McLaren dashboard comes to RunKeeper March 17, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology, What I learned today , add a commentRUNKEEPER seems to have now done it – installed live tracking so joggers can stream what McLaren F1 now streams!
On Sunday, I ran the Silverstone Half Marathon. The RunKeeper profile this generated at the end is staggeringly fascinating for running geeks like me. And those who like to see wiggly maps of F1 GP circuits (like me again, then).
What I was trying to do, though, was let people watch my run live. When I started, they would see my GPS plot, and then track my pained progress as I hobbled around the course.
Alas, the functionality wasn’t quite there: the report was only generated once I’d finished.
Would you believe, 2 days later, RunKeeper launches this exact facility! This video explains all: more briefly though, it basically does what the genius McLaren dashboard does.
Sure, my runs are waaaay less interesting than a F1 car in action – but it’s still a really cool feature that YOU can integrate into YOUR fitness schedule.
So, if you were wowed by the McLaren F1 dashboard over the weekend, now’s your opportunity to do the same. Next event I run, I’ll be sure to try it out…
McLaren F1 dashboard on the cheap
McLaren F1 dashboard on the cheap March 13, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport, Technology , 1 comment so farF1 cars round Silverstone are being replaced for one weekend, by a few thousand bats people.
Among the throngs will be yours truly: yep, I’m entering the Silverstone Half Marathon.
Inconvenient, this, in so many ways – such as, for example, the fact I will probably fall apart by the end of it. Chief inconvenience, though, is the start time of the race. 12 noon.
Yes! Not only is it on the same day as the 1st F1 race of 2010, it is on at the same time. Groan. My only vain hope is that the good men of the BRDC pipe out the race through the race commentator speakers.
Here’s something, though: thanks to McLaren’s brilliant race dashboard, F1 has gone all ubertech for 2010. It’s now possible to track JB and Lewis in Real Time – see where they are, how fast they’re going, all sorts of stuff. This got me thinking…
… who fancies tracking my pained progress tomorrow? If you’ve got the computer up for the F1, maybe you could also pop open a window to check I don’t keel over en route?
Via the magic of Runkeeper, you’ll (hopefully) be able to do this.
I’ll be strapping the iPhone to my arm and, as the lights go out bloke with an air horn honks, I’ll press ‘go’. For, my lo-fi version of the McLaren F1 dashboard, on foot!
May work, may not… just in case, I’ll be posting updates on my blog while I’m not in action, checking on via Foursquare and Tweeting on the canny #f1silverstonerun.
About a billion people entered this last year, so I am in a small way looking forward to it. Mostly though, I’m dreading it. Share in my pain tomorrow, if you fancy a giggle…
View Silverstone from up on high!
I’m not the only one running – and so far, DealDrivers’ John has raised £750!
Richard Branson’s Virgin F1 (Teenage) Fanclub March 5, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Motorsport , add a commentVirgin boss Richard Branson takes to the F1 grid for the first time this year with his own racing team.
But it’s not the first time ‘his’ cars have been ‘in’ F1.
This, as you may suspect, is slightly tenuous. But for Indie/F1/car geeks such as, well, me, it’s curiously neat. And goes like this:
• Teenage Fanclub released a 1994 album called Grand Prix
• On the cover was a shot of a contemporary 1994 F1 racer
• That car was a Simtek
• Boss of the Simtek F1 team was Nick Wirth
• Nick Wirth now runs Wirth Research
• Wirth Research designed the new Virgin F1 racer
It may be a new team, but there’s heritage in that there Virgin setup, not to mention a good dose of jangly guitar musical brilliance. Sort of.
Question is, can you come up with a more brilliantly tenuous link between something random and F1 racing?
Motorsport and Twitter aim for Groundswell
Another most amazing save of 2009
Motorsport and Twitter aim for Groundswell February 7, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport, What I learned today , 4commentsTWITTER as a networking tool is developing fast. Once again, I found out how useful it can be this week.
Trusty ol’ twhirl lit up green one morning: an @ reply to a Tweet! Exciting – particularly as it was from someone I didn’t know.
@JoshBensonGV picked up on some random price list musing I was Tweeting – that Volvo only fits heated seats as standard to the sportlich R-Design variant of XC60 compact SUV – with a smiley ribbing.
Smiley back from me: but who was this chap? Turns out, he’s a Brit FFord racer, who’s using social media in some very canny ways.
Typically, being British, he has little money to go racing. Typically, too, he’s pretty good. Just as Anthony Davidson should be in an F1 seat*, Benson’s stats show a fair turn of speed when he’s actually able to race.
So, he’s solving his cash quandary by being innovative. With the aid of Lesley at oneplusonemarketing, he wants to do for motorsport what the Arctic Monkeys and MySpace did for music.
Namely, create a Groundswell. Become the people’s driver. Gain a following, a community – level the playing field, ensure that talent gets you the seat, rather than the plain power of the corporate dollar.
