totally out-accelerate the Veyron to any speed - most of the time, it's twice as fast.

Last year's Renault R25 F1 car:
0 to 100 km/h: 1.9 seconds
0 to 200 km/h: 3.9 seconds
0 to 300 km/h: 8.4 seconds

Bugatti Veyron:
0 to 100 km/h: 2.5 seconds
0 to 200 km/h: 7.3 seconds
0 to 300 km/h: 16.7 seconds

You can nip down to the shops in a Veyron, though.

posted by matthewr at 3:11 PM on June 6, 2006

Bah! I question the agenda of the people who made the video. They deliberately sandbagged the Fiat with a bad driver - did you see how slow he was going?
posted by rks404 at 3:12 PM on June 6, 2006

The last little bit, maybe the last five seconds, was the best. That's serious acceleration.
posted by smackfu at 3:19 PM on June 6, 2006

That in-car video from Top Gear was interesting too. On the show, they never use in-car for certain parts of the course, especially the turns like the Hammerhead or the ones at the end. Looks different from in the car.
posted by smackfu at 3:22 PM on June 6, 2006

Suspiciously reminds me of Jeremy Clarkson's "Head to Head" video/DVD (made in '99) - Clarkson driving a standard Ford Cougar vs the Ford Focus rally car (driven by Colin McRae) vs Johnny Herbert in a Stewart Ford F1 car. Exact same setup, different manufacturer.
posted by longbaugh at 3:28 PM on June 6, 2006

The guy driving the 575 was Eddie Irvine, Michael Schumacher's Ferrari teammate at the time (the F1 car looks like a 97).

Michael Schumacher is the guy driving the F1

Yes, a Veyron is faster than an F1 car, but not nearly as quick.

Comparing a street car (any street car) to an F1 car is like comparing a kitchen knife to a bayonet.

Sure, it might be a very nice kitchen knife, but anything with a blood drain is a whole different weapon.
posted by Relay at 3:30 PM on June 6, 2006

The 2005 Renault R25 does 0-100km/h (approx 60mph) in 1.9 seconds.

An NHRA Top Fuel Dragster does 0-100 mph in less than 1 second, 0-200 in three seconds, and 0-300 mph in less than five. It does 0-100km/h in .6 seconds, and It can do 0-300mph-0 in less than 12 seconds, pulling 6g on both launch and stop. If you were to race one on a drag strip, where you'd get a flying start, hitting the start line at 225mph, the current era top fuel machines, from a standing start, would still pass you in less than 1300 feet.

The engines redline at 9500rpm. The cars are so fast, and the track is so short, than a top fuel car does the whole race on less than 900 revolutions of the engine. The forces on the wheels are so strong that they change diameter -- lifting the back of the car nearly a foot further off the ground.

If you combined the Renault R256 and the Veryon, you still won't have enough horsepower to turn the supercharger.

In terms of cost per time, they're the most expensive vehicles to run. Not counting initial buildout or crew costs, they cost over $1000 a second to run. They're running at the very edge of possible. Any more fuel, and the cylinders would hit hydraulic lock. Any more oxygen, and they'd melt.

Of course, my Honda Civic will beat it badly -- after the first turn, of course....
posted by eriko at 3:54 PM on June 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

Ah, but can it outrun a helicopter gunship?
NSFW ads
posted by Joeforking at 3:54 PM on June 6, 2006

Relay - what you are referring to as a "blood drain" (aka blood groove) is actually called a "fuller" and is to lighten and strengthen the blade, not to help blood drop off the blade.

/slight derail
posted by longbaugh at 4:08 PM on June 6, 2006

but anything with a blood drain is a whole different weapon.

Well said.

But given the evidence that an F1 is faster, i'd still take the Veyron. F1s can do what they do because they can be rebuilt between each race. The Bugatti can do something comparable over and over without needed to be reset. (At least in theory, the Veyron hasn't been out long enough to see how reliable it is,)
posted by quin at 4:24 PM on June 6, 2006

Wendell is lying. It's nearly impossible to hit the speed limit on Hwy 101 because of all the Prius driving morons poking along at 55mph.

(I keed! I keed!)
posted by drstein at 4:25 PM on June 6, 2006

You can nip down to the shops in a Veyron, though.

