I'm gonna venture out on a limb here and guess that given the surface area of the front of an indy car (even the older ones) is substantially smaller than the surface area of an S2000, which would (to some extent) negate the drafting effect because an S2000 wouldn't really fit in the draft of an indy car.



...waating for technical corrections from J and WSB

 

No I think you're right. The small frontal surface will create less drafting effect. But the lack of wings and spoilers in the 50's would leave the air 'cleaner'.

Drafting hasn't really played into Indycars until very recently and even now not to the extent it plays in NASCAB.

 

NASCAB

 

 

!

 

perfect!

 

Trying to explain to a judge why I was going 145-150 for an extended period of time might be hard.

Or, worse...having a cop have to explain it to my parents while they scrape me off the pavement. Public roads = fail.

 

[QUOTE=jedwards,Jun 22 2007, 01:16 PM] [COLOR=red]Billy brings up a good point about the instantaneous fuel consumption but the best element for this discussion he has just raised it the issue of top up top down.

 

Actually the drag force only goes up 40%, provided no major ground effect transitions occur (highly unlikely). Engine, drivetrain, and mechanical (tire) friction hold fairly steady regardless of speed (above ~20 MPH at least), so the drag force increasing doesn't have quite as pronounced total effect. Drag will be the greater force by the time you're going 60, so for shits and giggles, you could estimate that 100 mph total force to be 25% more than at 85 (and thus 25% reduction in mileage).




BTW, interesting chart I came across...

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.shtml

Extrapolate that line out to 150.

 

That's what I get for working!