‘The control of what we hear is over,’ reckons Lesley. The motorsport intent here is similar: to enable the good guys, who just so happen to be pretty good, get their chance.
Things hopefully kick off for Benson on 1 April up at God’s own motorsport garden, Oulton Park. I’ll try to be there – but, even if I’m not, Twitter will mean I’m as good as.
It’s certainly one for us social media devotees to follow. Now, who’s going to be the first to develop a motorsport section for MySpace?
* Little Ant may not be in an F1 seat, but if we’re being selfish, we can say he’s doing something even better: once again pairing up with Crofty on 5Live. They cover pretty much all the track action of F1 throughout the weekend, for the commentary pairing of your dreams. Tune in, stream it, podcast it, Tweet it, do anything to listen when the racing kicks off in Bahrain. It’s brilliant.
F1 takes to the road September 27, 2009
Posted by richard in : Motorsport , 2commentsDriving to work every day – well, it’s just like being an F1 driver, isn’t it.
Hmm. Not something you’d normally think on the commute around the Wolverhampton Ring Road. But really, take out the glamour and the grid girls, and the two processes are very similar.
See, even if you’re Lewis Hamilton, what you actually want is not to get the tail out each and every time, catching it with an act of God (and do check out 0.50 and 1.30 here…) No, you want consistency.
It’s actually quite boring, this F1 driving lark. What you’re aiming to have is no surprises, just metronomic consistency, lap after lap – same lines, same feelings, same response, same position of the car on the track each and every time. Yes, being fast is, really, rather dull and formulaic. (Ahem.)
Just like, really, your drive to work. you go on the same road each and every day. Do the same things. Use the same gears.
So, tomorrow, why not try analysing this, as an F1 driver would do?
Consider your lines. Think about the placement of the car. Monitor what the car’s doing, and compare with what it did yesterday. Try and pick out exactly the same lines, exactly the same potholes to kiss with the rear wheel.
Ensure you have an entire month of seeing exactly the same rpm when exiting that second-gear bend after the railway bridge.
You want the same lines, the same feelings, the same response, the… well, you get the idea. Ah, you may ask, but what about traffic? Ah indeed, but F1 drivers are not immune to this either. Their skill comes in how they solve it, to get the car back on the ideal as fast and as loss-free as possible.
Believe me, it’ll transform your drive to work. Yes, you’ve followed exactly the same route for 8 years, which probably adds up to, ooh, 2000 ‘laps’. But that’s only what Hamilton, pre testing ban, would have done in testing at Jerez.
No, take F1 to the roads instead. (But maybe without doing this sort of stuff in the 318d, perhaps…)
Internet of Things joins motorsport
Why do people hate the Lotus Elan?
Why Renaultsports don’t have rear spoilers April 18, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 3commentsRENAULTSPORT Megane customers want sporty cars, but they also want low running costs. Apparently.
That’s why Renault doesn’t fit a rear spoiler.
See, it would up the drag, worsen the Cd, and push up mpg.
That’s also why, it was explained to me on the car’s launch, there’s a RenaultSport Megane diesel – with multi-stage Piezo injectors, the last pulse of which is charged with burning off soot emissions. Overall, 45mpg. Good, oui?
Fear not though, I was told. Being racy is still the prime reason for the RenaultSport.
The need for bigger brakes, for example, led Renault to develop trick double-axis front suspension. Another benefit of which just happens to be high stiffness levels.
As an engineer explained, it means there’s ‘no wobble under hard acceleration, so no geometry loss, so no steering squirm.
‘During cornering, forces on the front outside corner are high, which distorts the suspension. Not on double-axis though, which is twice as stiff as MacPherson strut.’
And that’s not all. ‘Less parasitic movement means less need for steering correction, so it’s more precise…’
Blimey. But yet more precise still is the Cup version. This has ‘reinforced dampers, 37 percent more rear spring stiffness, and ESP that can be turned completely off.’ Hardcore features for hardcore drivers.
Clio Cup Runneth Over
He was a handling geek, my insider. And how I delighted in speaking with him, over the fizzy water. I soon got him onto the Clio RenaultSport, where his revelations were just as cool.
Did you know, for example, the Clio’s seats help lower the car’s centre of gravity? It’s also 27 percent stiffer in spring, and 10 percent firmer in damping… ‘And the double-axis front suspension separates steering efforts from the damper.’
Now, it was a veritable flurry of gems from him. Four-pot Brembos come on the Clio, which he revealed to me (but not the guys within Renault who control costs) are ‘oversized’.
The rear diffuser? It has a 26 degree angle, creating a depression under the car, which ‘weights’ the back down at speed. Not only does it reduce lift by a factor of 3, but it also ‘primes’ the suspension for best response at speed.
Genius. And for real.
I can’t repeat what he said about makers who fit false rear diffusers.
‘The diffuser also does away with the need for a rear boot spoiler,’ he added.