Hey, now. You can nip down to the shops in an F1, as well. Provided they clear all other living things from the road beforehand.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:04 PM on June 6, 2006

Schumacher is a cheat. Pity the guy driving the Fiat didn't stall his car in the final turn to ensure no one could overtake him.
posted by Sk4n at 5:18 PM on June 6, 2006

More video goodness for F1 enthusiasts: here's a vid of a running F1 stripped of its shell on blocks. The exhaust looks like it's about to melt. A-mazing.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:21 PM on June 6, 2006

“Ah, but can it outrun a helicopter gunship?” - posted by Joeforking

It can try, but it’ll die tired.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:29 PM on June 6, 2006

Interesting, but a little confusing. I wish that map had shown where all the cars were at each stage of the race. By the end, I was wondering why I hadn't seen the Fiat for so long.
posted by fungible at 5:52 PM on June 6, 2006

saladin: Thank you for posting that! I'd seen the Stig's lap in the Renault many times, but never knew there was an entire lap from inside the car floating around out there, that was absolutely brilliant!
posted by Swervo at 5:53 PM on June 6, 2006

There was a Coultard version of this a few years back.

Since this is the Schumacher version all I can say is...he probably cheated somehow.
posted by HTuttle at 5:53 PM on June 6, 2006

Of course it was staged a bit. If the pig Fiat and the baby pig Ferrari (pig Ferrari- I love it) hadn't pulled over to let Schumacher by at +80 mph or so there would have been an explosive ending. Whenever I am passing someone going 80 mph or so faster than they are going I always wonder whether they will change lanes into my path....
posted by caddis at 5:57 PM on June 6, 2006

AFAIK, the stig in that video was actually Heikki Kovalainen, currently a test driver for renault and famous for beating Shumacher in the Race of Champions in 2004. Full circle!
posted by milinar at 5:57 PM on June 6, 2006

I had to watch the Apache vs. Lotus link a few times to hear him repeat the line about hiding...I won't ruin it. Great stuff.

Also great to see the other comments reveal that everyone who makes an F1 engine does the same stunt. Somewhere out there is an Insight/NSX/Honda F1 video (or there's one waiting to be made).
posted by pinespree at 6:05 PM on June 6, 2006

.
posted by sluglicker at 7:18 PM on June 6, 2006

Did anyone else see Marco Andretti’s great run in last week’s IRL road race at Watkin’s Glen? After his near win at Indy I figured, “So what, its just oval crap, and he had a great car.” But the Glen was different. They were running in the damp without traction control and the choice between slicks and rain tires was iffy for the duration.

Marco slipped back to seventh midway thru the race, then he started a Kimi Raikonnen thru the frontrunners. This kid’s only 19 years old and he was out on the ragged edge blowing past everyone. He passed his team’s lead driver and pulled well away, setting fastest lap, and was closing in on the leader when he was knocked off the road by an idiot who was too stupid to realize that he was about to be lapped at speed.

Scott Speed is evidently competent, but Marco looks like a winner, and he has his sights set on FI. Anyway, I’m looking forward to my country’s return to FI with the other great young drivers... like Fernando and Nico, etc... and Shumacher hanging on as the evil schmuck from hell.
posted by Huplescat at 9:06 PM on June 6, 2006

Slow and steady wi...uh... hmm. Well, fuck Aesop, I guess.
posted by crunchland at 9:33 PM on June 6, 2006

I cry underrepresentation for motorcyclists! The F1 might still beat the top race bike out there, but a good rider probably could have taken the 575.
posted by Eideteker at 10:39 PM on June 6, 2006

Well, while it's impressive to see the times, they obviously picked those start times to SPECIFICALLY have that ending where they're all right near the finish line at the same time. And seeing the Ferarri driver flub a few times kinda ruined it for me as well.
posted by antifuse at 2:09 AM on June 7, 2006

The F1 might still beat the top race bike out there, but a good rider probably could have taken the 575.

I beg to differ.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:47 AM on June 7, 2006

The guy driving the 575 was Eddie Irvine, Michael Schumacher's Ferrari teammate at the time (the F1 car looks like a 97).


I don't think so, the rear tires look the same size as the fronts. '97 had staggered size tires. Also the 97 nose wasn't pointed at all like that and had much more pronounced sidepods. Although I'm at a loss as to what car this could be. The '98 had equal sized tires but those were treaded, this one appears to be running slicks. It looks more like the '94 412TI model than anything but that's definately not a v-12 it's running. I'm pretty perplexed as to what it is, I wish the video quality was a little higher.
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 10:59 AM on June 7, 2006

I can't get your link to load, CD, but here's the old Duc vs. Lambo schtick.
posted by Eideteker at 12:00 PM on June 7, 2006

As Eideteker's link shows, the biker vs supercar is too close to call mostly. More open spaces, the biker wins, more hairpins, as in Civil_Disobedient's Porche vs Yamaha link, he loses.
posted by uni verse at 2:24 PM on June 7, 2006

The difference between a Veyron and an F1 car is that the F1 car generates enough downforce at 100mph to be able to drive on the ceiling.
posted by ArkhanJG at 7:25 PM on June 7, 2006