hey guys, I am giving a persuasive speech on why to watch a formula 1 race or atleast acknowledge it.

I want to do a section on all of the technologies that have been put into actual production cars.

*sport shifting (BMW, Ferrari, some others)
*stablity control

what are some others that I am leaving out, I know there are a lot more. TIA

 

Do some research into their valve train technology. Now that's where you'll be amazed but you audience might not get it.

 

all of the computer technology... Even though this year it is out lawed they could fix some problems last year with the car driving on the track from the pits...

 

audience is a factor. only 6ppl in the class have seen any part of a race. and the instructor didn't even now what it was.


What about brake systems

 

Why focus only on technology as a way to persuade people to watch the race? I would mention technology (don't forget tires), but also history, tradition, passion, pagentry, worldwide appeal, sponsorships, etc. More likely to tell the whole story and reach more people that way...

 

yes, technology is only one section of the speech. I am going to move through as many aspects of formula one as I can do in my alotted 6-8 min. I just wanted some ppl to see where there stuff comes from.

 

Slap in "Formula 1 history" into Google and you'd be amazed what you gonna find...

Perhaps the most interesting F1 historical stuff is the now banned technology. Be sure to research the "Turbo Era" in the 1980's. 1.5 liter, 1500hp monsters...The ground effects era from late 70's to early 80s and of course the active suspensions of the early 90s... Imagine how much faster the already insanely fast F1 cars would be if all this stuff was allowed with today's technology. Scaaaary...

 

didn't v-tec (and various vvt technologies) start in F1?

 

I do believe you're correct about Variable Valve Timing starting in F1.

Also mention, to get their attention, that Michael Schumacher is the highest paid athlete in the world today...Not a Micheal Jordon or a Tiger Woods.

AJ

 

Bring in a clip to show the rest of the class, the sound of the engines should captivate them. Then go into the history stepwise: early( ie., toleman cars, fangio, ascari, nuvolari, the groundwork for the FIA, etc) then the 70's (ie., turbo era gilles, jackie stewart, racing on the nordischlief, how BMW used old and used 2002i block for the f1 engines, etc.); and contemporary (i.e., senna, the new tech regulations, the new stats, the preformance, etc.) I think if you build up to a realization for your audience as just how large F1 is, it'll interest them, and maybe make them want to research it further.

The older periods aren't all that interesting technologically; although the thought of those supercharged lead buckets stampeding around Monza, and driver wearing "googles" as protetction is cool, it's not all together awe inspiring. But you can reference it to point out the tremendous eveolution that the sport has seen, etc.

Currently F1 is propbably the biggest sport (global) next to soccer (proper football), and will only grow domestically w/ the siging of a 5yr deal w/ budweiser & williams.

Just touch on some of the above, and you should be fine. Try not to get too techy, or you'll lose the audience; most people can't "get" pneumatic valve acuation, nor can distinguish b/w a auto and clutchless gearbox.

 

it is very sad that not much people are into the "tech" part of F1.
sponsor can't even name how many cylinder of F1 engine are. too high tech that normal people can't even imagine. if you open up a Ferrari gear box, its like a 20k hand made watch. do any one care? yes, but very few.

 

look up the "sapphire crystal" optical combustion chamber run by Shell for Ferrari on google. They actually can visualize the flame propagation during a combustion stroke through the cylinder. The cylinder itself is all see though and sapphire crystal can withstand 800 degrees C. F1 rules mandates that 99% of the formulation of the racing fuel used by the team is part of the production street car formula. They're only allowed 1% to play with (mostly octane rating). They can get data from the flame propagation to test different formulations which end up in our pump gas....

 

also the bimmer engine is has the record for revs on that layout of an engine 19500 last year

 

traction control

launch control

anti-lock brakes

airbags

rear view mirrors

stability control


many more but they wont be suitable for a lay audience

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Aahj &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I do believe you're correct about Variable Valve Timing starting in F1.

Also mention, to get their attention, that Michael Schumacher is the highest paid athlete in the world today...Not a Micheal Jordon or a Tiger Woods.

AJ</TD></TR></TABLE>

Over the past 5 years (this was reported in Sept 2002), Schumacher has made $248 million.

Michael Jordan has made $260.3 million but his current earnings have decreased greatly.

Woods made $221 mil from 1998 to Sept 2002.

Wow.

http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/....html

 

Those figures probably aren't just what the athlete is paid, it's what they earn from endorsements, etc too. I'm pretty sure Schumacher is the highest *paid* athlete.