The recent issues of Racecar Technology (or whatever the name is)has some
really interesting articles on aerodynamics and race cars. You should pick
up a few back issues. There's a couple of aerodynamic simulators available
that look promising. I'm trying to get a little time with one--I know some
guys on a for-real race team that are experimenting with them. I'm working
on a CAD model of Peyote, but it's going very slowly. I think it's a lot
more trouble to model an existing design than design from scratch.
The answer to the question is don't know. But you could find out fairly easy
given a few friends and an empty track. Changes like that show up only at
the top end, and you're only there for a few seconds per lap. You wouldn't
see a change in lap times that couldn't be equally dependant on doing a
slightly better job coming out of a critical corner, but you should be able
to see it at the end of the straight.
Incidentally, did you folks see the F1 qualifier. Wow! That was really cool.
Those boys can drive. the new Renaults look very impressive. It was probably
better than the race is going to be. Every year I get really enthusiastic
about watching F1, and by the middle of the season I'm deleting them off
tivo without watching anything but the last ten laps of the race.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net
To: fot@autox.team.net
Sent: 3/5/2005 9:32 AM
Subject: aerodynamics question
Question for my fellow tech freaks.
I understand that the frontal area that those little air molecules see
is
the total profile of the front of the car.
I also understand that the shape of the front changes the wind
resistance
(pointed object versus a brick).
my question is this: ignoring the cooling situation, if you replace the
grille in a TR4 with a flat panel, does this change the aerodynamic
resistance?
The NASCAR guys tape off the front opening to go faster...........
uncle jack
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