I watched a couple of videos interviewing Gordon Murray about his new car and was interested in the similarities/differences in concept between his effort and the Leyland/Toyota.
First off, he's opted to go without any form of safely turbine device - which must be quite worrying for the prospective owners who happen to live near Jazz drivers. He seems to have compensated for this by getting Cosworth to give him, what was it?, 28,500 rpm/second which may go some of the way to giving some margin back. Also, Gordon clearly couldn't figure out all the bump steer problems that would have resulted from trying to incorporate 4WD so I think the boys may have the edge on him there. I have an idea that he was influenced by Nik's incorporation of an electric wiper motor in Binky's boot when he put in the big electric fan at the back. Perhaps it is not too late for Nik and Rich to put some ducting around the wiper fan motor to the underbody and get some of that ground effect Mr Murray's team have found with theirs, although Binky has included a bit more gravity assistance by their clever use of 3mm steel so perhaps this will help it maintain traction where the T50 is having to rely on fancy electronics and so on.
I can foresee a very interesting head-to-head of these two. Perhaps down to the local chip shop and back for haddock, chips and cup of tea twice (one trip, 2 portions not back and forth twice - that would be silly)?
Anyone have any thoughts on the comparisons between these contrasting pinnacles of CAD and more traditional engineering?
One thing that all 3 have in common is a fanatical devotion to packaging - something that is sadly lacking in so many modern car designs.
I think I also had an "a-ha!" (no Take on Me jokes please) moment about Binky from the T50 interviews: Phone integration. Does Nik really plan on having an in-vent handset holder? I don't recall seeing provision in the build for something more considered, or even inclusion of mic wiring in the loom...
Something tells me that no-one would be able to hear anyone in a phone call to Binky whilst the engine is on and taking a phone call hand's free or not would be unwise, but maybe I missed something. It's been that long since an episode that many brain cells have since died.
