Let's play the numb3rs game...
Gosh, I can't believe how long it has been since my last post. To be exact, it has been 7 weeks and 5 days. A lot has happened within this time period. I moved house for the 4th time in less than 2 years. I took a 2 and a half week holiday to go back to my home town in Malaysia, and saw my lovely wife again after 3 months being apart. We went for our 2nd honeymoon to Pangkor Island which lasted for 4 days and 3 nights, and had so much fun.
The trip to the island was 2 and a half hours by car and 40 minutes on a boat. I drove my father in law's E36 318 Beemer, and I revved up the engine naughtily up to 5500rpms before changing gear, which felt rather pleasant. (Give me a break, I was yearning to do that for so long now. I can only go upto 3500rpms on my old banger, any higher, then "Hello Mr. AA...I need a ride!"). On the island, we spent most of our time in the hotel room (obviously!!!), had a dip in the sea, played 3 rounds of pool, which I won 2-1 (obviously that one game that she won was because I let her win!) and ate very expensive hotel food.
Within those 7 weeks also, 3 F1 races were completed. Bahrain, Malaysia and Australia. Alonso won in Bahrain and Melbourne, and his team mate, Fisichella won in Malaysia. This gave Renault a brilliant start to the season with 42 ponts in the constructors championship. Mclaren in 2nd place with 23 points, and Ferrari in 3rd with 14.
I love playing with numbers, it puts everything in context. It gives an alternative view to the things happening around me.
Continuing to play with numbers, here are some remarkable facts and figures that I find unbelieveable. The now defunct BMW 3litre V10 engine for last year's F1 GP gave out 904bhp. 904!!! That means it splashes out 300hp per litre! Putting that into context, a good stock OEM engine is designed to have atleast 70hp per litre. Force induction means another 30 odd or so ontop. That gives 100hp per litre.
Still playing with numbers, the MP4-21, the 2006 Mclaren F1 car goes 0-100mph in 3.6 seconds. That's impressive I hear you say? Well, the most impressive fact is the breaking capabilities of that car, 100mph to complete standstill in a mere 3 seconds! From 185mph, hitting the brakes real hard would go to 0 in 3.5 seconds! But wait till you hear this. John Force, a crazy American racing team owner, with his Funny Car, clocked 0-100 in 0.8 seconds!!! Man, that is just plain unbelieveable. Here are a few more figures that I find interesting.
1. With a max speed of 252mph or 400kph or 370ft/s, the Bugatti Veyron is the fastest road car ever.
2. The Veyron has a 8litre W16 Quad-Turbo engine that spits out 3000hp. But due to thermal dissipation, 2000hp is lost to the atmosphere, and only 1000hp would be transferred by the tires to the road.
3. The Veyron is also the most expensive OEM production car at £810,000. 2 cars come 2nd. With £300,000 you can get either the SLR Mclaren Mercedes or the Porsche Carrera GT.
4. The 1st time someone tried to achieve the highest possible speed was in 1898, when Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat of France manage to get a speed of 39.24mph. About 100 years later, in 1997, the highest land vehicle speed ever was achieved at 763.035mph (!!!). This was done by a bloke called Andy Green.
5. The 1st time someone reached 3 figures was in 1904, when Louis Rigolly reached a speed in excess of 100mph.
6. On a more sour note, in 2003 in America, 17,013 people died due to alcohol related accidents. That's at a rate of 1 death every 30 minutes!
7. In 1915, 55% of the number of cars worldwide were the Model T Fords. This record still holds until today.
8. Last but not least, the 1st ever speed limit regulated was in England in 1903. The speed limit was at 20mph. Hehe this one's a bit funny.
I love playing with numbers, it puts everyhing in context. It gives an alternative view to the things happening around me. Most importantly, it also makes these 4 months before I can see my wife again seem a bit more bearable. I guess I'd just be counting down the days then... I can't wait to see her again... god, I miss her so much!
The trip to the island was 2 and a half hours by car and 40 minutes on a boat. I drove my father in law's E36 318 Beemer, and I revved up the engine naughtily up to 5500rpms before changing gear, which felt rather pleasant. (Give me a break, I was yearning to do that for so long now. I can only go upto 3500rpms on my old banger, any higher, then "Hello Mr. AA...I need a ride!"). On the island, we spent most of our time in the hotel room (obviously!!!), had a dip in the sea, played 3 rounds of pool, which I won 2-1 (obviously that one game that she won was because I let her win!) and ate very expensive hotel food.
Within those 7 weeks also, 3 F1 races were completed. Bahrain, Malaysia and Australia. Alonso won in Bahrain and Melbourne, and his team mate, Fisichella won in Malaysia. This gave Renault a brilliant start to the season with 42 ponts in the constructors championship. Mclaren in 2nd place with 23 points, and Ferrari in 3rd with 14.
I love playing with numbers, it puts everything in context. It gives an alternative view to the things happening around me.
Continuing to play with numbers, here are some remarkable facts and figures that I find unbelieveable. The now defunct BMW 3litre V10 engine for last year's F1 GP gave out 904bhp. 904!!! That means it splashes out 300hp per litre! Putting that into context, a good stock OEM engine is designed to have atleast 70hp per litre. Force induction means another 30 odd or so ontop. That gives 100hp per litre.
Still playing with numbers, the MP4-21, the 2006 Mclaren F1 car goes 0-100mph in 3.6 seconds. That's impressive I hear you say? Well, the most impressive fact is the breaking capabilities of that car, 100mph to complete standstill in a mere 3 seconds! From 185mph, hitting the brakes real hard would go to 0 in 3.5 seconds! But wait till you hear this. John Force, a crazy American racing team owner, with his Funny Car, clocked 0-100 in 0.8 seconds!!! Man, that is just plain unbelieveable. Here are a few more figures that I find interesting.
1. With a max speed of 252mph or 400kph or 370ft/s, the Bugatti Veyron is the fastest road car ever.
2. The Veyron has a 8litre W16 Quad-Turbo engine that spits out 3000hp. But due to thermal dissipation, 2000hp is lost to the atmosphere, and only 1000hp would be transferred by the tires to the road.
3. The Veyron is also the most expensive OEM production car at £810,000. 2 cars come 2nd. With £300,000 you can get either the SLR Mclaren Mercedes or the Porsche Carrera GT.
4. The 1st time someone tried to achieve the highest possible speed was in 1898, when Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat of France manage to get a speed of 39.24mph. About 100 years later, in 1997, the highest land vehicle speed ever was achieved at 763.035mph (!!!). This was done by a bloke called Andy Green.
5. The 1st time someone reached 3 figures was in 1904, when Louis Rigolly reached a speed in excess of 100mph.
6. On a more sour note, in 2003 in America, 17,013 people died due to alcohol related accidents. That's at a rate of 1 death every 30 minutes!
7. In 1915, 55% of the number of cars worldwide were the Model T Fords. This record still holds until today.
8. Last but not least, the 1st ever speed limit regulated was in England in 1903. The speed limit was at 20mph. Hehe this one's a bit funny.
I love playing with numbers, it puts everyhing in context. It gives an alternative view to the things happening around me. Most importantly, it also makes these 4 months before I can see my wife again seem a bit more bearable. I guess I'd just be counting down the days then... I can't wait to see her again... god, I miss her so much!
posted by Speed Junkie at 8:32 pm
2 comments
