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Which One To Use In Your Application: 6082 Or 7075 Aluminium?

Being at the metal supplier’s counter and trying to choose between 6082 and 7075 is like trying to choose between two different engines in motorsport. Both will do what you need them to do, but one will be completely incompatible with the end goal you are trying to achieve. The two grades are not priced…read more

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Aluminium Wishbone Cracks- What Causes It, and How Do You Prevent Them

You made and fitted wishbones from 7075 aluminium tube, with welded joints. After three race weekends, you find yourself pulling a wishbone that has a crack on it. The crack is right at the weld, understandably. It’s a situation that is guaranteed to occur in a workshop during club racing. Most don’t understand the metallurgy…read more

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Designing Suspension Wishbones: Why Shape Matters More Than Material

If you ask most people building a race car what makes a good wishbone, they’ll talk about using the right materials: 7075 aluminium, chromoly tubes, carbon fibre. But the material is the last thing you should worry about. Get the geometry and cross-section wrong, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve built it from a titanium…read more

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F1 Car Materials That Make Them Fly: From Steel To Carbon Fiber

When you watch an F1 fly down the Hangar Straight at Silverstone, you’re watching an F1 engineer’s appreciation of art. The exhaust, gear casings, and even the gear box, are all examples of great material selection for a given design and purpose. Modern day formula one engineering would have baffled F1 engineers during the sport’s…read more

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Why do F1 teams still use aluminum if they can afford more exotic materials?

Walk into any F1 team’s workshop and you’ll see carbon fiber (like in the monocoque, bodywork, and wings). But look a little closer, and you’ll see aluminum parts stacked atop workbenches. With teams spending £300 million a season, you would think they would use a more exotic material. In fact, they choose aluminum because it…read more

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Material Certifications: The Meaning Behind The Numbers

After ordering 7075 aluminium from a motorsport supplier, you are sent a PDF document that contains a material certificate, which contains numbers, codes, and technical jargon. Building safety-critical parts is one of the fundamentals of engineering, and understanding material certificates is the only proof you have that what you received is what you ordered. Understanding…read more

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Get your vehicle ready for a track day.

Race tracks are the ideal setting for honing your driving techniques, but you must make sure your vehicle is prepared for the pressure. Here is a little tip to help you get ready so you can enjoy yourself more and feel less afraid. You should, at the very least, install a set of upgraded lowering…read more

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Driver Spotlight: Molly Taylor

Molly Taylor is an Australian Rally driver from Sidney and is the 2016 Australian Rally champion.  She was the first and only female driver to win the title and the youngest person to win the title.  Her rally record started in 2006 when she became the 2 litre champion in the NSW Rally Championship. In…read more

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Le Mans is too fast & Narrow for F1, but it could be fun

Alonso has said that the current Le Mans circuit is too fast and too narrow for current F1 cars.  Alonso recently did a demonstration in the Alpine F1 car before the Belgium Grand Prix and said that the experience was very special and that the circuit would need some safety alterations should F1 drive there. …read more

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Car Maintenance: Tracking

Wheel misalignment can be one of those maintenance problems, that if not dealt with quickly, can cause many other maintenance issues. Signs that your tracking may be off: 1. If your tyres seem to be wearing out quicker than usual, you should check to see if your tracking being off, is the cause. 2. Whilst…read more

Replacing wiper blades

With winter fast approaching, we are all starting to see a lot more rain. This can make driving conditions awful and without your car being “winter ready” can make for dangerous driving situations. When it comes to preparing for the winter, you need to not only consider items such as tyres and anti-freeze but also…read more

KERS on F1 cars

Formula one cars are now fitted with something called KERS which is kinetic energy recovery system. This systems allows energy that is produced during braking to be stored for later use on acceleration. Examples include complex high end systems such as the Zytek and Xtrac. The systems were first produced in 2008, and two minor…read more

Is F1 too predictable?

I remember the days where F1 legend, Michael Schumacher, was pretty much guaranteed to get pole position every F1 race. With the fight for 1st place seeming impossible for anyone else, many people said F1 was getting too predictable. Now Lewis Hamilton seems to be on a similar par with 8 wins so far this…read more

Performance vs reliability

When it comes to cars you may have to make a choice as to whether performance or reliability is more important to you. With many cars you can get a bit of both but for others the one leads over the other. Alfa Romeos have be known for their performance but definitely lack in reliability…read more

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The Bugatti Veyron

The Bugatti Veyron is not a car to be sniffed at. Volkswagen tsar Ferdinand Piech one day had a dream that he wanted to create a car with 1000 bhp, that cost one million euros and had a top speed of 250mph. this car was to be like nothing ever manufactured as a road car…read more