warp factor STIG - formula style

[John Valerio]

alright there's one thing that my teammates and i have been wondering: why have we not seen the stig do a hot lap of the top gear track in a formula car? its pretty high speed for our cars but with a smaller rear sprocket and with a ballsy driver (mushi mushi stig-san) i'm sure we'd be able to smoke most of the cars on the power board. i know that its for production cars, but they still had the DB9 race car and the Renault F1 car on there.
surely there must be some english formula teams near the top gear track. have you guys ever tried to send emails to clarkson and co. to get them to do a feature on a formula team? talk about awesome publicity, how many millions of people watch that show religiously?
anyone tried for something like that before?

[John Valerio]

alright there's one thing that my teammates and i have been wondering: why have we not seen the stig do a hot lap of the top gear track in a formula car? its pretty high speed for our cars but with a smaller rear sprocket and with a ballsy driver (mushi mushi stig-san) i'm sure we'd be able to smoke most of the cars on the power board. i know that its for production cars, but they still had the DB9 race car and the Renault F1 car on there.
surely there must be some english formula teams near the top gear track. have you guys ever tried to send emails to clarkson and co. to get them to do a feature on a formula team? talk about awesome publicity, how many millions of people watch that show religiously?
anyone tried for something like that before?

[formula_wally]

I think Hammond would fit, Clarkson would be too fat.

[kwancho]

I actually had the same thought. You'd have to gear it higher. I'd say somewhere in the mid 1:20s, maybe 1:27. Low top speed'd kill us.

[Magnarama]

OMG At least one of you UK teams should do this. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif The hampster probably is the only one that can fit, but I've heard that The Stig can change his shape at will http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif, So I'm sure he could fit

[Smeagle]

I honestly think this is a great idea... but it would have to be a slow week for them. definitely worth a shot though. Just make sure u install an ashtray and a cup holder otherwise clarkson wont like it.

[TomF]

Do not forget to put in some airconditioning, dolby surround stereo and cruise control for captain slow!

OT: I would agree it would be great, but I honestly think our top speeds will be way too low. Maybe Hammerhead would be interesting though. At the very least one team could go by, to have Jeremy smoke up a complete set of tyres in 2 minutes!

[PatClarke]

Mmmmmmmm,
Any suggestion of running these cars on a race circuit at high speed makes my blood run cold.
With the drivers feet way out ahead of the front wheels, an 'off' resulting in contact with something solid could have catastrophic consequences affecting FStudent and FSAE competitions all over.
Please remember that these cars are designed to run on tight, low speed circuits far from potential hard contacts.
Regards
Pat Clarke

[John Valerio]

Suddenlee,

the "race circuit" we're talking about is an airfield. the (first) stig was officially an F1 driver for a short time, who knows about the new one, but something similar no doubt...and i'd say he's on a slightly different level of driving than the math nerd with less than 10 hours under his belt in the hot seat of a formula car. and the only things to hit are tire piles which the top gear people put there on purpose. theoretically speaking they could remove them, but thats not the point i'm trying to make here.
any type of racing is dangerous if you're stupid about it. just because we have a small crush zones on the front of our cars and drive well below the 120 km/h competition top speed doesn't mean any of us couldn't be killed.
this is just a friendly theoretical discussion between people who watch the power laps and say "we could smoke that car, and that car, and that car".

[formula_wally]

I think someone should pitch to have Forumla Student Top Gear. With actual TV coverage, sponsors would jump at the chance of having lanky 21 year olds wrenching over their cars, while the others show how a fsae car won't understeer into hammerhead.

Theyd probably wouldn't understand why we need to add bus stops and cones everywhere, but there could be some hillarity to it.

[BrunoC]

I remember that during the autumn 2004, we had our 2004 formula run on a go kart circuit by a professional driver (Bertrand Godin) who had a TV show. http://www.shkarting.com/New_SH_Site/Pages_Data/Main00.asp?userLang=en
We didnt have that much coverage because the tv show wasnt that popular. But it could be a great idea to have some of the team in a top gear episodes. But it wouldn't be a good idea to run those fsae on a real race track. We have try the experience last tuesday and it wasnt a good experience. http://www.sanairracing.net/z_eng/index.htm
The driver was always in 4th gears and hit the end of the fifth when the track converge on the drag part of the course. We are running a monocylinder. Maybe if we had a four cylinder with a better end ratio, it could have been better. But i think it could be a better idea to organize an event where there is 4 or 5 schools in a very big parking lot with a nice layout to show what really is a formula sae.

[J. Vinella]

To bad the real Stig didn't drive the Renault around the track. It was actually Renault test driver Heikki Kovalainen. Also I hear that when ever a Lotus hits the track it isn't really the Stig either but Lotus' top tester.

But all this means is that it wouldn't be the Stig driving the formula car it would be one of us. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[absolutepressure]

Speaking of that, where the hell did that show go? They don't air it at all in the states anymore. There are so many cars that I've missed, it's pretty sad.

[kwancho]

http://www.finalgear.com/shows/
You're welcome.

[absolutepressure]

Ooooooo, thanks a lot. Bye bye hard drive.