Beals F1 is back!

[will69camaro]

After over a year of downtime the F1 that Beal owns is back. They sent the tranny off to McLaren and after 38k it's back and running around apparently. Hopefully i'll get a chance to go check it out again and maybe even get a ride. I'm sure he's happy and i just thought i'd let you guys know that his F1 is officially going again.

William

[mini magic]

thats great news

[Peloton25]

Cool deal - tell him not to invoke anymore axle-hop.

As entertaining as smoky burnouts can be - and there's a photo from Road&Track of Beal's car doing one - it just doesn't seem like the way to treat an F1 to me. I'm sure the 38K drove that point home louder then I'll be able to though.

Good luck getting a ride! You know we'll appreciate the photos!

>8^)
ER

[will69camaro]

It appears to me that money isn't really an object with him and the 38k probably wont change his mind any lol. Also the pic of the smokey burnout was done without him there. They sent the car to Road and track to be tested and they got it back and the rear tires were blistered from the burnout...needless to say road and track bought him a set of tires for his F1. I'm not sure if there are any burnouts are in his future but it wouldnt' supprise me. I agree i think that a F1 should be treated better than burning out and breaking axles but i appreciate the way he's willing to run it and drive the hell out of it rather than let it sit or just cruise it around town. Hopefully i'll get a chance to go by the shop tomorrow, i'll see if i can get a digital camera to take with me.

William

[mini magic]

Thank you

[cabrio92]

Hello,

happy for you and M. Beal It would be interesting that he come back on the forum !

Ciao
Phil

[Peloton25]

I think it was actually his son who had posted here once or twice under the 'cbeal' username.

>8^)
ER

[will69camaro]

Yea it was his son that posted on here before. I'll ask the mechanic to tell them to post up again if they can...I just havn't made the time to go by yet.

William

[Stratoraptor]

While we are on the subject of the Beal car...

I was researching the tire specifications of the Michelin Pilot SX tires and I found something interesting on the LPE about the top speed testing done by R&T magazine back in 1998.

http://www.lingenfelter.com/nov98.asp

The next car to go out was the McLaren F1. This McLaren F1 was an actual US legal vehicle that had been Federalized for import into the US - although some of the European specification parts had found their way back on the vehicle including the headlights and bumpers. This three seater was the vehicle to beat. Everyone knew that similar vehicles in Europe had been claimed to achieve between 231 and 236 mph. Mario was soon out on the track testing the limits of the McLaren F1. As the small silver dot appeared on the far banking of the track and quickly approached, everyone knew that car was going fast. It screamed by at a radar indicated 217.7 mph. Very fast indeed but not nearly as fast as many of us were expecting. It would later become known that this car did not have the standard rear end ratio so that the car was at the 7500 rpm limiter in 6th gear at 217.7 mph even though the speedometer was indicating 240 mph. When Mario climbed out of the McLaren F1, it was amazing to hear his criticism of the vehicle at speed. The aerodynamic instability of the vehicle, as he described it, surprised him and everyone that listened. Nonetheless it was impressive to have seen one of the few McLaren F1's in existence at speed - especially in the US.

So did Fritz do this to all the AmeriTech cars?

[Peloton25]

I don't think Fritz made any mechanical changes to the car. gerd might even agree to that statement.

Its more likely that this axle ratio difference is something that was done by the factory at time of build. I'm surprised it didn't make any improvement in the acceleration times versus what was achieved with XP4 in the Autocar test. Must be our crappy gasoline and maybe the climate here versus England as well.

Also, on the instability at that speed - I recall Andy Wallace made the same claim at rougly that speed around Ehra Lessien, but claimed that it smooted out as he passed through 230 MPH.

>8^)
ER