| Here's
something you don't hear every day; You'll hear a 10-cylinder, 750 horsepower Asiatech Formula-1 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. |
| Click on the link to listen. Or, if you have a slow connection, right-click and save on your computer - it'll sound smoother if you play it after downloading. It's just 275 kbytes. (Sorry, the sound file is apparently corrupted at the end, but you'll still get the effect) |
| Asiatech.mp3 |
| How
did they do that? (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. |