Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Many spectators and not a few drivers equate noise with power. When asked to put on a muffler competitors complain it will cost them horse power, even though my mate Tony Dowe tells me they put mufflers on one of the Jaguars and it increased power. This is totally possible if you ask the top muffler specialists.

Anyway, when I grew up F1 cars ran around with about 200hp, and were loud. Jack Brabham suffered from a common complaint called "Coventry Climax Ear," i.e deaf on the side the single exhaust came out. Now Helmut Marko is suggesting Mercedes have around 900hp, and people are saying they are too quiet. Have they not been to a WEC race lately and heard, or not heard in this case, the Turbo Diesel Audis. Despite the whispering whistle they are mightily impressive. Yes we like race cars to sound "sexy" as the Oz GP guys are saying, but that does not mean we all have to go deaf. I drive an Infinit G35 as much for the exhaust note as anything. Like organ music, sweet, but not intrusive.

So Melbourne are saying the new cars breach the contract to stage the race. I doubt there is a clause that says that they have to have a certain noise level, or degree of sexiness. Try writing a spec for that, worse than fuel flow. Is this just a negotiating ploy to reduce fees, or get out of a major loss for the Government altogether? Or is it Bernie's mate Ron Walker just stirring it up for his old mate.

Talking of fuel flow, a lot more has come out since I wrote yesterday. Red Bull are being pinged because they did not follow FIA instructions as the other teams apparently did. There are some questions about how accurate the sensors are, so the FIA said whatever you are seeing, do as we tell you. Red Bull may have been trying to prove a point, but it just cost them 20. This could go on for a while with the appeal, but this is not about whether they exceeded the flow rate but about not following FIA directions as stated in the regulation.

It was a busy weekend for us in the US what with F1, Sebring and NASCAR. NASCAR was in Bristol, a 100,000 + seat half mile bull ring that you used to have to wait for someone to die to get a seat. Not yesterday. It was a sparse crowd last year, but Sunday there were a few thousand brave souls. It rained, and it was forecast to rain, so the "commentators" suggested most of the crowd were waiting to see if it would start. Really? These are the same folks who sat in a thunder storm and tornado warning at Daytona for six hours? Well when we did start they did not rush in, and those that stayed until nearly 10 o'clock must think twice about doing it again as the race went under caution with two 15 second laps to go. Unbelievable.

No wonder NASCAR keeps promoting itself at every ad break. Never understood that. I am already watching so why advertise to me? Same goes for the Tudor Sports Car series, but of course that is run by NASCAR too now.