[Rehaan]

This October, the Red Bull events team has given us lucky folks of Mumbai a chance to see David Coulthard race across the Bandra Worli Sea-Link in a Red Bull Racing Formula 1 car! (Link to thread on main event)

Along with the main event, are a few smaller invite-only events. Today was one of those events, described as an “Assembly of the Red Bull Racing Car”, but in reality it was more like unpacking and preparing the car for the engine firing and the run on Sunday.

The event was at the J. W. Marriot poolside, i.e. outdoors and by the sea. So I guess Ported_Head, had a point when he said that the chances of them opening up any critical components would be low. Usually at the end of this preparation, they fire up the car, but it was not planned for today due to restrictions at the venue. There will be a separate event for the engine firing on Saturday. Team-BHP will be there to cover that with tons of pics and video too.



Here are the highlights from the event :

Wooden boards on the sides, as well as a nose-cap that doesn't protrude beyond the front wheels in order to protect the car from damage during transportation.




A metal rear travel guard to protect the comparatively delicate carbon fiber at the back.




Shining it up with a can of WD40.




Front wheels and protective nose section are taken off.




First sighting of the V10 cosworth under the hood!




Notice the perfectly flat underbody.




The engine cover with gills rests on a stand as the engineers get things ready




A change and top up of all the fluids (the big grey box sucks/pumps engine oil. More on this later)




With the airbox cover and the filter removed, an engineer cleans the inside of the airbox.




The pipe leading to the engine to swap the engine oil.




Covering the engine-bay up once again. The cameramen really seemed to like this part.




Rolling in the slicks.



Jacking it up to remove the stands from under the car.




Check out that wheelbase.




The car, all built up as it will be seen on Sunday.




The RB Team.




Whats missing? DC!





Here's a timelapse video of the whole process shown above :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI30R..._order&list=UL

[Rehaan]

A closer look at the parts of the car...


The protrusion for the tail light also serves as a jack-up point (as seen in earlier pics)




Carbon fiber composite brake discs and pads. Unlike on the race-car, the ones on the show car are not changed too frequently. Look at how thick the pads are!
The box on the right has a vent in front and allows air to flow in and cool the discs.




Some people might have thought "DC driving an F1 car on the Sea-Link" meant Dilip Chhabria? I think this picture clears it up.




The amazing thing about the rear wing and all the down-force is that it is held on by just two socket head cap screws (SHCSs) on each side! Take a close look.




Front splitter with an exposed carbon fiber lip




The nose cone




Here you can clearly see the air-intake for the front discs




CF suspension arms. Hopefully Mumbai roads will be friendly to them




Sensors on the exhaust feeding back to the ECU




The actual steering wheel -- due to the electronics and $value of this steering wheel, the car has a dummy steering wheel on while it is being transported.




Crazy rear suspension -- i'm afraid someone else is going to have to explain this one




At the top-center of the image is the engine air intake which faces forwards above the drivers helmet. (The top of the airbox is currently removed.)
A large air filter takes up the entire floor space of the airbox, below the filter is the intake trumpets.




Now that the filter has been removed, 5 pairs of carbon fiber intake trumpets peep out. (Its a V10!)
Notice the individual fuel injectors positioned perfectly above each trumpet. They all share a fuel rail.




5-1 exhaust. Notice the huge diameter of the pipes on this 3L V10.




I guess this answers it, from the pinnacle of motorsport -- a little surface rust can be considered normal, depending on the composition of the metal used.




Muffler? Who invented that? Surely not a trickle-down technology from F1!




Now this is a cool one! I noticed a strange make-shift basket in each of the air ducts. I asked one of the RB crew what it was about.
He said that they fill these baskets with dry ice during their show runs, since the car is mostly doing slower speeds and there isn't enough high-speed air flowing through the ducts and onto the radiator.
(For those who aren't familiar with dry ice, it sublimes, causing a cooling effect link).

[Rehaan]

A quick chat with a Red Bull engineer :

We got a chance to have a quick informal chat with Billy from the RB team.
He has been working as an engineer on the racing side of things for about 12 years, and very recently joined the Red Bull Show team. I guess you could say its his retirement plan. Cool guy.

Here's the man :



There is some confusion as to exactly which year car this is...?
This car was raced at the end of 2006, but when it was converted to a show car we added bits of RB1, RB2, RB3 and RB4!

The gearbox and back end is off the RB1, the chassis is RB2, some of the bodywork is RB3, it’s a mix and match.
We started when the RB3 was being raced in F1, but we couldn’t have a current car, so we used an RB2 and then we made it look like an RB3. Then RB4 came, and we took bits off RB3 to make it look like RB4.


Any parts from the RB5 car that is currently being raced in F1?
We haven’t had the time to do that because the car has been out for most of the year. But next year, it will be an RB5 – which will look just like this years RB5 with the wide front wing etc – even though on the inside it will be pretty much the same car, engine, gearbox that we are currently running.


Does this car have traction control?
Full traction control and all the bells and whistles.


When you move up to a newer platform, are you likely to NOT have driver aids, as per the rules of that year?
For show cars, its probably safest to have all that stuff – and we can stick whatever we want in our show car as it is kind of a “hybrid” anyway.


How often do you change the engine ?
We don’t. Not unless they break it. The engine is good for about 1,500km and because they don’t race it, there isn’t too much load as it is not working very hard. We take the engine out at the factory and have a look at it every so often – but it takes about an hour just to remove it.
(Hmmm, so 3 races equates to about 1500km of less aggressive driving!)


What about changing things like piston rings etc?
It’ll be done roughly every year.


What spares does the event team carry with them?
Spare engine, spare gearbox, spare bodywork - pretty much everything!


