F1 Blog

I was recently wading through several hundred backlogged emails and I came across this sound clip which I remember making the rounds on the Internet about 3 years ago. I couldn’t find it online so I thought I would post it here. I’ve quoted the original story which accompanied the sound clip. Presumably the story was posted by the person who originally made the clip available on the Internet.

[MEDIA=38]

First you’ll hear a 10-cylinder, 750 horsepower Asiatech F1 engine being warmed up. Then it performs a rousing version of “When The Saints Come Marching In”, to the delight of assembled pit staff and journalists.

Here’s how the magic was achieved (technical/musical details via F1 Racing magazine):

“As we all know, a V10 engine produces five combustions per revolution at a frequency per second of 60/(5 x revs per minute), which equals 12/rpm. Therefore, to work out the revs you need to hit a particular Musical note, you multiply the note’s frequency by 12. To play a 440Hz ‘A’, for example, you need 5,280rpm. For ‘C’, use 3,139rpm, for ‘F’ 4,191rpm, and so on.

Asiatech’s French technicians (the engine, despite its name, is derived from a Peugeot design) simply programmed their engine to run through the various rev/note ranges in the correct sequence.

The result is delightful. And think of the possibilities – BMW’s F1 engine, which howls all the way to 19,050rpm, could rip through the entire Hendrix songbook.

Even better: imagine a massed NASCAR choir performing “The Star Spangled Banner”! Being eight-cylinder engines, the frequency per second would be 60/(4 x revs), which means you’d multiply the note frequencies by 15 instead of 12: ‘A’ would arrive at 6,600rpm, ‘C’ at 3,923rpm, ‘F’ at 5,238rpm, etc.”

Discuss on the message board or make a comment below …