Child9,
Ah yes, F1 engines and the cars themselves. They are marvels of Engineering. This is the last year for the 2.4 Litre normally aspirated V-8. These engines do not have cam shafts, nor to they have valve springs. What they do have is a set of computer controlled hydraulic cylinders that operate the valves. AND, they are software limited to 18,000rpm by the FIA. The FIA is the sanctioning body. They put the arbitrary limit on the engines in an attempt to slow them down.
Hasn't worked...
And, you are correct, one TB per cylinder. It is the only way to get perfectly balanced flow. Once you introduce a manifold, all of the flow impediments rear their ugly heads. Plus individual cylinder exhaust gas analyzer hardware is installed so that each cylinder is tuned to perfection dynamically.
4 valve per cylinder and direct injection. Makes for a very busy cylinder head.
The amount of telemetry that flows off of the car, during the race, to the Pit Wall for the Race Engineers to analyze during the race is almost unbelievable. Do a search on the steering wheel. That part alone can run $10,000. I have a replica in my gaming cockpit that I use in my Simulator.
Am I a fan? You betcha. Racing that requires top speeds in excess of 200mph and corners that require slowing to 40mph is not just roundy rounds like some unmentioned boring drivel...
A standing start just to add Drama to the first corner...
You know, an F1 car develops enough down force to run across the ceiling of a tunnel. Better than one gravity at relatively low speeds. Cornering at close to 5 Gs. Braking at 5.4 Gs. Acceleration (average) rates:
0 to 100 km/h (62 mph): 1.7 seconds
0 to 200 km/h (124 mph): 3.8 seconds
0 to 300 km/h (186 mph): 8.6 seconds
Depending on the track as the cars gearing is changed to suit the track. Have I mentioned that the locker is adjustable (a switch on the steering wheel) by the Driver?
Carbon Fibre brake rotors and ceramic pads that operate at 1,000 degrees C. This is not a typo pals... Ever see carbon fibre glowing cheery red? Just watch the next race, you will see.
Sorry about hijacking my own thread but there is a point here...
Next year, the engines are to be in a 1.6 Litre V-6 Turbocharged configuration.
Forced Induction is coming back to F1. Last time, the engines were 3 litre V-12 producing over 1,000Hp.
I do not care where you are from, that is a ton of power. It will be interesting to see what the Engine builders (Mercedes, Renault, Ferrari) get out of them and how long they hold together.
Hold together. It is a fact of life that the more power you extract out of an engine, the shorter the life span. Dragsters get rebuilt between runs as the engine is shot after a quarter mile.