Team Sky's Car

[woohoo]

Mustang1, I guess so. It was stopped on the motorway up to Darfo Therme with people looking underneath. The quote above was from Scott Mitchell when we mentioned it to him when we saw the Sky team at Ponte di Legno a couple of days later.
Didn't they have problems with one breaking down in last year's TdF? I think that was some sort of leak.

IIRC, a cooler/fridge in the back stopped working/started leaking and the water got to the electrics and knackered the car. It was the stage where Froome got the illegal feed and (again) IIRC, this was because this was the car that should have been supplying but was instead drying out down in the valley ... or something like that.

 

[GrasB]

Well, one of them was coming to bits on the road up to Lago Iseo for the Montecampione climb back in May at the Giro. "Well they do get a hammering" they said.

It was stopped on the motorway up to Darfo Therme with people looking underneath. The quote above was from Scott Mitchell when we mentioned it to him when we saw the Sky team at Ponte di Legno a couple of days later

I can imagine that.

One problem with modern cars is that body & auxiliary ECUs (yes plural) tend to end up hidden under the boot floor resulting in absolute mayhem is large amounts of fluid end up in the boot area. Mechanically if they're running auto boxes with modern tall gear cars it'll absolutely hammer the 'box's torque convertor & diff. The problem is that a torque convertor mode of 'failure' (it's actually the hydraulic fluid which overheats & ends up going out of spec) results in higher levels of torque being applied to the diff. Unfortunately the diffs mode of failure is to stop transmitting power to the wheels &/or become very noisy. This will be worse on long climbs & due to cyclists climbing at low speeds they won't have the chance to get the car up to a high enough speed to allow the diff to cool down. This will be exacerbated by the RWD platform which won't allow for any diff oil cooling trickery.

In all honesty the XF doesn't seem like the correct platform for the job. High-ish revving, tall geared engines with a RWD platform isn't going to fair to well in a low speed environment. To me VAG is the way to go with their small TDI & TFSI engines offer loads of low rpm torque and run with short lower half of their ratio set sending power into a conventional clutch arrangement packaged in a FWD platform. This to me explains the popularity of Skoda.

 

[KneesUp]

I presume they're using the Jaguars because Jaguar are providing them free of charge?

 

[GrasB]

Yeah, there will obviously be a good reason for Team Sky using them. No doubt Jag & Team Sky have an agreement which makes them attractive cars to use. As a British team using an iconic British mark with automotive romance around its name certainly helps push home the teams homeland links.

 

[oldroadman]

I presume they're using the Jaguars because Jaguar are providing them free of charge?

Business, pure and simple, and it's a bit of difference. But overall Skoda, Volvo, Mercedes tend to be in a majority. Just a lot of deals and Skoda also have the contract for ASO official cars, which makes them dominant in the sport. Plenty of Octavias and Superbs at the British Champs last weekend. Plus one Jaguar!

 

[Andrew Br]

I can imagine that.

To me VAG is the way to go with their small TDI & TFSI engines offer loads of low rpm torque and run with short lower half of their ratio set sending power into a conventional clutch arrangement packaged in a FWD platform. This to me explains the popularity of Skoda.

I'm not entirely sure about this.
We watched the TofB near the top of Honister Pass and some of the cars were in a fair amount of distress, in particular one of Cannondale's Citroen estates. There was large amount of smoke coming out from underneath it and the smell of burning clutch was horrible.
The car did better than one of the photo bikes though. That was stationary but the engine was revving quite hard. The rider made it move by walking his feet from the saddle.

One of the problems with turbo-diesels is the way the torque drops off when the engine isn't on boost and you typically need 1500+rpm to get the turbo spinning. With standard car gearing that equates to rather faster than the riders were going up Honister.
A large n/a petrol or diesel would probably be better but who makes them these days ?

In the past Team Sky have had modified cars for Paris-Roubaix. I imagine that they could get Jaguar to put higher ratio diffs in or even a transfer box from Land-Rover .

On a separate note, I can't understand why Europcar use Volvo XC70s. They'd be better off with the lower-riding version on the descents since jacking up the car to increase ground clearance murders the handling.
I speak as someone who drivers a Legacy Outback diesel .
Orica-GreenEdge use the standard Legacy; it's way more stable in corners.

.

 

[GrasB]

The 7sp VAG boxes have rather low gearing (around 4mph/1000rpm in 1st) & the turbo spools in at 1200-1500rpm. This combination means if required a 1.2 TSI Octiva can simply drag it's self up a hill at 3mph fully loaded

The big C5 estates have silly gearing. I have had the miss-fortune of driving across down in a C5... 6.3mph/1000 rpm leads to a lot of clutch slipping & the diesels ran higher ratios than the petrol engined cars. Oh they also idle fast too due to an awful anti-stall mechanism.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I drove up through Yorkshire today (yawn) and on the M1 saw the FDJ.FR lorry, the Cannondale team bus and lorry, lots of Bretagne-Seche team cars and the ITV TV lorry (probably full of rubbish commentators and stuff).

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

Does BMC still use Merc E-Classes for the Tour? They have in the past...

 

[sheddy]

On the subject of motors - how many vehicles are there in the TdF caravan ?
If anyone is going to stage 3, can they count them all ?

 

[alans]

I'm not entirely sure about this.

On a separate note, I can't understand why Europcar use Volvo XC70s. They'd be better off with the lower-riding version on the descents since jacking up the car to increase ground clearance murders the handling.

.

Additionally,IME the high roof line of an XC70 would be a real pain in the arse spine for a short arse mechanic doing a bike change.

 

[themosquitoking]

On the subject of motors - how many vehicles are there in the TdF caravan ?
If anyone is going to stage 3, can they count them all ?

I'll count the vehicles and the bikes for a commission.

 

[Bollo]

..... and the ITV TV lorry (probably full of rubbish commentators and stuff).

Phil and Paul fly about in an invisible plane that they bought off Wonder Woman after she let herself go. That's how Paul can point out all the castles an' ting.

 

[alans]

Phil and Paul fly about in an invisible plane that they bought off Wonder Woman after she let herself go. .

that would be after The Invisible Man surprised her onto the mile-high club.