Expert: Adam - 4/3/2008

Question
My dad said that since my car is currently over 100,000 miles i should not rev up my car at all. its at 104 thousand to be exact. Now i know its not good to rev up your car but i'm not going to listen to that because i know nothing wrong will happen if u do as long as u dont redline. But my real question is y is there a redline? i know that there are things such as engine friction. but what's in the engine that causes friction? Only thing i know is that bigger engines have longer belts which has a harder time with rpm.

My last question is that why F1 cars have the tread going around the tire? if the car was nothing but slick tire i thought it would have more grip and handling.

Answer
Regarding tyre tread, it is part of teh current regulations that F1 tyres must be treaded. It is to reduce cornering speeds to make the cars safer as this is seen as preferable to altering circuits to slow down all the fast corners.

Other formulae still use slicks where cornering speeds are not such an issue.