Renault 'hybrid-wishbone' on rear end?

[DaveKillens]

Excellent picture manchild, the Yoda of F1 picture finding. Those appear to be titanium heat shrouds, and do not seem to carry any load. They exist only where the airflow is masked by the bodywork. The lower arm is much closer to the rear exhaust pipe than I imagined, and the radiated heat has to be tremendous. The upper most likely deals with the hot exhaust gases.
Those blue patches are heat sensitive, and would be in place to record maximum heat levels. On the forward part of each arm, on gearbox, and rear of upper arm.
Most likely the team slaps on new arms for each race weekend, too.

[Powerslide]

On the rear suspension, they don't use unequal length double wish-bone. Obviously for longitudal traction purposes. Probably this should also be incorperated by front wheel drive cars.

[manchild]

Excellent picture manchild, the Yoda of F1 picture finding. Those appear to be titanium heat shrouds, and do not seem to carry any load.

Thanks

I still think they carry the load, espeically the lower one. I mean, those lower sleeves are several millimeters thick, almost 1 centimeter. It certianly can't be that they need so much material just to act as heat shield. Temp. stickers are all over the rear end including the gearbox case. If we only knew how far CF part of the wishbone penetrates into titanium part it would be easy to give final judgement.

[Mikey_s]

look at the brake cliper position... C of G? There was another thread about this, but it's def below the centreline

[DaveKillens]

I still believe the carbon fiber arms carry the entire load, with metal slip-on shrouds in the high heat area. In the first posts, ginsu displayed two pictures, the first showing the lower arm with the metal shroud, and the second showing no shrouds, just pure carbon fiber arms. I believe that is still what they use, carbon fiber arms for mechanical loads, protected by metal shrouds.
In my eye, the metal shrouds appear to be slip-on, and do not appear to have a tight "bond" with the carbon fiber arm.
yea Mikey_s, those are great pics and do show a very low mounting point for the rear calipers. Why not lay them flat instead of giving a slight inclination? My theory is to make bleeding the brake system practical and easy. Having calipers flat would make bleeding all the air from the brake system a nightmare.

[gcdugas]

I still believe the carbon fiber arms carry the entire load, with metal slip-on shrouds in the high heat area. In the first posts, ginsu displayed two pictures, the first showing the lower arm with the metal shroud, and the second showing no shrouds, just pure carbon fiber arms. I believe that is still what they use, carbon fiber arms for mechanical loads, protected by metal shrouds.
In my eye, the metal shrouds appear to be slip-on, and do not appear to have a tight "bond" with the carbon fiber arm.
yea Mikey_s, those are great pics and do show a very low mounting point for the rear calipers. Why not lay them flat instead of giving a slight inclination? My theory is to make bleeding the brake system practical and easy. Having calipers flat would make bleeding all the air from the brake system a nightmare.

Great pics on this thread! It is for heat and heat shields almost by definition do not come in contact with the object they are shielding. That is why it appears so large/wide/thick.

The calipers are mounted that way because of the hub design on the inside of the wheel. Because of the suspension pick up points (mounts), it cannot be at 6 o'clock. In the front it is hard to get the calipers much below the 4 o'clock position because of the steering.

They can mount the bleed hole anywhere in the caliper. Depending on it orientation when mounted, they simply tap into the highest point.

[humble sabot]

better shot here:
http://www.gurneyflap.com/Resources/Imagen%20012.jpg

part of it has to do with the fact that you can't really make a bearing out of carbon fiber. they have to mount the spherical joints in something metal. There are many different ways of attaching the carbon to the metal. White carbon by the way, is an aesthetic treatment.

notice also in the front on the r202:

http://www.gurneyflap.com/Resources/Imagen%20014.jpg

[Ranald]

Sorry but what do you mean by White carbon?

[FW 21]

Those are definitely heat shields on the wishbones.

Made from a carbon which has a higher heat resistance than normal carbon and then sprayed with a heat resistant paint.

These heat shields are held on to the wishbones with a silicon gel, this allows them to be replaced more easily than if they were glued on.

With the mountings, Pushrods and trackrods have titanium fittings glued in the ends.

The wishbones normally have a hole machined in them, and then a metal insert which holds the ball joint is glued in.