With Formula One aiming to slash its budgets, and teams making staff redundant, there could be a few design geniuses at a loose end. Just imagine if you could get a championship-winning team to redesign your kitchen... Let's take a look at when F1's finest minds have got bored and tried their hands at something a bit different.
Fine dining
With one of his F1 Ferrari's on exhibit at New York's MOMA, ace designer John Barnard has already been accepted by the cognoscenti. Now he's developed the perfect dining table for the materially obsessed. So slim it's practically anorexic, Barnard's carbon-fibre 'surface' table spans three metres but is just 2mm thick. It's so light there's no need for coasters, but is there actually any point in a lightweight dining table? Surely carbon-fibre would be more usefully employed in high-end camping furniture. Then Barnard could add some scout badges to the three drivers titles and two constructors crowns he earned at McLaren. The table is available in both the natural unidirectional weave finish or in a walnut veneer. Oh, and it's US$50,000. Carbon with a walnut veneer? If Bentley ever enter F1, Barnard's their man.
Space race
I've long suspected that the inspiration behind McLaren's team kit and motorhome is Star Trek, and this next (starship) enterprise is even more pointy-eared. McLaren composites constructed the landing structure, hull and solar panels for the Beagle 2 space probe. However the US$120 million British project, which was designed to reveal whether life had ever existed on mars, was a failure. Communication with Beagle 2 was lost shortly after it had been released from its mother ship. And there were communications difficulties at the Australian Grand Prix this year, when the team told the media one thing and told the stewards the other.
Deadly diving
F1 is known as 'the piranha club', making this rather deadly gadget a paddock necessity. The Oviosub Speargun introduces F1 high-tech to the ancient practice of spear fishing. The device uses a honeycomb structure filled with hydrogen to improve balance and buoyancy when firing at watery pray. This composite material, called Cratinax, was first developed by the Renault F1 team in its suspension. If Fernando Alonso leaves for Ferrari at the end of this season, Flavio Briatore might just harpoon the Spaniard.
The greatest ever Lotus?
A Norfolk-based bicycle designer, called Mike Burrows, had an idea for a racing bike using a carbon composite monocoque. So after some initial sketches on the back of a beer mat he rang up a mate of his who worked down the road at Lotus. Lotus aptitude for composite techniques were obvious, and they ran the prototype 108 pursuit bicycle in the wind tunnel, some might say at the expense of their 107B F1 car. The result was their most successful racer since the Lotus 79 of 1978, and British cyclist Chris Boardman rode the Type 108 to victory in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, smashing the record for the 4000m. Sadly, two years later, Team Lotus got on its metaphorical bike and left F1 for good.
Tyre flipper
Fuji, a 34 year-old dolphin from Japan, had three-quarters of her tail amputated after suffering localized cell decay. Then Bridgestone stepped in with ten prototype prosthetic rubber fins. Once they found one that worked it took Fuji another five months to get used to her new tail - initially it scared her. But now she's used to it she can jump again. She's a household name in Japan these days, with many celebrity swimming partners - including ex-F1 driver Takuma Sato.
Extra protection
While the bodies of most military vehicles are primarily built to withstand shell attacks from above, it's a fact that in recent conflicts the biggest threat for armored personnel carriers has been roadside bombs, which explode underneath the chassis. Well, if any company knows how to employ a thick skin when attacked, it's McLaren. The team has designed seats for the US Marine Corps fleet of Humvees. They're inspired by those of F1, protecting soldiers when their vehicle is thrown into the air upon detonation. And like F1, it allows medics to remove the injured still in their seat, thus minimizing the risk of spinal injury. Now McLaren just need to build a title campaign that can survive whatever the FIA throw at it.
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