I was thinking it might be more complicated than that. I haven't seen a
weathervane at 300 or so mph.. My concern was the air detaching at some
given speed and changing the center of pressure. I was not assuming the
airflow over the car is identical at every speed.
dave
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-land-speed@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-land-speed@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Skip Higginbotham
> Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 11:14 AM
> To: Keith Turk; land-speed@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Weight distribution?
>
>
> Yes it should be measured as everything else associated with aero
> stability. I hope I don't have to do the technical explanation of a
> weathervane.............
> S
>
>
>
> At 08:32 AM 7/17/04 -0500, Keith Turk wrote:
> >This whole conversation is interesting... but what I learned last year is
> >that each car is different...and has it's own desires... some cars like
> >weight on the rear... some like it on the front...
> >
> >Dave's right on the point that Ground speed equates to air speed over the
> >car and any body going through the air is defined as an airfoil.... some
> >produce lift and some don't... some even produce downforce... ( geez the
> >nerve of them body's )
> >
> >The goal is to have a car that's relatively neutral or free of drag or
> >unwanted downforce... and again... Dave's right.. to know that
> you have to
> >measure it... or guess and make ASSumptions....
> >
> >The key here is Unwanted downforce as some might be desirable in your
> >situation.... like with the Berkeley... it's a light car... we might want
> >more or less downforce as we go down course and the air travels
> ever faster
> >over the car.
> >
> >Starting points in my mind have to be what's generally accepted as
> >reasonable ballast for a given class of car...
> >
> >Stock car body's seem to favor even weight.... longer cars seem to like
> >more on the rear... mine is at 66% on the back wheels.... ( I started
> >putting it in the trailer backwards as result too )
> >
> >K
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