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Re: aerodynamics of racing?

To: William Schairer <wschaibe@ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: aerodynamics of racing?
From: Thomas Walter <twalter@austin.rr.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 08:50:36 -0500
Chaperral.  Yes, Jim Hall's team. Big "sucker fans" on the rear.
If the fan, or fan drive, failed at speed the car would leave
the track very rapidly. Something only from a Texan... ;-)

Who made the "two piece" air damn's? Upper fiberglass, lower is
stiff rubber. I found one in my closet I had forgotten about (510
item). Hmm, actually don't even remember when I bought it. Alas,
gave a friend a Momo steering wheel hub for his Datsun as I had
no use for it. Guess what I also finally found... the Momo wheel,
sans Hub.

I need to clean my closets out more often.

When I pulled out the carpet kit for Rodney, which went with the
car. Suddenly I discovered I had TWO carpet kits. One for a '67
another for a '68. I shipped both to Mike with the car, as I'll
let him figure it out.

More stuff for eBay. ;-)

Tom Walter
Austin, TX



William Schairer wrote:

> Wasn't there some guy, Jim Hall maybe, who designed an indy car that 
> actually sucked the air out from underneath the car to create a 
> vacuum.  Even though I have never been into racing much, I remember 
> it being a big controversy.  In the only race of that type I've ever 
> been to,  I saw it race at Ontario back in the late 60's.  The car 
> didn't finish and I think was banned the next year.
> 
> Bill
> San Diego
> 
> 
>>...and the reason why that is A Good Thing is that the underside of a normal
>>car is a very untidy, drag-inducing kind of place. Routing the air around the
>>car (with a little diverted to the front brakes for cooling) reduces 
>>drag. When
>>you get into purpose-built racing cars (Formula cars of various 
>>ilks, etc.) the
>>smooth bottom reduces or obviates the need for an air dam. I think that it was
>>in F1 (or maybe indy cars - I can't remember) some years back that some very
>>clever fellows used specifically-shaped channels in the bottom of the car to
>>accelerate the flow of air under the bottom of the car, increasing its
>>velocity, which decreases its pressure, creating  a negative delta P, or
>>downforce.
>>
>>Gary McCormick
>>San Jose, CA
>>
>>CalSpeed@aol.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>> In a message dated 8/29/01 6:08:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
>>> 9laser3@bright.net writes:
>>>
>>> > Looking for some on line help understanding the benefits of an air dam and
>>> > the best way to install one on a roadster?
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>> The airdam redirects the air around the car rather then it traveling
>>>
>> > underneath.  For the best airdam contact Les or Dennis at CDM.
>> >
>> > Calspeed

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