Fastest possible car

Given essentially unlimited budget and access to the best designers and engineers: what would the final car be, the absolute "fastest possible" car for track use, e.g. on a F-1 or similar track?

Assume no rules or constraints whatsoever.

What is "the best" we humans can do?

 

LMP1

 

Indy Car....rules have limited the potential. But in fairness......drivers would be scattered all over if allowed unlimited rules.

 

current P1 (with 1500+ bhp) are still 10 seconds a lap slower around the same track than F1 (Silverstone at least). hopefully over the course of the year we'll get multiple data points.

I think the answer is something open wheel; hard to say what the final formula would look like, since both F1 and Indycars have been neutered by rules for the last decade.

 

10 second in race trim or qualifying trim. Lotterer was only 5.5 seconds off Hamiltons 2014 fastest lap.

It's an impossible question to answer because your taking away any variable. It's whatever you can imagine. A fusion powered Indy car with magnetic braking capable of stopping itself based on the Armco barriers. 0-200 in 1 second and 200-0 in 2 seconds.

 

quick and dirty search for the pole time from this year (1:49 for LMP1) and last year (1:29 for F1)

not surprising F1 race laps are that much slower, given full fuel load and tire management going on in F1 these days.

 

at COTA, track records (again in qualy) are 1:39 for F1 (V8 Red Bull from 2012) and 1:47 for LMP1 in 2013.

 

Here is the Audi R18 TDI e-tron quattro testing at Monza with its low drag set up.

Now, we know from what we saw at Silverstone that the Porsches are going to be blindly
fast on the straights but the Audi doesn't look very bad either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGXCIw96-N0

BHW

 

no chicane

 

One of the mags did a story on this few yrs back. Asked major race designers,.engineers, etc what could they come up with. Was basically a fighter plane on track where driver needed a g suit and tracks went upside down. Pretty crazy stuff like a video game

 

Porsche still has an achilles heal.....reliability. Hopefully better this year.

 

Anything with Hillary Clinton chasing it?

 

The Redbull X
Red Bull X2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Depends on the track. I think an LMP1 would lap much faster around la Sarthe than a modern F1 car.

 

probably, as P1s are basically designed for that circuit given the horsepower advantage they have, and that modern F1 cars have fixed gearing, I would assume the P1 would win out at La Sarthe....but that's one of a very small number of tracks where I'd give them the advantage.

 

Full Nurburgring as well. Picking up on the trend yet?

 

actually I disagree with full 'Ring, I think F1 would still be faster there.

 

I agree except need to dump the engine & install a nice jet engine
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Thank Jim Hall. We always return to from which we started.

 

Is there a right answer to this "question"?

F1 isn't the ultimate in technology so it's tough to envision what would be possible. Many of the constraints in motorsport now are pretty archaic (like the displacement limits).

I don't think there will ever be a way to figure out what the limit is. Technology moves in accordance with profit and corporate wealth. It is no longer pure innovation...only progress for the sake of profit.

Who knows?

I'd bet on an X15 with two attached bicycle wheels just barely touching the ground! Or a 917-30 with modern tires...

 

1) Huge power. Figure 2000 HP probably attainable still in a small enough package.
2) Active, adjustable downforce (powered vacuum + highly movable wings)
3) Airbrakes + regular brakes + KERS type system
4) Computer aided everything. Traction control, stability control, ABS, active suspension, active differentials, active adjustable aerodynamics, etc.
5) Outside the box: some sort of computer controlled active thrust control system in addition to regular engine. Imagine a powerful rocket motor with 360 degree vectored thrust capability...could add forward thrust while accelerating, reverse thrust for braking, and radial thrust towards the inside of a corner to offset centripetal cornering forces. Question is would the added performance be worth the added weight?

 

All this, but start by removing the 200 pounds of unnecessary ballast (the driver) and all of his associated life support (manual controls, air conditioning, drag-inducing windshield, safety cell, etc.). That also relieves the artificial constraints on G loads.

Make all systems active/dynamic: aero, suspension, braking, vectored thrust. The best thrust vector component is vertical to increase mechanical grip.

Given unlimited resources, then developing the computers, algorithms, and data sets needed to drive the car are no longer problems; just processes to be executed.