My very own piece of Formula 1

David persuaded to make more mention of him in my blog. Of course I will do that; you can safely ignore the links.

The contents of this post are of dubious legality and questionable morality. Tread with care.

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In line with the impending arrival of the Formula 1 circus to Melbourne, Fosters has started their promotional campaign for the Grand Prix. There are several F1 chassis for display at the Melbourne Central shopping mall, including the Williams and the Honda cars.

These are the real things. The driver’s seat and steering wheel may have been removed, but it does into detract from the chassis’s realism.

The gearbox is present. As are the gurney flaps, carbon-carbon composite brakes, brake light, rear diffuser complete with dirt marks, scratched towing hook, nicked wheel rims and worn wheel nuts. This is the real thing that has seen action.

The Williams on display was slightly away from the main promotion area, and it was not surrounded by any promoter bimbos. This allowed me to fondle the gurney flaps and suspension members with minimal embarrassment.

One might recall the procedure when completing a tyre change: screw the nut on, pull the locking stud, raise your hand to indicate completion while making sure you are out of harm’s way.

Impressed by the locking stud, I gave it a push. It unlocked with a deeply satisfying click. Woo... I pulled it back to locked position with another solid click, and a little stub protruded from the main axle to help retain the wheel in place. I locked and unlocked it two more times.


Unlocked position


Locked position
Click here for large sized image


The brake light consists of an array of LEDs, and the housing is part of the rear aerodynamic element
Click here for large sized image


Rear suspension assembly and part of the rear diffuser. Note the drive shaft piercing through the brake duct shroud, and the blue coloured wire that appears to be a sensor output (probably wheel speed and brake temperature readings)
Click here for large sized image


As the text clearly embossed on the tyre wall says, “not for highway use”.

David and I went fiddling with the Williams chassis.

[paragraph truncated to save our skins from the Williams hit team]


The right front wheel


The left rear wheel after our little adventure

Can you spot the difference between the two pictures above?

Back at home:





In conclusion, David was very smart and I’m sure Yee Hou would be dead envious about my latest jewel.

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In hindsight, this is slightly ironic/appropriate (depending on point of view) considering that this current blog colour scheme is modelled after the Williams-F1 team's.



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