34 - North Shore News —

Friday, November 3, 2000

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Tony Whitney
Contributing Writer

TO many auto racing
enthusiasts, Formula
One is the pinnacle of
the sport.

CART and NASCAR fans
may dispute this fact, but
there’s a strong argument
that F1 is more technically
sophisticated, more costly
and more intensely competi-
tive than any other class of
motor sport.

Thad a chance to find out
more about the inner work-
ings of Formula One recently
when I spent time with the
Jaguar team at the U.S.
Grand Pris, staged at the leg-
endary Indianapolis Moter
Speedway.

Jaguar might not have the
fastest car in Fl vet, but it

. certainly has the best tooking.
The sleek metallic dark green
racecars with their dramatic
Jaguar graphic are the key
element ina slick operation
thar has the might of the
Ford Motor Company
(Jaguar's parent) behind it.
This year marked Jaguar's
debut in Formula One. Over
the years, Jaguar has raced
mainly sports cars and posted
several Le Mans wins, but
Formula One is something
very new to the British
automaker.

The cars (two are entered
in each race) are remarkable
pieces of engineering and
represent the ultimate in
racecar design.

Interestingly, Jaguar
Racing hasn't got a single
drawing board at its state-of-
the-art factory at Milton
Keynes, England. The car was
completely developed using
computer-aided design
(CAD) techniques — a first
for any racecar manufacturer,
according to Jaguar’s jackie
Stewart.

The factory employs 280
people to produce the FI cars
and racers for Formula Three,
in which Stewart Racing has
been highly successful.

The plant has an extensive
electrontes facility where the
complex software and hard-
ware, vital in most forms of
racing nowadays, is created
and tested.

The Jaguar RY} racer is
powered by a 3-litre
Cosworth (another Ford
partner) V-10 engine of very
advanced design. Power out-
puts are not disclosed, but
you can bet they are prety
substantial. Much of the 97-
kg car itself is produced from
rugged, lightweight carbon
fibre and the result is the

vs Most expensive set of wheels

most of us will ever set eves
on. Most teams won t talk
about exact costs, but some

teams have indivistial spon
sors that pump in niore than
$100-million a season and it
soon gets absorbed in the
quest for victory.

Perhaps even more fsci-
nating than the cars them-
selves are the logistics
imolved in senting up a
Formula One race in the
Americas or Asia.

The entire team operation
— cars, computers, tools,
spares, uniforms and count-
less other essentials — is air-

thted to rice ventes Our:
side Europe by a deet of wide
body carge aircraft, Al the
teams have to do, according
to one Jaguar official F spoke
to, is deliver everything they
need to Heathrow Airport
near London. When the team
arrives at the pit area in
Montreal, Indianapolis,

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photo Jaguar

EDDIE irvine's Formula One Jaguar was completely developed using computer-aided design (CAD) tech-
niques — a first for any racecar manufacturer, according te Jaguar's Jackie Stewart.

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