The fastest F1 car of all time?

[Scotracer]

I seem to remember the car had a closed feedback sensor system attached to the rear tail to correct it at high speed, for stability. If it did, it wasn't legal. Remove that and it was however.

[xpensive]

The Porche 917 reached 400 km/h at Le Mans in 1971 with less than 600 Hp, but that was with a full body of course.

[Scotracer]

The Porche 917 reached 400 km/h at Le Mans in 1971 with less than 600 Hp, but that was with a full body of course.

I'm not sure about that because the Group C cars in the late 80s/very early 90s peaked at just over 400km/h with upwards of 1000BHP (in qualifying they were closer to 1300BHP). So I can't see a car with 400BHP less with a less aero efficient body doing the same thing. Of course I could well be wrong - I think they managed that speed but with that power?

[xpensive]

The special 917 "Langheck" execution was xtremely slippery, while the Mulsanne straight was very long back then.

Could have been more than 600 Hp, but not by that much.

[wesley123]

Tha cant be, for the reasons scotracer says, those cars have way too less power and efficiency that they cant manage those speeds. Those cars hit 380 if im right, but not faster.

The first car to hit 400 was the sauber C9 i believe, wich led to the build of chicanes on the straight.

[xpensive]

I'm naive enough to belive that any enginer with a little ambition and homework can prove it, one direction or the other, simply by using Power = Cv * Area * density *(speed^3)/2?

[xpensive]

Let's see now, the 917 "Kurtz" of 1971 had a Cv times Area of 0.644 according to:

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/aerodata ... e917k.html

At 400 km/h, that would ask for 530 kW, or 720 Hp, so it must have been the 917 "Langheck" who did it.

[timbo]

from http://993c4s.com/cars/porsche-917-cars ... f-victory/

The 917 long-tail coupe also set another record in 1971: car number 21 turned in the highest speed ever recorded on the Mulsanne Straight of 387 km/h.

[CMSMJ1]

straight line speed is not a fair test. no F1 car is ever configured for pure straight line speed - the Italian GP would prob be the closet thing to that.
if honda holds the record it is only because they bothered to go to a desert an see what happens.
had the other teams done it there is no chance that honda would still hold the record.
to be honest the bmw v12 in williams was know for being the most powerful engine at the time.
the only real factor for a straight line speed test is the engine.
the rest is just lighten the car and reduce drag.
maybe play with the wheel base.

Just to note that BMW have never used a V12 F1 engine...

The accepted king of the V10s was the last of the Honda motors for the end of the season - reputed to push out 1000bhp

Fastest in a straight line is an easy answer..

I would be tempted to say that the F2004 would be the car to beat if you lined up the cars from the last ten years WDC constructors.

Tyres make a massive difference though....so it is apples and oranges

[ISLAMATRON]

cars built around these specs would lead to some great(but extremely dangerous) racing. MAybe the OWG should look more into it

[xpensive]

I stand corrected timbo, but 26 km/h faster than the Monza speed with only 600 Hp, perhaps it made my point anyway?

[bjpower]

straight line speed is not a fair test. no F1 car is ever configured for pure straight line speed - the Italian GP would prob be the closet thing to that.
if honda holds the record it is only because they bothered to go to a desert an see what happens.
had the other teams done it there is no chance that honda would still hold the record.
to be honest the bmw v12 in williams was know for being the most powerful engine at the time.
the only real factor for a straight line speed test is the engine.
the rest is just lighten the car and reduce drag.
maybe play with the wheel base.

Just to note that BMW have never used a V12 F1 engine...

The accepted king of the V10s was the last of the Honda motors for the end of the season - reputed to push out 1000bhp

Fastest in a straight line is an easy answer..

I would be tempted to say that the F2004 would be the car to beat if you lined up the cars from the last ten years WDC constructors.

Tyres make a massive difference though....so it is apples and oranges

sorry for the engine mistake.
but i really dont think you can say the fastest F1 car of all is the one fastest straight line speed.

i appreciate your point about tires and its valid, but they just another part of the car.

i think the only way to solve this is greatest number of track records.
the only real test for a F1 car. fastest around the track - thats the main objective when designing the car.

[Giblet]

straight line speed is not a fair test. no F1 car is ever configured for pure straight line speed - the Italian GP would prob be the closet thing to that.
if honda holds the record it is only because they bothered to go to a desert an see what happens.
had the other teams done it there is no chance that honda would still hold the record.
to be honest the bmw v12 in williams was know for being the most powerful engine at the time.
the only real factor for a straight line speed test is the engine.
the rest is just lighten the car and reduce drag.
maybe play with the wheel base.

Just to note that BMW have never used a V12 F1 engine...

The accepted king of the V10s was the last of the Honda motors for the end of the season - reputed to push out 1000bhp

Fastest in a straight line is an easy answer..

I would be tempted to say that the F2004 would be the car to beat if you lined up the cars from the last ten years WDC constructors.

Tyres make a massive difference though....so it is apples and oranges

sorry for the engine mistake.
but i really dont think you can say the fastest F1 car of all is the one fastest straight line speed.

i appreciate your point about tires and its valid, but they just another part of the car.

i think the only way to solve this is greatest number of track records.
the only real test for a F1 car. fastest around the track - thats the main objective when designing the car.

You need to look up the definition of fast, and the definition of quick.

Fast is solely a measure of speed. Speed is a measure like MPH or KMH

A car can go around a circuit at quick pace, and also be fast on a straight. This year, the Force India cars are often setting top speeds at every race, so this actually makes them the fastest car, but certainly not the quickest.

To know what car is "faster" on a track you would need to see every data point of a lap, to know what car is "fastest" at that one point, and every other as evey point on the track has a different speed, or measuere of "fastness".

So when you want to know what car does the best lap time, you are tying to find the quickest car, not the fastest.

The original poster asked to know the fastest car, not the quickest.

Most racers are taught at an early age that cars are fast, but drivers make them go quick.

[Scotracer]

We should keep our definitions in line with F1:

Fastest = fastest at lapping a circuit
Quickest = Highest top speed or acceleraion

[Giblet]

I respectfully disagree, there is no official way to talk about these measures in F1, it's mostly uninformed broadcasters. That's why you never Ant or Brundle call drivers or cars fast, but quick.

Does F1 take the dictionary definition of these terms and flip them around like you just did?