Anybody notice Ferrair's rear wheels?

[PiB]

I guess I forgot how to upload images but it's nothing more then a hub cap as far as I can see - prolly for aero - just like Indy used to have in the early 90's late 80's. Not on the front I suspect for better cooling. Could it be for something else?

[FourWheelDrift]

Here's the Penske of 1991. Very similar sort of thing. They also used to run discs on the rear wheels only in the BTCC and the DTM.

[D-Angle]

You mean these:


Ferrari say they are just part of the brake ducting, and nothing to do with aero. I say bullst. Either they'll be gone in a couple of races, or everyone will start using them.

[deevlash]

I had disks on the rear wheel of my soapbox racer. It was made for a uni project where we had to make them for an end of year race down a hill in glasgow. It was all welded up and you sat in it like an f1 car had brake lights and a proper steering rack and a removable steering bar. Needless to say I drove it for my team and we won, whilst absolutely destroying the red bull sopabox race champs who turned up to show us how it was done, ha ha ha

[Nicholas Blair]

Brundle had an issue with them and clearly stated they were illegal - nothing appears to have happened though.

[SamHH]

Ferrari have been using these all year but they've made them bigger recently. Toyota have been using them since the Nurburgring and Toro Rosso since Hungary.

Toro Rosso wheels:

[combemarshal]

They must be illegal, They are for Aero, anything that is for aero must not move in relation to the sprung part of the car.

[SamHH]

combemarshal said:

They must be illegal, They are for Aero, anything that is for aero must not move in relation to the sprung part of the car.

What about the suspension?

Edited by SamHH on Wednesday 30th August 11:02

[tankerman24]

Does anybody remember a few years back one of the Champ cars had similar wheels but they lit up spelling the team name, very cool especially on an oval at night.One of the cars at Rockingham a few years back had them.

[combemarshal]

SamHH said:

combemarshal said:

They must be illegal, They are for Aero, anything that is for aero must not move in relation to the sprung part of the car.

What about the suspension?

Edited by SamHH on Wednesday 30th August 11:02

Suspension parts are Aero Neutral, well thats the theory, but it is rather important!

[chassis 33]

SamHH said:

What about the suspension?

There's something in the regs that says that while they can be shaped to reduce drag, the wishbones may not induce any downwards force.

Regards
Iain

[LongQ]

combemarshal said:

They must be illegal, They are for Aero, anything that is for aero must not move in relation to the sprung part of the car.

Nah,

They are for advertising to replace all the sections that the aero stuff makes it difficult to use.

They'll have spinners next ...

[Mr_Thyroid]

I don't know exactly what shape these things are or how they are attached to the car but I can just imagine them frisbeeing into the crowd in an accident.

Castrations and decapitations all round.

[SamHH]

combemarshal said:

Suspension parts are Aero Neutral, well thats the theory, but it is rather important!

I don't understand what you mean by "Aero Neutral". Like chassis 33 said, the wishbones cannot be shaped to create downforce but they are aerodynamic parts in the sense that they interact with the air and are designed to create as little drag as possible.

[[k]ar|]

Looking at it from a purely common-sense point of view, these rims must contravene the regulation stipulating that wheels must be of homogenous metallic material.

By claiming they are brake ducts, Ferrari are neatly sidestepping both this rule and the "moveable aerodynamic devices" rule. However, the rims must comply with the duct dimensional requirements - ie not protrude beyond planes parallel to the ground 160mm above & below the horizontal centreline of the wheels. This effectively limits their diameter to 320mm; yet the mandatory wheel size is defined by reference to a minimum wheel bead diameter of 328mm.

IMHO this means that if they are part of the wheels, they are illegal under the material regs; if they are brake ducts, they appear to break the dimension regs; if they are bodywork, they are moveable aero devices.

[k]

[combemarshal]

SamHH said:

combemarshal said:

Suspension parts are Aero Neutral, well thats the theory, but it is rather important!

I don't understand what you mean by "Aero Neutral". Like chassis 33 said, the wishbones cannot be shaped to create downforce but they are aerodynamic parts in the sense that they interact with the air and are designed to create as little drag as possible.

We said the same thing, just in different terms!

Aero Neutral, no Aero effect!

[Andy 308GTB]

tankerman24 said:

Does anybody remember a few years back one of the Champ cars had similar wheels but they lit up spelling the team name, very cool especially on an oval at night.One of the cars at Rockingham a few years back had them.

Yup I remember them. A friend invested a small amount of money in the company (he knew the guy who was setting it up)
I assumed that they would be standard issue considering the amount F1 teams charge for having a companies name on the back of a wing mirror but the idea appears to have fizzled out.
Inevitably, I cannot for the life of me remember what they were called though...

[Mr_Thyroid]

This seems like the same argument that surrounded the Brabham fan car. Which, incidentally, was never deemed illegal - it was withdrawn by the team and it's win in it's one and only race still stands today.