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Honda made an all-magnesium Formula 1 car at one point. The result was horrific.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
zabzonk 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RA302 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RA302 for those interested. the article seems to say it was mg skinned, which would make it even more combustible, as the skin would be thin magnesium is far from being easily machinable, so a chassis/airframe/cube made out of the pure metal is unlikely
- jacquesm 4y ago
  You really don't want to use pure magnesium anywhere you can avoid it. But alloys are perfectly safe and are even permitted for airplane cabin construction. It's quite ok to machine, though it tears easily so you have to be careful on your final pass not to accidentally remove much more material than you intend to. And if it is pure magnesium you'll want to be pretty careful about your cutting speeds and coolant ;) That crash looks horrific by the way. Whoever thought that combination was a good idea didn't have their head screwed on properly. That really was quite predictable.
  - omnicognate 4y ago
    > A second RA302 was built, with slight modifications, earmarked for Surtees to drive at the 1968 Italian Grand Prix, but he again refused to drive it. They built a car so flammable their driver refused to drive it. The driver they used in his place was then incinerated on the 2nd lap. So they built another equally flammable car and asked the first driver if maybe he'd now be up for driving it? I'd love to have heard that conversation.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      I'm guessing that it was short and contained a couple of choice expletives. What on earth were they thinking.
  - rodgerd 4y ago
    This was the era when it was normal to have at least one fatality per season amongst the drivers; 1968 had five drivers killed (although not all at Grand Prix). Safety features such as barriers were optional at tracks, and could be straw bales, spectators had no minimum distance from the track, fire extinguishers were optional. Fuel tanks with bladders weren't introduced until 1970, rescue equipment and firefighting crews weren't required until 1973, flame retardent suits weren't standardised until 1975. Oh, and medical facilities and staff weren't required until 1980. It was an era when drivers were considered completely expendable, and being concerned with safety was cowardice.
ztrww 4y ago
The 1955 Le Mans disaster was even worse. 84 people died in large part because nobody close had any idea how to put out a magnesium fire…

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RA302 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RA302 for those interested. the article seems to say it was mg skinned, which would make it even more combustible, as the skin would be thin magnesium is far from being easily machinable, so a chassis/airframe/cube made out of the pure metal is unlikely

jacquesm 4y ago
You really don't want to use pure magnesium anywhere you can avoid it. But alloys are perfectly safe and are even permitted for airplane cabin construction. It's quite ok to machine, though it tears easily so you have to be careful on your final pass not to accidentally remove much more material than you intend to. And if it is pure magnesium you'll want to be pretty careful about your cutting speeds and coolant ;) That crash looks horrific by the way. Whoever thought that combination was a good idea didn't have their head screwed on properly. That really was quite predictable.
- omnicognate 4y ago
  > A second RA302 was built, with slight modifications, earmarked for Surtees to drive at the 1968 Italian Grand Prix, but he again refused to drive it. They built a car so flammable their driver refused to drive it. The driver they used in his place was then incinerated on the 2nd lap. So they built another equally flammable car and asked the first driver if maybe he'd now be up for driving it? I'd love to have heard that conversation.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    I'm guessing that it was short and contained a couple of choice expletives. What on earth were they thinking.
- rodgerd 4y ago
  This was the era when it was normal to have at least one fatality per season amongst the drivers; 1968 had five drivers killed (although not all at Grand Prix). Safety features such as barriers were optional at tracks, and could be straw bales, spectators had no minimum distance from the track, fire extinguishers were optional. Fuel tanks with bladders weren't introduced until 1970, rescue equipment and firefighting crews weren't required until 1973, flame retardent suits weren't standardised until 1975. Oh, and medical facilities and staff weren't required until 1980. It was an era when drivers were considered completely expendable, and being concerned with safety was cowardice.

ztrww 4y ago

The 1955 Le Mans disaster was even worse. 84 people died in large part because nobody close had any idea how to put out a magnesium fire…