Which takes us back to the start. That’s why Renault doesn’t fit one to the Clio RenaultSport, either. But why, ahem, Vauxhall has to fit one to the ‘diffuser-equipped’ Corsa VXR. Ahem, ahem.
How Chevrolet today became cool
BMW X5 – reviewing the 2007 launch
Why Barry Ferguson should look to Lewis Hamilton April 4, 2009
Posted by richard in : Uncategorized , 2commentsSO, you screwed up. You did something that’s regrettable, for which public mood rightly pings against you.
What do you do?
A: Hold a press conference, where you bravely face the cameras and admit you were wrong?
B: Say nothing, but later flick the V’s to the same said cameras?
Lewis Hamilton chose route A. Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor chose route B.
Today, who has rightful respect and an international career – and who may be dumped out of their respective sport altogether?
I don’t know the ins and outs of why Ferguson and McGregor stayed up all night in the bar. I also don’t know why Hamilton and Ryan withheld info to the race stewards.
In fact, in the Hamilton case, I’d wager there’s not a person the world who fully yet understands all that’s going on.
But, in the aftermath, only one person has emerged with his dignity and respect bulging.
And that takes guts.
F1 insight – Lewis Hamilton speaks
Lewis Hamilton radiogate April 3, 2009
Posted by richard in : What I learned today , 2commentsANOTHER day, another take on radiogate. Seems Hamilton and team manager Dave Ryan told fibs to the stewards.
Yesterday, of course, I thought the FIA was mad. Just what was this ‘evidence’ being withheld?
After all, hadn’t we all seen him on TV, telling us that he’d discussed over the radio about what to do with Trulli? Cut and dried, we thought. The boy done no wrong. Here was the FIA, continuing its McLaren witch-hunt.
How odd, though, that McLaren didn’t protest it. Oh well. Then, this morning, McLaren suspended team manager Dave Ryan. Eye up.
Then, a contrite Hamilton apologised and, with admirable sincerity, told us he wasn’t a liar. What the? Why? Because, they didn’t quite tell the truth.
They’d only gone and ‘forgotten’ to tell the FIA about these radio conversations. Ah. A decision that was made just before they met with the stewards, but after Hamilton had spoken to ‘us’, via TV.
Ah indeed.
What on earth they were thinking, nobody knows. Suddenly, though, the FIA looks blameless. Merely the moral upholder of the law. But it still can’t be pleased with how things have turned out (there’s the bleedin’ obvious stated).
See, to fans, it’s all a bit sniffy, this whole situation. Why have we had to wait so long? Why could it in the end come down to someone telling porkies? Don’t they have computers, and tech, and, well, all sorts of gadgets? Don’t they monitor the team radios?
This is F1, for heaven’s sake. Pinnacle of world motor racing. Can the world really have been misled by a chap and his colleague not telling the whole truth to some other chaps? Really?
It’s took me this long to work it out, and I follow F1. For the casual F1 fan, listening to the news, they’ll be utterly, utterly baffled.
Guess that could all be part of the FIA’s plan, though. Hold back, hold back, become the whipping boys for a while, then – bam. The truth is, McLaren’s at fault. It’s serious. Fans have been misled. They had to be excluded.
I just wonder, though. Thinking about it, this week’s machinations look like yet another FIA political masterstroke.
Hats off to it, in one respect.
Pity the sport part of F1 seems to have been forgotten, by all concerned, though.
Mini owners sought for display
F1 insight – Lewis Hamilton speaks April 2, 2009
Posted by richard in : What I learned today , 2commentsFIA decisions are generally illogical, as the latest McLaren saga proves.
But, at least motorsport’s governing body is, in the process of further befuddling F1, taking fans a bit closer to the background action – by publishing a delicious insight on its website.
The lunacy of wrecking yet another race and making the sport look a laughing stock in front of the world yet again apart, the audio excerpt it’s just published is pretty intriguing.
It uncovers conversations between Lewis Hamilton and the team, during the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix.
You have to admit, looked at from a single-minded, closed-opinion viewpoint, they’re pretty illuminating. But do they clear the situation up for race fans, never mind the general public? Do they show the common sense behind the FIA’s decision?
Not at all. And so commences another weekend’s F1-McLaren-FIA-Hamilton-gate.
My take? The FIA is barmy. It’s placed great weight on what Hamilton said – but, really, you can’t take as Gospel something a driver said immediately after a race. I wasn’t party to the post-race inquiry, but surely ’someone keeping secrets’ shouldn’t be an issue?
Besides, didn’t Toyota decide not to appeal?
But whatever the actual rights and wrongs, look at it from all the new BBC viewers. Who may have sampled F1 for the first time. And, may now, be considering it a bit of a farce. In what other sport would this happen?
It’s not the last we’ve heard of it, though. Certainly, on that, I’m more sure than race goers thinking they’d seen a definitive result last weekend were.
