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Visual Wind Tunnel

To: "Land Speed List" <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Subject: Visual Wind Tunnel
From: "John Beckett" <saltracer@servusa.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 19:11:41 -0400
Saw a little F1 qualifying over the weekend, something I don't normally get to
see. And they were running in the rain. Now we don't generally run cars at 180
MPH in the rain here in the US. Most interesting was how the air and water
moved over and around the car in those conditions. I tried to watch very
closely to see as much as possible. Water off the front tires was running
upwards  30 to maybe 40 degrees from the tire almost half again as much
frontal area as the tires original size. And a huge rooster tail of water
perhaps three times the size of the car in the back. Also noticed a haze 2" to
4" off the sides of the rear tires, adding considerably to their frontal as
well. Hard to tell if a Moon Disc would have helped this situation.

Just part of the inefficiencies the Lakester and Roadster guys have to
overcome.

JB






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