Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/14/stefano-domenicali-we-have-to-do-a-massive-step/
 Scarecrows adorn the entrance to a barren Korean International Circuit © Getty Images |
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/12/journalists_shocked_at_korea_a.php
 Lewis Hamilton has come in for criticism © Getty Images |
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/hamilton_decisionmaking_under_1.php
 © Getty Images |
The way I feel at the moment, why stop? I do it because I enjoy it. And yesterday is gone. I don't care what happened yesterday. What else would I do? People retire to die. I don't get any individual pleasure because we don't win races or titles in this job. I'm like most business people. You look back at the end of the year and you see what you've achieved by working out how much money the company has made. That's it.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/bernie_ecclestone_no_plans_to.php
The madcap conclusion to the Chinese Grand Prix, with 12 cars battling nose to tail for second place behind winner Nico Rosberg, was packed with some of the best racing Formula 1 could ever produce.
But among the wheel-to-wheel battles and overtaking moves, one incident stood out more than most.
With 20 laps to go, Mark Webber's Red Bull ran a little wide on the 170mph exit of Turn 13, caught the edge of the kerb, and its nose reared up into the air.
The car looked briefly as if it might take off - as Webber did in the 2010 European Grand Prix, when his car landed upside down before skidding into the barriers, without injury to its driver. He also suffered two similar accidents at Le Mans in 1999.
But then the nose crashed down on to the track. "It's always a worrying moment when it gets a lot of air under it like that," said team boss Christian Horner. "He's used to that. I should think he was on the brakes."
He wasn't, as it turns out. Webber told me a "little lift" of the accelerator was enough to bring the car back down again.
For those watching, it was a heart-stopping moment. But Webber obviously did not dwell on it long - in the very next sector of the lap, he set his fastest time of the race so far.
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Shanghai was another impressive weekend from Webber, notwithstanding a couple of errors that probably cost him a podium finish.
He spent last year in the shadow of team-mate Sebastian Vettel as the German cantered to a second world title. While Vettel took 11 victories, Webber won once in Brazil - and then only when Vettel's car hit gearbox trouble.
This year is a different story. Not only have Red Bull slipped back into the pack, but Webber has so far had the edge on Vettel.
The qualifying score is three-nil in Webber's favour and the final overtaking move in those frantic concluding laps in China was Webber separating his team-mate from fourth place between the penultimate and final corners of the last lap.
It was the climactic moment of a fascinating weekend at Red Bull, whose drivers were in cars of two different specifications.
Vettel has never been happy with the handling of the RB8 in the upgraded trim that was introduced at the final pre-season test. And for China he reverted to the specification in which the car was launched, while Webber stuck with the newer one.
According to chief technical officer Adrian Newey, incidentally, the car was in exactly its initial configuration - not, as we reported over the weekend, with slightly longer exhaust pipes.
The two designs have a different aerodynamic philosophy.
The older one uses the exhausts to improve the airflow through the "coke-bottle" area at the rear of the car. The newer one aims to direct the gases at the area where the floor meets the rear tyre, to "seal" the diffuser.
Both improve downforce, but to different degrees, in different ways and with different effects.
"There were some characteristics about the upgraded car that weren't particularly suited to (Vettel's) style of driving, which is to carry a lot of speed into the corner," said Horner.
Vettel qualified only 11th, but said afterwards that he "felt happier with the car than (in) previous races". But the decision to put him back into the older-spec car in China was not, Newey said in an exclusive interview after the race, at the driver's request.
The newer car had shown "a few characteristics that haven't worked as intended," Newey explained, "so we simply brought the old bodywork for Seb this weekend to get some more data, as a direct comparison."
It was a test session, basically, and Vettel was chosen to run the older-spec car because he preferred its handling.
"We could have then put both cars to the latest spec, the spec that Mark raced, on Friday evening," Newey said. "But we felt that would be more disruptive than simply continuing. And we'd have probably burnt a (mandatory FIA working hours) curfew in the process. But both cars will be back to the new spec in Bahrain."
Newey clearly believes the newer car is faster, but he says it's "difficult to say" by how much.
I pressed him, asking if he thought the difference in performance between the two cars was in the region of the 0.331 seconds by which Webber was faster than Vettel in second qualifying, which Vettel did not progress beyond.
Newey said: "Mark seems to have taken to this car more easily than Seb at the moment, but that's simply the reverse of what happened last year."
Indeed it is. But why?
Engineers in rivals teams say Red Bull have been hurt more than any other team by the banning of exhaust-blown diffusers this year because they were exploiting the technology, which pumped exhaust gases along the floor of the car even when the driver was off the throttle, far more effectively than anyone else.
Red Bull pioneered it. If you got it right, and combined it effectively with the overall design of the car, it could gain you something in the region of a second a lap. But it was difficult to master the aerodynamic effects and most teams never did.
This year, the teams are still trying to exploit exhausts gases in a similar way, to hold on to some of the downforce-boosting effect. But the regulations now define an area within which the exhaust exits must be, engine mapping is restricted, and the gains are reduced to about 10% of what was available in 2011.
