
How to Ship an F1 Car Across the Globe in 36 Hours - markmassie
http://www.wired.com/2014/11/ship-f1-car-across-globe-36-hours
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evv
I wonder if this piece was sponsored by DHL.

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naich
Undoubtedly. I read the first paragraph and thought "this is a DHL advert".

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jonah
Many pieces in Wired seem that way these days. :-/

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johansch
These days? Have they ever published a neutral, trying-to-be-objective piece
on _anything_?

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pascal_cuoq
How about
[http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html](http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html)
?

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chiph
The team chef will often buy food locally - sometimes because they have to.
Team Sahara Force India spent $3700 on just their first trip to Costco in
Austin.

> “We couldn’t ship anything here to the U.S., so we had to start from
> scratch,” said Freeman.

[http://kxan.com/2014/10/29/f1-team-grocery-shops-for-race-
we...](http://kxan.com/2014/10/29/f1-team-grocery-shops-for-race-weekend-
spends-nearly-16k/)

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tw04
Q. How to ship _insert item_ around the world really fast?

A. Have lots of money.

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walshemj
I know some one who works on these big product launches ad he commented that
hiring a transport 747 to do a UK-USA run was actually relatively cheap

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jonah
Sometimes a 747 isn't enough:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga)

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sean_grant
I've heard some people complain that F1 and similar sports are a waste of
money, but something to keep in mind about these events is their engineering
all trickle down into modern day cars. Through the rules enacted, engineers
must develop new ways to create fast, powerful cars. The new techniques and
inventions all trickle down into the average consumer vehicles. I think it's
wonderful that our sports are defining our future.

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AmVess
Engineering trickle down from F1 doesn't happen anymore. It does if you buy a
McLaren or Ferrari road car, but there's practically zilch for anything else
that's both common and affordable. The closest thing you will get to F1 tech
in a cheap road car is the $54k Alfa Romeo 4C with its CF tub.

Hybrid power systems existed on the road before being adopted by F1. Things
like ABS, traction control, and stability management did appear on F1 cars
before road cars, but that's largely concurrent development, not a trickle-
down. And besides, F1 cars today are no longer allowed to have any driver
aids; no ABS, no traction control, no stability management.

Things like carbon brakes existed in aerospace before F1, so nix on that, too.

Gearboxes that shift in the blink in an eye may have come from F1, but the
technology between them is radically different.

If you want actual racing (but not F1) technology that made it into a road
car, go buy a Subaru WRX or a Porsche. Or an Audi. Or a Corvette.

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thaumasiotes
> Things like carbon brakes existed in aerospace before F1, so nix on that,
> too.

I know absolutely nothing of the history involved here, but the argument seems
wrong to me. Even if the technology exists in an entirely different kind of
vehicle, if it works its way through expensive luxury cars before ending up in
consumer-grade ones then I think it's fair to give the luxury cars some credit
for progress in car engineering. Adapting an existing technology to a
completely new environment doesn't just happen, it takes effort.

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tobylane
Oddly enough there was the first f1 news item about transport for a long time,
this week. The team who were at the bottom of the leaderboard last year, and
therefore had the lowest budget and highest debt, were trying to attend this
weekend's season finale. They had the cargo at the airport, but not the
funding. The funding came a few hours later and the plane had gone. That was
how they knew they couldn't attend this weekend.

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shittyanalogy
TLDR: take it apart and put it on a plane

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hnnewguy
> _TLDR: take it apart and put it on a plane_

Yeah, I'm not sure why it's a surprise to _anybody_ that you can load
_anything_ on a plane and get it _anywhere_ in the world as fast as that plane
can fly.

What's with all these mediocre Wired articles making the first page?

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spacefight
Native advertising, maybe?

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mschuster91
May be a sponsored article, but still the massive scale that applies to F1
racing is mind-blowing.

I had never thought it 'd require 30-50to material to be shipped across the
globe - and it's not surprising many teams have financial problems.

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h43k3r
Get ready for tommorow's amazing race!.

