Motorsport: BMW's mean machine

Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber tests the new Williams FW27 on a Spanish racetrack in preparation for the Melbourne Grand Prix next month. Picture / Reuters

For the technically minded, some facts and figures about the new Williams FW27, which will be driven by Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld in the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix next month.

Unofficial estimates reckon each car represents $50 million of expenditure.

These details come from the Williams website:

* 1.3 terabytes of aerodynamic data processed (1 terabyte is a thousand million bytes, equivalent to 69,333 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica).

* 250,000 man hours of design time have been spent on the FW27, with a further 250,000 man hours required in fabrication and build.

* 4500 drawings have been produced in the design of the chassis. End-on-end, these drawings would stretch for 5350km, with a further 4000 expected to be produced to support the life of the cars. By the end of the season, drawings would reach from London to Buenos Aires.

* The FW27 will accelerate from standing to 200km/h in five seconds, and deceleration forces on board will reach 5g. 1g equates to driving into a brick wall at 30km/h.

* Brake temperatures to generate the deceleration will reach 600C in one second. On board the FW27, exhaust temperatures reach 950C and even the air temperature in the pneumatic valve system reaches temperatures two and a half times boiling point at 250C.

* The BMW engine contains 5000 individual components, and takes 100 man hours to build. BMW have historically produced approximately 200 engines per season, but this figure will reduce in 2005.

* BMW produce 1000 drawings in the design of each engine. At 19,000 rpm, 316.7 revolutions and 1583.3 ignitions take place each second.