Call me crazy if you like but it seems to me that the end plates are offset, so
that one doesn't shield the other from the side. It also strikes me that as
the car gets further sideways the effective area (relative to the direction of
travel) of those end plates increases. It seems to me that they're a good way
to help get the car straight when it gets really sideways in the corners. It
also strikes me that the horizontal (more or less) part of the wing should
generate some downforce. Well there you have it: "multi-tasking" in it's
purest form! Am I close?
Rick Brown <free2000@quixnet.net> wrote: Subject: Re: autox stuff- need big
wing_
> "Rocky Entriken" wrote:
>
> > Yeah, but a sprint car wing is way different from what an A Mod would
> want.
> > an AM wing is more along the lines of an Indy car wing or one of Jim
> Hall's
> > early Can-Am wings, while the sprint car wing is a big bed mattress with
> > monster sideplates -- which are asymmetric because it is working in a
> > dirt-oval turn attitude most of the time.
>
> For an interesting way to kill an hour:
>
> 1) Get a picture of a sprint car mid-corner, preferably from up top
>
> 2) Measure the yaw angle
>
> 3) Make a rough measurement of the size of the wing and the endplates
>
> 4) Make a little scale model of the wind and endplates (cardboard works
> fine)
>
> 5) Glue it to a chunk of cardboard at the same yaw angle as you measured
in
> step 2
>
> 6) Look at the wing from the perspective of the air (ie, 0 degrees yaw)
>
> 7) Notice that the endplates completely mask the actual airfoil section.
>
> 8) Realize then that the airfoil section sees no real airflow
Not true. Air would not flow straight back from the end plate so you still
have some air flowing over the horizontal wing. The end plate is also a wing
and air will flow around it just like a wing in the horizontal plane. A
flat piece of material is just as much a wing as your typical curved
section - having the upper surface "longer" is not what provides lift (or
downforce), it's the angle of attack into the air. The end plate helps the
car turn the corner by providing "lift" toward the inside of the turn. This
all just an educated guess on my part having recently learned how a "wing"
really works, but I think I'm right.
>
> 9) Ponder what the REAL purpose of this wing is. *
See above. > (*for a clue, look at a picture of a sprint car mid-corner as
taken from
> the front. See something odd?)
>
> DG
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