It's no S2000....

 

Everytime I want to feel stupid I just need to try to read this.

cool stuff, nicely done.

 

My CAD skills aren't that good. I just can't afford the time to fix the S2K model...as much as it pains me to come to that realization.

I think the LMP is pretty cool though. I'll throw up a lot more pics shortly. I've meshed the living daylights out of my "final" model. I say "final" because I am always seeing areas to add more detail to the car. I have a model with the McLaren-style horns on the air intake too

This car produces so much downforce, its silly. It's also illegal by current racing regs with the full length venturi tunnels...

 

so looks like most race car anyway has so much power CD isnt very important Down force is how race are won.

 

Interesting point...

Even though racecars have a very poor drag coefficient, the power they make can (and does sometimes) compensate. There was an article a year or two back in one of the major U.S. auto mags where they tested a bunch of supercars in a fastest to one mile shootout. They also threw in a high powered open wheel racecar for comparison. The open wheeler dominated everyone up to about 200 miles per hour where it basically hit a brick wall (or an air wall in this case) and stopped accelerating.

Take two very different tracks, the old Hockenheim and Imola.

Hockenheim had VERY long straights (even longer before the kinks) and a small low speed infield section. Engineers dramatically reduced the downforce when racing at Hockenheim because more time could be cut focusing on top speed for the straights than cornering performance for the twisty infield section. Before changes were made to the track, F1 cars routinely hit 220+ on the straights and they were still pulling hard.

On the other hand, Imola lacks the high speed straights present at the German track. In their place are hills, small medium and large radius turns, a half bus-stop and a host of really tricky combinations of bends. The average car speed is dramatically lower than Hockenheim. Engineers dial in substantially more downforce for this track because the added grip far outweighs the additional drag imposed on the cars.

I made this chart here to show how the two tracks differ. This is in no way scientific but the trends shown would likely be similar to real world results.



One of the big problems with the Formula cars of today is that the aero packages have become very efficient. The cars are able to put down phenomenal levels of downforce and still retain a relatively low drag coefficient (for a racecar that is). The big issue with this is passing. The cars rely so heavily on downforce now that fresh, undisturbed air is a huge factor in performance. When a faster car (or driver) approaches another car from behind, they enter into a highly turbulent wake region. This dramatically reduces the approaching car's downforce. If both cars were to enter a high speed sweeper, the car attempting a pass is almost required to back off or it will understeer right off the track. This is why modern F1 races are more of a procession than a competition. Most races are won from the pits, not the tracks.

There are talks of fixing this problem for 2008. If the plan goes through, downforce levels will be reduced by 90% (thats right, 90%!!!), but overall drag levels will remain the same. Essentially, the aero efficiency will be reduced to that of a falling brick. The dominating factors in cornering performance will again be based in the tires, suspension and mechanical grip. Top speeds will not increase due to the drag retention of the current drag levels. Cars will be able to race MUCH closer to each other. I can't wait...

 

I usually do not like to make real world comparions to video games but I feel that this is fitting. I've played my fair share of Live for Speed lately. Bar none, it is the most realistic racing game on the market. If you haven't seen it/played it, you are truly missing out. Or you have a family or better things to do in your free time

The attential to physics is truly amazing, and like any good game, pretty much anything that can be tweaked in real-life can be tweaked in the simulation. In this case though, the tweaks behave with painful realism

Oh yeah, my point...

A specific track will be popular for a couple of weeks, with hundreds of players from around the world getting betterand better, tweaking and sharing their setups. Different setups favor specific driving styles. Some people prefer understeer, some prefer to hang the ass out a little more. With so many people playing, there exists a nice variety of driving styles and setups.

I may have a setup that has a relatively low level of downforce and I'll put down a pretty decent lap time with it. Another driver may have a setup that puts down nearly identical lap times, but with 20% more downforce. I'll try both sets, and will be unable to put down a better lap time with either. One enables higher speeds, the other enables higher cornering performance.

My point is that there isn't any one magical number for the desired level of downforce. Instead of that number being a peak, it is most likely a narrow plateau over a range of numbers. Once that plateau is found, it is most likely up to the driver to work with the aero engineers to squeeze that last 1 or 2% out of the package.

 

Ah yes...after a lot of time off of this little project, I've taken it back up. I'm still a long way from having a completed car model but I imagine I should have something to share sometime in the next few weeks. I'm pretty excited about this....

 

 

 

very, very cool!

awesome work