- 28 Nov 10, 12:03#227604
As a not very regular contributer to this forum and on a cold Sunday night I though I'd share with a bunch of strangers why I started following F1 so religiously and why some of you might, maybe, be interested in the form of racing I'm involved with.
After having a little experience in carting at a young age and as a cyclist, the sport that I attribute my keen interest in F1 is HPV racing. Basically, a HPV, or Human Powered Vehicle, is a 3 wheeled recumbent trike (bike with 3 wheels) that is ridden by a team of 8 riders over the duration on between 6 and 24 hours, depending on the event or race length.
This vehicle is not actually one of the ones I've raced, however gives you a fair indication of how the rider potions themselves in the vehicle while pedaling.
These vehicles are built while at school as part of the schools curriculum, with many students wanting to become engineers or involved in motor sport taking part. The programs usually involve all areas of the curriculum ie. English, Science, Maths, etc etc as teams need everything from sponsorship letters to raise money to design and produce vehicles (using carbon fibre, kevlar, etc) right through to having a team website. Many past participants have gone on to study motor sport engineering here in Australia, with a number of these people landing jobs in the Australian Rally Championship, V8 Supercar series and more importantly, F1.
The vehicles themselves are designed on CAD programs with the hope of producing the most aerodynamic shape possible and are constructed using lightweight materials such as carbon fibre, Kevlar, fiberglass and chrome molly aircraft tubing, resulting in a vehicle that ways round 20kgs meaning less weight for the rider to push around the track. An estimated cost of each vehicle is around $5,000.
In a 24 hour race, leading teams will aim to complete 1,000 kms, and reach speeds of around 80 km/h on the tight, twisty circuits raced on. After finding a straight piece of road and altering the gearing in the vehicle, I have personally reached 97 km/h in a straight line, powered solely by my own legs.
I've attached some photos, but basically the point of this post is to see if anybody else around the world is involved in any similar sports that relate to F1, or if it is predominantly carting that people are involved with.
After an injury lately playing football (soccer) I've been unable to ride in these endurance races however still love the 'sport' and would highly recomend it to anybody that loves a challenge, pushing their body to breaking point or simply technically minded.
After having a little experience in carting at a young age and as a cyclist, the sport that I attribute my keen interest in F1 is HPV racing. Basically, a HPV, or Human Powered Vehicle, is a 3 wheeled recumbent trike (bike with 3 wheels) that is ridden by a team of 8 riders over the duration on between 6 and 24 hours, depending on the event or race length.
This vehicle is not actually one of the ones I've raced, however gives you a fair indication of how the rider potions themselves in the vehicle while pedaling.
These vehicles are built while at school as part of the schools curriculum, with many students wanting to become engineers or involved in motor sport taking part. The programs usually involve all areas of the curriculum ie. English, Science, Maths, etc etc as teams need everything from sponsorship letters to raise money to design and produce vehicles (using carbon fibre, kevlar, etc) right through to having a team website. Many past participants have gone on to study motor sport engineering here in Australia, with a number of these people landing jobs in the Australian Rally Championship, V8 Supercar series and more importantly, F1.
The vehicles themselves are designed on CAD programs with the hope of producing the most aerodynamic shape possible and are constructed using lightweight materials such as carbon fibre, Kevlar, fiberglass and chrome molly aircraft tubing, resulting in a vehicle that ways round 20kgs meaning less weight for the rider to push around the track. An estimated cost of each vehicle is around $5,000.
In a 24 hour race, leading teams will aim to complete 1,000 kms, and reach speeds of around 80 km/h on the tight, twisty circuits raced on. After finding a straight piece of road and altering the gearing in the vehicle, I have personally reached 97 km/h in a straight line, powered solely by my own legs.
I've attached some photos, but basically the point of this post is to see if anybody else around the world is involved in any similar sports that relate to F1, or if it is predominantly carting that people are involved with.
After an injury lately playing football (soccer) I've been unable to ride in these endurance races however still love the 'sport' and would highly recomend it to anybody that loves a challenge, pushing their body to breaking point or simply technically minded.
Red Bull Racing. Wish I had wings.
But I was exactly hooked. 