Old F1 Cars

[chris sideways]

Just been watching some old F1 footage from the 80's and early 90's and wonder why they always seem to have vapour trails trailing from the rear wings at speed and why does it not happen anymore? looks cool along with all the sparks flying up from the bottom of the cars.
Chris

[[k]ar|]

I think they were vortices coming off the rear wings, made visible by humid air or rain. I guess the more restricted aero regs we have nowadays must have caused the effect to diminish/disappear. Skidblock sparks always looked great

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHf-Ru9JwRI

[k]

[D_Mike]

I have always wondered why they don't stipulate the cars have big titanium skidblocks as the sparks look very cool and add a lot to the drama of the thing.

I think that the bigger the vortices the greater the drag... so they try to have smaller vortices coming off their rear wings now because it means their aero is more efficient.

[spectatorsam]

I always wondered about the presance of loads of ( avoidable) sparks... fire risk, flamable vapours etc
if you picked up a fuel leak and a spark caught it.........................






that said Idont remember it ever happening,
but equaly my house hasn't burned down either ..... yet

[Roy C]

D_Mike said:

I have always wondered why they don't stipulate the cars have big titanium skidblocks as the sparks look very cool and add a lot to the drama of the thing.

I think it's because they now have a flat underside to reduce airflow control under the car.

[jacobyte]

The ride height of F1 cars is higher than it was in days of yore (to reduce ground-effect aero). This, coupled with the wooden plank that they have to run underneath, means that they do not ground out as often as they used to, and when they do, you only get to see sawdust instead of sparks.

[Eric Mc]

Fi cars have had mandatory flat bottoms since the 1983 season.

[D_Mike]

the cars now have a 10mm wooden plank on the underside that musn't show more than 1mm of wear after the race. I reckon they could just embed lumps of titanium in that, though... or just make the rules have titanium skidblocks that will ground out before the plank, so we get exciting sparks.

[Martin Keene]

Eric Mc said:

Fi cars have had mandatory flat bottoms since the 1983 season.

Or a mandatory stepped bottom since ~1998...

[MrKipling43]

I thought flat bottoms had been banned too...

[FourWheelDrift]

I think what Eric meant was all F1 cars are designed to have and must have a flat bottom, the FIA mandated a step to the floor in 1994, this was created by adding a plank of 10mm Jabroc (a special laminate) so it's not actually part of the car, it's an FIA addition.

[Martin Keene]

FourWheelDrift said:

I think what Eric meant was all F1 cars are designed to have and must have a flat bottom, the FIA mandated a step to the floor in 1994, this was created by adding a plank of 10mm Jabroc (a special laminate) so it's not actually part of the car, it's an FIA addition.

Nope... The section of the floor that the plank is added to is called the 'Reference Plane' and the outer sections of the floor, basically the bits under the sidepods have to be 50mm above the 'Reference Plane'.

[Eric Mc]

The original flat bottom rule of 1983 was set to abolish inverted aerofoil shapes under the car or buried in the sidepods. Essentially, the aim was to kill the generation of negative pressure areas under the cars.

Look at the difference between a 1982 and a 1983 car to see the radical effect this rule change had.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 4th January 18:35