Any particular concerns on the Indian conditions?
Eh, its ok. We’ve run in Bahrain, Malaysia – countries with similar weather, so the humidity and such is not much of a problem – we just change the mapping on the car to suit it.


Have you guys seen the “track” ie the Bandra Worli Sea-Link?
I haven’t, but the team manager has. He usually comes in a week or two earlier to do some research.


Mileage kitna milta hain? Aur gaadi showroom mein kab ayega?
-no comment-



Okay, just kidding about the last one, but i do hope i have got everything else across correctly!

[Rehaan]

A look at the various equipment and tools used by the Red Bull show team :



Some cool stickering on most of their equipment.




I was very intrigued by this particular round device on the side of a large toolbox. Perhaps something to do with axles?
Well, it turns out that its nothing more than a paper tissue dispenser!! ...and the square opening is the trash can.




This thing must come in handy with the frequent oil-changes.




Here's the external starter motor (to save weight in the car)
It is inserted at the rear of the car and spins up the engine.




Video recorders for the 3 on-board video cameras (recording at 720p i believe)
Will we have ON-BOARD footage of DC racing across the Sealink? YOU BET!!!




Overkill? Even the end of the jack is carbon fibre!!
(This is the part that goes below the tail-light protrusion)




From home garage to F1 team. Everybody has one of these ever useful cans.




Yikes -- anyone remember Spygate?




Zip-ties are used a lot for the show car as well as the race car.
The cameras as well as the wiring looms running all across the length of the car are fastened with these simple marvels of engineering.




Tyre equipment - generator, compressor and rollable tanks. Plus a stack of slicks...!




Are you wondering where all of this goes when they travel?
About 6+ huge boxes like this, filled to the brim. Notice the cool ramp for the rollable tool drawers.

[Rehaan]

F1 Tyres :


This pile of rubber should last a lot longer than one (race) weekend, since the car will not be pushing itself as hard and as long as when on track.
What about all those donuts for the crowd though?




13" OZ Racing rims. How light are the combo? Well, I saw a guy carrying two! One in each hand.




Front rain tyre




Rear rain tyre




Stick-on weights for wheel balancing!




Front (narrower) rain tyre. Luckily i don't think we'll be needing this set on Sunday.




Notice the similar tread pattern with an additional two/three bands in the center, as compared to the front tyre.




Here's what a collection of deflated rain tyres look like.




Thats all for now folks!

Special thanks to Ported_Head for manning one camera, as well as a special anthropoid who made a guest appearance and brought up some interesting observations.

[bottle]

Nice report, Thanks!

[redfire]

The biggest F1 "internals" I have ever seen. Great pics and reports. Thanks for sharing.

PS: In the 14th pic of first post (the pic from rear of the car), I am sure you meant width of the wheel or track. Got confused with the Wheelbase actually.

[simply_sunny001]

Awesome job Rehaan,

Very very informative and crisp report covering each part with details.

way to go T-BHP, will be waiting for the report & videos of the run.

cheers

[aah78]

Wow - what an amazingly detailed report and pictures, Rehaan and ported!

Very impressive!
The close-up sectional views are to die for. I'm hooked!

I can only imagine what it must be like to see an F1 car being assembled in person but the pictures give a very good idea of what to expect.

Lucky fellas.

[Dippy]

Fantastic report and pictorial Rehaan and ported. Its so amazing to see what goes on behind the scenes in F1 and you guys had a first hand experience. The level of detailing is mind blowing.

[dkhatau]

very nice report rehaan. thanks.

[muralisk]

This is truly awesome and Rehaan, you had captured quite a lot here. We did see the Toyota car at our Infy campus last year, but it was brought in finished state. Haven't got a chance to see how it is put together. This is nice.

[hillram]

Awesome review and pics of the Red Bull Car.Reminds of a real GP taking place in Mumbai on Sunday.
Mumbaikars you sure are lucky and do carry some St.Patrick's Cross (Scottish Flags) !!!!

[im_srini]

Very cool set of pics I can't believe how low the engine's situated in the car , and it's a 72 degree V10 to boot !

The rear suspension is cool too, especially the upper wishbones & the way they're attached to the transmission. The wheel hubs look very complicated.

The RB1 ran Cosworth V10s, the RB2 ran Ferrari V8s, if the show car's indeed a RB2 (2006) with a Cosworth V10, the extent to which parts from the RB1 & RB2 can be switched is amazing.

P.S. Any pics of the foot-well & pedals ?

[Rehaan]

Thanks guys.

Originally Posted by redfire

...The biggest F1 "internals" I have ever seen...

Not sure what you meant by this redfire?

Originally Posted by redfire

...PS: In the 14th pic of first post (the pic from rear of the car), I am sure you meant width of the wheel or track. Got confused with the Wheelbase actually.

Nope, i meant wheelbase (distance between front and rear wheels). Ofcourse in that picture the lens has exaggerated it slightly, but its still interesting to note the ratio between the track and the wheelbase on an F1 as opposed to other streetcars and racecars.

Originally Posted by im_srini

....and it's a 72 degree V10 to boot !

I think it is a 90* V. It sure is a mix and match, so i am just relaying the information that i have been provided with. Will upload those specs shortly.

Originally Posted by im_srini

....the extent to which parts from the RB1 & RB2 can be switched is amazing.

P.S. Any pics of the foot-well & pedals ?

I was pretty surprised at the apparent ease of interchangeability too, especially with the use of carbon fiber, since you cant just drill a hole, bend a piece or weld two parts together like you would with metal.

Sorry, did not manage a picture of the foot-well. Will try to get one for you on Saturday.

cya
R