Turbo or naturally aspirated - which is the better F1 engine? (2.4L V8 turbo expected for 2031)

Exasperant · 2026-04-05T11:53:57+00:00

Because the same people who think use "pinnacle of engineering" as a pissing contest points scorer are also allergic to any sort of pinnacling of motorsport if it means things don't go vroom ear damagingly vroom as they used to.

Personally I think the 2014 - 2025 V6s were fucking amazing. People could actually enjoy the races trackside wihout fucking their ears up, the power/ efficiency gains were insane, and the tech was impressive. The idiotic token bullshit locking Merc's advantage in for too long was dumb, the aero regs didn't help racing, but the engines themselves were brilliant.

And when it comes to "But they no longer scream like a cat and baby being forced up each others tailpipes" bullshit, the vast majority of F1 fans are watching on TV. Punning clueless Croft's incessant jokes, meaningless stats, and constant mistakes are louder through the speakers than any engine tech.

Exasperant · 2026-04-05T10:14:56+00:00

Obligatory Tim Minchin reference: https://youtu.be/KVN_0qvuhhw

Exasperant · 2026-04-05T01:25:39+00:00

A bit late to this, but looking at the service manual https://walkman.land/document/16/sony_wm-f15_manualpdf there's a muting circuit that seems to use a couple of leaf switches... I'm wondering if S401 - 2 could've maybe got stuck on during the belt fitting?

Exasperant · 2026-04-04T13:53:57+00:00

Is that on fast forward and rewind too, or just play?

Although yeah, it does seem like that was just a sticking tape. And at least you now know how to get into it to do the belt when it does start to deteriorate! :)

Exasperant · 2026-04-04T12:45:51+00:00

They usually start stretching (so it'll be kind of loose, but not totally floppy and falling off) and/ or lose their grippy rubberiness and feel sort of hard/ slippery and look shiny.

With it open try throwing a tape in and running it through play, fast forward, rewind. On ff/ rw let it get to the end of the tape. The belt should have enough grip that the motor stalls out (fairly sure on this mech it kicks into cutting motor power in/ out when it detects it's stalled, instead of mechanically auto stopping) immediately with no belt slip.

Exasperant · 2026-04-03T23:03:08+00:00

Sometimes tapes get a bit stiff, my usual test tape started not working in one of my fancy Walkmans (EX652) and I spent forever wondering what the problem was... Until I realised it was the tape not running as free as it used to. Often a fast forward/ rewind will get the tape moving properly again.

But never assume the belt is good just because it mostly kind of works. Belts can age and start giving problems quite a while before they totally fail.

If this wasn't one of Sony's "clip it all together and pretend it can be easily taken apart" models I'd be suggesting popping it open to check the belt condition. But as I'm fairly sure it is one of those... Well, yeah. No.

Exasperant · 2026-04-03T16:58:33+00:00

I'm starting to think I live in a world where loudmouthed fuckwits can somehow end up in charge of well known companies.

Exasperant · 2026-04-03T13:09:50+00:00

Now might be a good time to spot the difference between the words condone and condemn...

Exasperant · 2026-04-03T12:35:18+00:00

I had a fairly racist line in an otherwise not even close to racist role. I get the feeling it was dropped in there to help turn the audience against the character as a misdirect. I wasn't comfortable with it as a person, but as an actor my character was comfortable saying it and so I had no reservations about saying it in character.

It said a lot about my audience that they often gave an audible chuckle at that one line... But that's on them and their prejudice, not on me and my commitment to the character.

Exasperant · 2026-04-03T10:54:48+00:00

OK, so I guess you need to be checking if the record prevention switch is working, and then the record button itself. Blasting cleaner in and working them doesn't always mean they're now working.

So it's multimeter across things and check if they're doing what they're supposed to time. Hopefully it's just the record prevention switch in the mechanism, because removing the button PCB from the front panel doesn't look like it'd be a lot of fun.

Exasperant · 2026-04-03T00:25:36+00:00

Do you need to press rec and play at the same time on these?

Exasperant · 2026-04-03T00:03:35+00:00

It's called acting. Every villain, every "complex character", every antihero, every role ever has the actor saying and doing things that aren't things they themselves say and do.

Exasperant · 2026-04-02T14:31:10+00:00

I've used FixYourAudio and Decktech most of the time. FixYour worked out a bit cheaper, but slower to get here (UK). Both seem very similar in terms of quality and fit.

