BAR's F1 world record attempt

Beast,

You should also check out this site http://www.indyracing.com/tech/wings.php

Bob

 

I read about this in "Racecar Eng." magazine

Here is a discussion back a couple of years ago about blow overs in the IRL

http://www.trackforum.com/forums/printthread.php?threadid=34548&perpage=123

 

Beast, I didn't read your link...however, I think this benefit would only work on tracks where drivers had the ability to be full throttle for a complete lap. I don't follow IRL so I don't know how common an occurance this is.

 

This does only apply to tracks where the car runs flat out like at Indy. If you dig up some back issues of Racecar eng. they had a bunch of articles about the IRL blow overs. Mostly in the wake of the Tony Renna accident at IMS in late 2003.

Here is one quote from the March 04 issue.

 

They cannot take the wings off entierly as the rules require them. Also they are used to balance the car durring the race the only other way would be to move ballest at pit stop. For example if they run the wings flat and the car is still over steering the only way to reduce aerodynamic grip on the front is to go from a flat angle to a lifting angle to further reduce the down force on the front of the car.

The front wing has the only means to make radical changes to Aero balance. Changes to the wickerbill on the rear wing is mainly there to make quick changes to the rear downforce of the car but it is minimal due to the suction created by the tunnels in the side pods.

 

The other thing I think you have missed is that the downforce is NOT created by the wings but by the sidepod tunnels (as CART cars use "ground effects as F1 did in the 80's" minus the skirts [I think] and thus not flat bottomed like F1 cars).

Thus remove the wings and they still would be producing downforce.
Pete

 

Ok, makes perfect sense. Thanks for the enlightenment.

 

Date range for this attempt now set between Oct 4 and Oct 11. Gives them a week to choose days for the best weather conditions. Should be very interesting. Anyone know if SpeedTV will be covering this ?

On a side note currently JPM has the distinction of the being the fastest man clocked driving an F1 car when he went 367 kph on Aug 25 when he broke the Monza lap record.

 

Yes ! I stand corrected. I hadn't read that but a quick search did indeed confirm KR was clocked at 370. Thanks.

 

The Indy car thing has come up before, as PSK points out, they are still producing a ton of downforce even when the wings are setup for a small amount of lift.

I thought Mark Webber ran 371 at Monza in practice, and Kimi held the during a race record at 370.

I don't think 250mph is much to be concerned about, and the parachute is a bit theatrical. They were running 230 on a track last weekend where there is plenty of "instant deceleration" obstacles to keep in mind should one crash. There's nothing out on the salt flats... That said, it's totally bad ass, and I for one give BAR a lot of credit for continually doing outside the box thinking.

 

I have ...Villeneuve 375 km/h and Montoya 374 km/h during test days at Monza. (3 weeks ago) And yes Kimi did 370 km/h during race day.

 

Cos you can't stick sponsor stickers to thin air!!

I think the safety concerns about the BAR attempt are a bit excessive, as has been mentioned they do not far off 400km/h at Monza already, and there's a lot more stuff to hit there
Additionally, I'd be more inclined to be sitting in a megabuck, crash-tested, regulated to the moon F1 car in a 400km/h crash than I would some of those "home" built jobs that run out there at the same sort of speeds - not that I'm suggesting those aren't safe or well-engineered, I'm sure they are, but there have been a lot of F1 crashes in the last ten years and they've all provided data to improve safety even further.

 

I think this idea is kind of dumb. They should instead see how fast they can get the thing around the real Nurburgring.

 

I was thinking the same thing.....250 is fast but not so amazing. The single unofficial lap record at Indy is somewhere around 239.

 

The fastest achieved last year was 369kmph by Pizzonia at Monza.

The reduced downforce this year helps the cars on the straights, but hampers them considerably in the corners. That's why we have higher top speeds this year (on some tracks... depends on the entry to the straight) yet lap times 1 - 2 seconds slower than last year.

 

Apparently the flats are under an inch of water. Bummer.

 

Scanned the thread quickly, but didn't see the link...

http://www.bonneville400.com/flash/default.aspx

Craig

 

very cool, would like to see on TV.

 

They should do afew runs with current 2005 specs, and afew without the specs, just to see the difference.

 

Apparently BAR on Fri ran at the Mojave airport and did two-way runs that averaged over 400 km/h. The last run was 415. Seems they can't get to Bonneville until May or June next year for their runs there.

 

Not quite sure how CART could've claimed rights to that as I'd think that would have to go to a Top Fuel dragster.