How Fast does a Formula 1 Engine Go?

...asked Mrs B whilst watching the Belgium GP

"Limited to 19,000 rpm!" I said, "Formula 1 racing cars have their engines limited to 19,000rpm for the 2007 season"

"How fast is that?"

"Well essentially each piston in the engine of a Formula 1 engine (and there are eight of them) fires 19,000 times per minute. Let me put this into context for you. An old long playing LP rotated at 33 1/3rpm, which is 5700 times slower. Now bearing in mind the winner's (Kimi Raikkonen) average lap time was somewhere in the region 1min 49 seconds, it means that your favourite David Cassidy album would complete a lap of Spa in Belgium in a time of 171 hours (7 days 3 hours), given the race lasts approximately 44 laps, this means that a David Cassidy would complete the Belgium Grand Prix in approximately 314 days."