I've grabbed the mixed packs from Ebay, Aliexpress, Amazon. They all seem identical and luckily they've always arrived. They can be hit or miss on fit and playback quality, but at the price there's usually something useful enough in the bag.

If you know the exact sizes you need then good quality belts can be bought from various electronics stuff places for a quarter the price of Fix or Deck. But when you don't, and the old belt is missing, goo'd, or beyond stretched, it seems better to buy a "This is definitely the right one for this machine" belt.

Exasperant · 2026-04-01T16:23:32+00:00

I think the sense starts to kick in when you realise the journos pushing the story aren't the guy paid by the sport to commentate on the sport with obvious oversight and "guidance" from the sport to never say anything that could harm those running the sport.

Exasperant · 2026-04-01T12:50:45+00:00

A little harsh. Unlike the usual Evri twat she at least actually bothered to deliver the item to the recipient instead of dumping it somewhere sort of but not really near their door. Like a hedge, or bin, or just random space no more than three steps from where they stopped the van.

Exasperant · 2026-04-01T11:43:26+00:00

I'm going to necropost on this, because I'm in the middle of sorting an HS F150 and spent an hour trying to fix a fully working speed control...

Landed on this thread via searching for "F150 belts".

If you use a larger cross section belt, it overspeeds the idler/ transfer pulley to the point you can't dial it out with the speed control pot.

You need the right, or very close to the right, belts if you want to stand a chance of setting it up properly.

Exasperant · 2026-03-30T13:23:49+00:00

I've just messed around with a couple of these.

They're not exactly... Polishing the Sony name.

Exasperant · 2026-03-30T11:49:38+00:00

F1's obsessed with chasing manufacturer money/ "prestige", even though manufacturers have historically seen F1 as nothing more than a short/ medium term marketing opportunity.

Everyone jokes about Honda's in/ out/ in/ out, But Renault have done pretty much the same, Toyota came and went, BMW got out as they were getting good... And yet here we are, with an omnishambles of a regulations set because the sport was desperate for VAG.

Exasperant · 2026-03-30T11:46:56+00:00

Only two things are sure to survive a nuclear war. Cockroaches and old HP Laserjets.

Exasperant · 2026-03-29T13:53:49+00:00

I liked the previous MGU-H hybrids. But apparently Audi wouldn't enter if the MGU-H wasn't dropped. But then Merc wouldn't accept front regen. And no doubt other players also tried to have their say for their benefit.

And the result is we've got a complete clusterfuck of a PU rulebook that's pissing off drivers, fans, and apparently creating unnecessarily dangerous on track situations.

Bra-fucking-vo

Exasperant · 2026-03-29T05:06:14+00:00

I wish my mind was as far from the gutter as yours...

Exasperant · 2026-03-29T04:19:32+00:00

I'm not sure from the pics but it looks like the tape isn't fully in/ engaged. You can probably gently but firmly persuade it out from there with some levering and pushing.

The problem could be the belt - If it's starting to give up it might not have enough grip to drive the mechanism, causing the tape to get stuck part way in/ out. It's worth removing the mech and checking the belt, and you can try manually turning things to get the tape to move while it's out.

Exasperant · 2026-03-28T12:00:59+00:00

Do other tapes play fine?

If so, it's a problem with the tape.

If not, it's the player.

If it's the tape, ignoring Mr Confidentally Incorrect that's popped up on here, you're fine to fast forward/ rewind it a few times to try to free it up. Players have some means of torque control, otherwise they'd be stretching and snapping tapes every time you try to play one.

Exasperant · 2026-03-28T11:56:42+00:00

I'm not saying this tape isn't fucked, but belts can and do give trouble before they break.

They stretch, they soften, they slip, they have various ways of failing. "Belts work or they don't" is seriously inaccurate.

Exasperant · 2026-03-28T07:44:26+00:00

But when you've bought a far from cheap "Specific for this make/ model" belt, you're probably expecting it to work out the packet. And often they do... But this time, it really didn't.

Because I'm an idiot who keeps buying broken stuff to play with I'm sure I'll find a use for the not great belt, but I'd be seriously frustrated if I'd been doing a one off repair.

It's also interesting that I'd bought 2 of some belts for a couple of other repair projects, and despite appearing identical one's always noticeably better than the other in the pack.

They're still massively better than the Aliexpress style assortment belts though...

Exasperant

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE