RE: DeltaWing To Race Le Mans In 2012

RE: DeltaWing To Race Le Mans In 2012

Author
Discussion

f111lover

143 posts

199 months

Friday 10th June 2011
quotequote all
I think it would be an interesting drive approaching Indianapolis.

lonefurrow

161 posts

258 months

Friday 10th June 2011
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But thank you ACO for allowing/promoting something different - modern racing is so restricted in design compared to 20+ yrs ago.

Also, anyone remember the Equinox doc from about 1989 on Ben Bowlby? I seem to remember that the narrative was around him doing an OU engineering degree and building his own car for the Clubmans class, and that Lola offered him a job at the end of it. Off to check You Tube...

nickfrog

21,867 posts

223 months

Friday 10th June 2011
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Not sure why so many posters claim that low weight at the front will reduce grip there and promote understeer. I always thought that lateral grip was inversely proportional to weight, ie the lighter the front end the more lateral grip as the centrifugal force is lower and therefore requires less friction to be overcome which in turns means higher speed before the front end loses that grip. The narrow front track width would be the big issue in terms of understeer.

Edited by nickfrog on Friday 10th June 13:49

Snoggledog

8,232 posts

223 months

Friday 10th June 2011
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AJLintern said:
Snoggledog said:
I'm puzzled as to why it's been designed as an 'open wheel' car. Surely the aerodynamics would be easier and more efficient with an enclosed wheel design.
It's not an 'open wheel' car though...? scratchchin Did you not mean it would be lower drag with an enclosed cockpit?
Sorry, I didn't explain what I was getting at that well. By open wheel, I mean that there is no bodywork over the top of the wheels so that they are in effect 'exposed' and in the open.

anniesdad

14,589 posts

244 months

Friday 10th June 2011
quotequote all
Snoggledog said:
AJLintern said:
Snoggledog said:
I'm puzzled as to why it's been designed as an 'open wheel' car. Surely the aerodynamics would be easier and more efficient with an enclosed wheel design.
It's not an 'open wheel' car though...? scratchchin Did you not mean it would be lower drag with an enclosed cockpit?
Sorry, I didn't explain what I was getting at that well. By open wheel, I mean that there is no bodywork over the top of the wheels so that they are in effect 'exposed' and in the open.
:mybrainhurts:

confused

ajprice

29,118 posts

202 months

Friday 10th June 2011
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Snoggledog said:
Sorry, I didn't explain what I was getting at that well. By open wheel, I mean that there is no bodywork over the top of the wheels so that they are in effect 'exposed' and in the open.
Yes there is. The tops of the wheels and tyres are covered.

FourWheelDrift

89,523 posts

290 months

Friday 10th June 2011
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Added for Le Mans, the original Indycar concept didn't.



But then I think it shouldn't have had bodywork in front or behind the wheels.

AJLintern

4,239 posts

269 months

Friday 10th June 2011
quotequote all
Ah ok, didn't realise there was a previous version - I guess they weren't enclosed for Indycar due to some regulation. If they wanted to make it really slippery they would have enclosed the face of the wheel too though, allowing for brake cooling, steering angle etc.

lonefurrow

161 posts

258 months

Friday 10th June 2011
quotequote all
lonefurrow said:
But thank you ACO for allowing/promoting something different - modern racing is so restricted in design compared to 20+ yrs ago.

Also, anyone remember the Equinox doc from about 1989 on Ben Bowlby? I seem to remember that the narrative was around him doing an OU engineering degree and building his own car for the Clubmans class, and that Lola offered him a job at the end of it. Off to check You Tube...
OK, couldn't find the whole programme, but here's an interesting excerpt, particularly in historical context to what he is doing now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLPkR_hDUtg

bsdnazz

762 posts

259 months

Saturday 11th June 2011
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lonefurrow said:
OK, couldn't find the whole programme, but here's an interesting excerpt, particularly in historical context to what he is doing now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLPkR_hDUtg
There were two Channel 4 programs in the Equinox series - the Dyslexic Engineer and the Nuts and Bolts of Ben Bowlby. I've not found either in full online.

urquattro

755 posts

192 months

Saturday 11th June 2011
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bsdnazz said:
First things first, Ben and I are first cousins so anything I say will be slightly informed and obviously biased!

Firstly, there's the WWW site.

Ben has lots of experience designing, building and in his early days driving race cars. Starting with his Special Saloon SC100 and Vauxhaul Clubmans that he built as a teenager and university student he then moved to Lola designing Indy 500 winning cars and finally on to the cars he designed and built at GForce. Then there's the wind tunnel in a tunnel and now Delta Wing.

The delta wing car is a very interesting concept and is an attempt to design a racing car from scratch.

The principle idea behind the Delta Wing car is to reduce drag. Instead of high down force, high drag, high power cars what would happen if you started with low drag as the main aim? How can down force be obtained and how much power would be needed to get decent racing speeds?

The short answer is 235MPH with 325BHP and out accelerate a 2010 Indy car with 630BHP!

A lot of thought has gone into the design and I'm really looking forward to seeing it as Le Mans in 2012.
Wish Ben was my cousin so I could follow this within a family environment. the guy has such credentials that rubbish issue have been dealt with, particulary the steering efficiency.
Great and I am sure this car will funtion and has more than an even chance of being at LM in 2012.
Brilliant, Aston Martin have dropped a major b..lk, going there and both car/engine packages failing embarrissingly early, should not have been there if not engineered. Bad publicity AM !!

Mojoker

1 posts

160 months

Friday 17th June 2011
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The people behind this project know what they're talking about. Read the various articles by Gordon Kirby where he interviewed and reviewed all the main entries for the future of Indycar (or whatever they're called) http://www.gordonkirby.com/categories/columns/thew...

masseyis

22 posts

184 months

Tuesday 2nd August 2011
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Oh, but please make it free for anything < 1K - PH is the home of the shed, can you keep it that way?