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A comment on 2014 F1 explained: What is brake by wire?. Parent comment

Re:2014 F1 explained: What is brake by wire? by ggreer on Monday March 31, 2014 @04:39AM (#7500342)
If you gave an F1 team their same budget with no restrictions, you would get an incomprehensibly fast car. I'd bet on them going with 6 wheels: 4 in front, two in back for more traction when turning and braking, similar to the Tyrrell P34.[1] They'd likely use ground effect with fans to provide active downforce, similar to the Brabham BT46B.[2] It would probably be driven by electric motors in each wheel. The power source would be a gas turbine attached to a generator.

It would be a death trap. If the suction fan malfunctioned, all downforce would be lost and the car would skid off the track. G forces when accelerating, braking, and turning would quickly injure even the toughest human being. Going around any track would require superhuman reaction times. Such a vehicle could only be controlled by a computer. Also, such a vehicle could only be painted plaid.

I'm not sure how profitable or safe this hypothetical series would be, but I'd certainly watch the first couple of races. Then again, I'd also watch cyborg kickboxing in some future version of the Paralympics.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrrell_P34

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabham_BT46#Brabham_BT46B.C2....

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Re:2014 F1 explained: What is brake by wire? by newman314 on Monday March 31, 2014 @04:43AM (#7500354)
You would probably end up with something like the Red Bull X2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_X2010

The digital creation was a response to Kazunori Yamauchi's question: "If you built the fastest racing car on land, one that throws aside all rules and regulations, what would that car look like, how would it perform, and how would it feel to drive?"

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Re:2014 F1 explained: What is brake by wire? by _pmf_ on Monday March 31, 2014 @04:52AM (#7500378)
> "If you built the fastest racing car on land, one that throws aside all rules and regulations, what would that car look like, how would it perform, and how would it feel to drive?"

The big question is whether it would qualify as a "car".

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Re:2014 F1 explained: What is brake by wire? by liotier on Monday March 31, 2014 @04:57AM (#7500391)
Get rid of the human pilot - get the engineering teams compete with fully autonomous cars, maybe with the team feeding it strategic directives during the race. I would certainly love reading about it, though I acknowledge that the lack of human drama would make poor advertising copy...
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Re:2014 F1 explained: What is brake by wire? by TeMPOraL on Monday March 31, 2014 @06:43AM (#7500625)
You'd quickly see how many people watch F1 because of the secret wish that something goes wrong and there is a huge crash. If there were no risks in the race, there would be no tension that keeps people from getting bored by watching cars go in circles.
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