> Actually, what was notable about the F1 cars wasn't so much the speed, but 
> the *acceleration*. You see the cars go past on a straight, and it looks 
> just like any other road full of traffic. But we sat at Silverstone on a 
> corner. The cars would come up to it, go round it quite slowly, and then 
> just *VANISH* off into the distance like they wer toy cars made of 
> paper... it was pretty insane.

Acceleration is determined by the power to weight ratio.  A "normal" family 
road car has perhaps 70-90 HP per ton, a fast sporty road car perhaps 
130-150.  A formula 1 car has about 1300 HP per ton.

> Also, watching an F1 car going round the tiny, twisty indoor circuit at 
> the RoC, I noticed that it sounded like the engine was on a limiter the 
> whole time.

Probably, without an electronic limiter the engine would likely self 
destruct quite quickly.  And for demo purposes I guess they turn down the 
limiter to quite a low RPM to avoid needlessly damaging an engine.  And the 
driver probably just had his foot to the floor bouncing off the limiter the 
whole time.

> It produced a constant note like a tuning fork. Then the driver did a few 
> dounuts, and it's amazing how quickly the engine revs up and down. Like it 
> just has no flywheel at all! Heh.

Pretty much no flywheel, no, that's why whenever some non-F1-driver tries to 
drive one they usually stall it immediately.  Once the car is moving of 
course there is not really any need for a flywheel.

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