BAR-Honda's gearbox

Where did you see that it was illegal?

I know their front torsion transfer unit is illegal. It would transfer torque from the outside wheel to the inside (in a turn) to allow the driver to brake better. The outside tire when turning into a turn will load up more than the inside as the weight shifts. The outside brake has to work harder to decelerate the wheel. This is why you often see drivers locking up the inside tire while braking and turning in. Their system transferred some of that torque to the inside wheel/brake and allowed it to take up some of the work. I think they said it was a driver aid.

I'm not sure how effective it was. Good Idea though. I also don't know if the extra weight from the unit that high up on the nose eliminated performance in other areas to offset the gains in braking. Everything on a race car is a compromise of some sort.

 

Thanks!


Personally I think that sucks. The driver would still be selecting gears as he does now. There just wouldn't be any break in power to from one gear to the other. It's a tremendous leap forward as far as performance goes and could have been a big advantage over other teams. I thought F1 was supposed to be a bed of innovation?

If Ferrari had come up with this box do you think it would be being banned?

 

Wonder if they were using that zeroshift chap's technology? He posted here about a year ago.

 

Is that the one in the Race Car Engineering article currently being tested in a TVR? That truly is a new revolution. I'm not sure if this is the same though.

If it is the same cost would not be a factor for banning this device as it's just some replacement parts on a standard gearbox.

 

I would hope that new and innovative parts and ideas are not going to be banned because of costs alone. Maybe the gearbox worked too much like an automatic gearbox, which has been banned, I believe, to keep the driver in control of the car. Maybe Honda will appeal like they did with the front differential torque thing, they won that appeal.

Even though I have always been a Ferrari F1 fan it is nice to see a team taking chances and pushing the envelope to bring the fight to Ferrari.

 

It could be along the lines of the new Audi gearbox ... thus production car technology again moves further passed race car technology.

I think we need to find out why it has been banned ... otherwise we are simply wasting time discussing it!

It would not have been banned on cost ... after Ferrari and McLaren probably spend more developing a traditional gearbox than all the other teams put together!

Pete