Webber never really got on with the way the Red Bull behaved last year.
But this year the cars are handling in a more conventional fashion, and he is back to where he was in 2010, when he and Vettel were evenly matched and Webber led the championship for much of the year.
The Red Bull drivers' Chinese GP results match their championship positions. Webber is fourth on 36 points, eight ahead of Vettel and nine behind leader Lewis Hamilton.
Whether Red Bull can improve their car enough to fight consistently for victories - and therefore the title - remains to be seen. But they are too good a team, led by too brilliant a designer, to stay down for long.
And the battle between their drivers adds a delicious extra dimension to their fightback.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/how_webber_turned_tables_on_ve.html
(This is a series of photos of the progress of this dio build over the past couple of months, condensed into this thread.)
Here's the start of another building for my 1/32 scale Thomasville dio. It's intended as a hardware/lumber store and may be extended later to include a sawmill at the rear. The other buildings for the town have been built to fit the existing street base... but this one will be a "stand alone" structure as a display by itself... or can be connected to the end of the Thomasville street. The base area is about 12" x 13".
Generally the era being portrayed is the turn of the century, around 1900 to 1910. I'm basing it on a picture I found on the web. It's not a quick simple build so I expect to take some time with it.Here's the start... basic walls are Elmer's 3/16" foamcore board. I've cut 1/4" strips of 1/32" Birch plywood which are spaced 3/16" apart to give a 1/16" overlap to the siding. Birch ply has killed six of my blades so for the remaing walls I'm resorting to 1/32" balsa (I can't find any 1/32" basswood at my local stores!). The plastic windows are from Grandt Line 1/48 scale model railway suppliers. The doors will be built from styrene and/or basswood. The sidewalk is 1/16" basswood scribed to resemble individual boards. There will be a sidewalk canopy 4 courses below the second floor window.
Added the side walls and the floors and started to build the exterior stairs to the second floor. Now I see the grain on the balsa siding, I wish i'd used it instead of the birch ply on the front wall! Oh well! 
(I found a tip that might help others using Foamcore board. When I glued the siding to the foamcore board, it warped badly after it dried. By brushing water over the inside face of the wall and letting it dry out, the wall returned to it's original shape. When I glued the walls together at the corners, I wetted the inside faces again and they are now completly straight. The camera angle makes it look like there's a "bow" in the front wall, but there isn't.)I got the sidewalk and work area in place then tried a "staining" experiment on the work area..... a very watery acrylic black wash brushed liberally over the basswood.... WRONG! I should have known it would warp! Even though I had reinforced it underneath with basswood framing, it twisted up like a pretzel. I managed to get it straightend back out by applying another wash, both on top and underneath, and placing some large cans filled with gravel on it while it dried. It's now straight but has lifted at the outer edge so I'll just do some graded landscaping to hide that! We live and learn......! 
I took the plunge and mixed up a watery acrylic gray/brown/black stain, then applied it in varying consistencies on each of the individual siding and trim boards. I experimented by using a hair dryer set at the lowest temperature to speed up the drying as each board was stained..... and nothing warped! I then applied a similar watery black acrylic wash to the sidewalk using the same technique and everything stayed straight and level. After the black on the sidewalk was completely dry, I sanded it with a coarse grain sand paper in the direction of the grain until it became lighter and more of a gray, bleached color. I still have to apply more weathering and staining to the boarded work area. The rickety stairs are also finished apart from final staining, I found a 12" x 13" x 5/8" thick door from an old abandoned entertainment center and that has become my base. After locating the building on it, I've started to apply spackle to the areas that will be the road and the raised side yard. After a couple more coats and some sanding it should be ready for some landscaping materials. 
I've added a fence, the road surface. the grass parking area beside the work area....... and started on the porch. The interior of the window frames (jamb extensions) have also been installed... but you can't see them! I'm hoping to get some details of a typical 1900's hardware store interior for some interior detailing. 
Now I can get an idea of how the hardware store will fit into the street scene..... at either end. 
A little more....... 
Even though they will never be seen once the roof is on...... I couldn't resist adding the ridge beam and rafters!!! 
Now that the weather is warming up, I'm going to put this aside for a while and get back to some of my unfinished car models... and some new ones! I'll get back to the dios in the late fall, when the weather turns cold and I can't spray paint outside anymore. But I'm sure I'll find some time to add a little more during the spring and summer!Tony
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1012999.aspx
Here is my just finished build. lt's a 1969 GTO from a revell jjudge kit. l had plans to make it a factory stock judge but as i went along l seem to like it better without the stripes,or decals. lts done in HOK Molly orange. l only foiled the front and rear wnindow and rocker panels. l liked the smoth plain body so thats how l left it. Tire decals are shabo and cleared with ppg clear...l mad a tag that says Bad Habit...
All comments welcome...Slusher
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1016207.aspx
Live: Mugello test day two is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Join us and follow the second day of testing from Mugello on F1 Fanatic Live.
Live: Mugello test day two is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
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