Apparently this is a new thing for the UK Top Gear show - they run cars through a two mile long underground tunnel. This video is of a BRM V16, which in my opinion was the coolest sounding race car ever. There's an explanation of the tunnel on the Top Gear website, it's an old railroad tunnel that's been renovated for high speed car testing. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/big-reads/sound-underground-welcome-top-gear-tunnel-run
The best motorsports sound I've heard is older F1 cars on tracks lined with trees, where you can hear they driving off, the sound echoing off the trees. It's simply... what, ethereal.
a show that got canceled because a host got hurt in a motorsport accident says "lets run 50+ year old F1 cars sans safety equipment down a narrow tunnel for multiple miles... "
what can possibly go wrong
Kudos to their directors and DPs and lighting designers for making this look gorgeous, but I can't help but thinking there are so many other cool things you could do with a tunnel besides take pretty pictures. Like, that seems like the perfect opportunity for dynamic aero testing. it's basically a rolling road wind tunnel with an actual rolling road.
My favorite is the Audi S1, so far
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
That's exactly what that tunnel is now for, Multimatic turned it into a test center.
There is one closer, in central Pennsylvania. However it is not a available commercially/practically. I think it is technically available three days a year (Thanksgiving day, Christmas eve, and New years day). I have tested there and it has benefits and compromises to a proper wind tunnel.
It does allow for some amazing sounds though.
Makes me want to fire up the big stereo system, grab a bottle of single malt and get an incense burner, eyedropper and a flask of Castrol R to drip on it!
stafford1500 said:There is one closer, in central Pennsylvania. However it is not a available commercially/practically. I think it is technically available three days a year (Thanksgiving day, Christmas eve, and New years day). I have tested there and it has benefits and compromises to a proper wind tunnel.
It does allow for some amazing sounds though.
That's the one owned by Chip Ganassi Racing, it's called the Laurel Hill Tunnel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Hill_Tunnel
There was an article in Magneto magazine about those V16s.
Apparently there's a company making new parts for them and managing to make them reliable. IIRC, the trick is running them on some witches brew mixture of acetone and race fuel.
ShawnG said:There was an article in Magneto magazine about those V16s.
Apparently there's a company making new parts for them and managing to make them reliable. IIRC, the trick is running them on some witches brew mixture of acetone and race fuel.
600 hp from 1.5 Litre displacement ?
Yeah, that's going to require a special brew
^ in the early 1950s! Sure F1 in the mid-1980s put out double that (and the BMWs a bit more...), but in the fifties,that was epic.
And on 7 inch wide bias ply tyres.
ShawnG said:There was an article in Magneto magazine about those V16s.
Apparently there's a company making new parts for them and managing to make them reliable. IIRC, the trick is running them on some witches brew mixture of acetone and race fuel.
The one in the video is completely new construction, built to original specifications. They say there are two of them built so far, with plans to build a third one (if someone with deep pockets steps forward.)
You'll need to log in to post.
