[Land-speed] Aero Surfaces...

[joseph lance]

Instead of wings and flaps why not shape the belly pan or underside of the 
car to form a venturi and add downforce that way ?

It's already done to a degree with IRL, CART, F1 cars and setting correct 
ride-height is necessary to properly "tune" the venturi.

The venturi down force could be made adjustable by bleeding some airflow 
upwards out of the venturi section as desired--might be easier to implement 
than building controlled wings or other aerodynamic surfaces. It may be that 
the additional drag from the venturi would be less than that due to wings 
for an equivalent amount of down force ( probably already known in secret F1 
inner sanctums). Maybe some list member could talk to Panoz or Dallara 
people about the venturi effect and it's application to LSR.

An alternate is the separate "sucker" fans as in the old Can-Am cars, but 
that requires a lot of complicated additional equipment and that much down 
force necessary for high g cornering isn't needed for straight-line salt 
running, so it might not be attractive cost/benefit wise either.

A fixed rudder can improve straight line stability but a moveable rudder to 
recover from a spin condition is another story. Would the frantic driver 
have to control both rudder and steering separately ? Link steering and 
rudder control together ? How and to what degree ? Use only the rudder for 
"at speed" steering ? Could work but very hairy to implement with lots of 
development and different driving skills required.

Lance


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "drmayf" <drmayf at mayfco.com>
To: "LSR" <land-speed at autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 12:25 PM
Subject: [Land-speed] Aero Surfaces...


> Us geezers were having breakfast this morning at our usual haunt and the
> subject of aerodynamic surfaces came up. In this case, moveable
> aerodynamic surfaces. This would be int he form of say a rudder on a
> tail or a set of flaps on the trailing edges of wings.  These would be
> moveable during a run down the course. The question is legality. I do
> not see anything in the rule book that actually prevents this, so are
> moveable aerodynamic surfaces legal in any vehicle?  I can see where
> horizontal surfaces with flaps could enhance traction by putting more
> down force on the vehicle and I can see how a rudder with a moveable
> surface could help recover from an upset condition such as a spin.  So
> what's the answer? Anybody have an "in" with tech and rules committee?
> No, this is for discussion and curiosity only. I do not even have a
> spoiler on my car (yet).
>
> Thanks,
>
> mayf
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