How to start your vintage McLaren Indy car.

You absolutely are NOT the only person fascinated by this. Thanks for the video.
 
I realize they're a restoration shop, but being a privateer and running one of those things, even for the occasional vintage race, must be murderously expensive. I can't even imagine.
 
I remember reading an article that described the start procedure for a modern F1 engine. The tolerances of the motor are so tight the the engine oil and transmission fluid have to be heated to 80C before one can even consider cycling the motor to move the oil around. Then comes pressurizing the valve air tank (pneumatic valves, no cam). Then after about 30 minutes one can hook up fuel and start the motor. The mechanics then use a laptop to run the motor through a series of warm up revs at various rpm and times to get proper ring seating, block heating, bearing wear, and such (this is the thing you often hear playing music with exhaust in promo videos). After all this is done, one can engage the clutches to the motor and make the car move. I read the entire process to start a modern f1 car took more than an hour, and that is if the oil heater is already on and warm.

My wife and I talked to a couple of guys who ran vintage historic F1 cars in the VIP bar at the Austin F1 race. I didn't ask how much it cost, but one guy came up to our little group who was a modern Porsche supercup team owner and one of the vintage f1 guys joked that he wishes he could still do cheap spec racing. This led a a bit of a debate over the price of parts, with eventually everyone agreeing that cars are more complex now, but every part on an F1 car is custom made and one of a kind. Even spec motor cars used different engine mounts, gaskets, exhaust, etc, so even a car with a Ford DFV had a lot of custom spec engine parts. Chassis and other bits were all custom. Right down to shift knobs and rear view mirrors. Imagine having to MAKE all your racing parts. :messedup:
 
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That was bad ass!

Sent from Crab Nebulae via reverse engineered alien technology
 
Tiltsta said:
Imagine having to MAKE all your racing parts. :messedup:
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Yeah, even in this instance I'm sure they must have to fabricate just about everything themselves. A Cosworth V8 is about as ubiquitous as racing engines get, but there just can't be parts laying around somewhere. Hell, I was cringing thinking about the cost of the different starters and that gigantic battery. It must be astronomical.
 
dmn23 said:
I can't be the only dweeb on this board who is fascinated by stuff like this.

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you're not the only one who has a fascination with older racing cars. i have an interest (bordering on infatuation) with the Porsche 917's.
what a f'ing sound!! the guys who drove them at Le Mans in the early 70's have said that they would be doing 220 mph down the Mulsane straight and take their hands OFF THE WHEEL and the car would just keep going straight and smooooooth. :eek::eek:
 
That was pretty cool stuff. I have heard similar stories as Tiltsta about the starting procedures for F1 engines, but it was cool to see that process on the Indy Car
 
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