New IndyCar design is CRAZY
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
in Lifestyle
These aren't even concept cars; this is the real deal. What a radical redesign.
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Designed by Schick & Gillette.
I believe this is the new Wheldon body kit....wait I thought these were supposed to go into use back in 2012?
Yo dawg I heard you like spoilers...
A little info: This is the road course/short oval aero kit. The Indy one will probably look a bit different. The kits are designed to provide an identity competition between the makers (Chevy & Honda for now) like they did back in the day (See Lola, Reynard, Alfa Romeo, Dallara, Cooper, and my favorite, The 1980 Chapparal). What you are seeing is intended to provide more downforce during a road course/ street course race (such as Belle Isle, the closest IndyCar track to ICHQ. It's literally in the heart of Detroit.), therefore producing better cornering speeds. I'll let the rest of "IC Racing" ( @pseudonym , @Jammin1911 , @doabarrellroll , @XGPHero , @UPSLynx , @CannonFodder , @BuddyJ , @Ryder ) elaborate.
i freely admit to an extremely limited knowledge of open wheel racing, and indy/formula one specifically, but i have a decent understanding of down force and aerodynamics.
that being said, it seems to me that by having that "gillette mach 3" (courtesy @thrax) front end, you could gradually increase the angle of the spoilers(thus increasing downforce), without increasing drag as much as if you had a single spoiler (generating the same downforce). also, the additional downforce would be most important in the front, for tight turns. anyway, those are just my thoughts, please take them with a grain of salt, and feel free to correct me.
Holy crap. Just when I thought you wouldn't be able to get any more nuts that the newest F1 nose wing:
I'm stoked to see Indycar taking such a radically different approach. I've never been a fan of the rear cowls they put behind the back wheels, I know it's mostly for safety but the car starts to not feel like an open wheel racer. But I digress. This new car looks fantastic.
Next thing you know, they be adding extra wheels.
Owate...
Clarification: Belle Isle is actually on the edge of Detroit. It's an island that skirts the border between Michigan and Ontario. As of 2013 it's now officially a state park as well, so while it technically belongs to Detroit it is operated by the State of Michigan.
I've gotten to attend the Belle Isle Detroit Grand Prix for the last two years through work. It's an amazing series. I can't wait to see these cars on the track this year
So, they discovered slotted flaps? That's cool.
It's amazing a front wing of that size is even allowed. Also, their radiator ducts are TINY. I realize these engines in qualifying trim make close to what the V6 F1 engines make with 1/3 more displacement, but, that's pretty cool if they can get away with that. The Indy cars are still slow AF sadly, it seems kind of a let down seeing a car that looks like it could launch into the stratosphere but goes around a corner like a Camry.
I look at this as a rule change. The sanctioning body, most likely, used to now allow anything like this. They have relaxed the rules and this is what engineers have come up with.
Typically what a car looks like has to do with the rules. If you don't specifically have a rule against it, then expect the racer to come up with something that improves performance/speed. People can get very creative.
My sense here is that it helps manufacturers get more "street cred" on the racing circuits around the country. Other than the bowtie or the giant COSWORTH logo on the side, it was very difficult for me to tell which car was who at the last Long Beach GP I attended. There are only 6 oval course races this year, so, the cars will feature these aero packages more often than not.
If I'm blatantly honest, it looks as though an 8 year old designed the aero package in the first post. In slow corners, the aero doesn't typically do a whole lot unless they use some kind of blown diffuser like in F1 years past. I've usually seen Indy as being roughly 10 years behind the design of F1, so, in some ways, it reminds me of the crazy aero designs of 05'-08' in F1. You have to remember that any aerodynamic change is a compromise between slowing the car down and increasing cornering speed or making it more slippery and having it fast in a straight line. Having the bigger manufacturers build these kits helps keep the costs down (as traditional in American motorsport) thus making the racing more competitive (COUGH COUGH W05 COUGH COUGH). There are no factory teams in Indycar and thus no real collusion of engine/chassis choices. For example, one of the stipulations in F1 when Mercedes started selling their 2.4L V8 to Force India was that they had to run their engines at 90%, the last 10% was unavailable. That's messed up...
TL;DR: All in all, I think for the most part, it's all for show and will have little impact on overall speed of the cars. It's gonna grab the attention of viewers and thus garner more interest in the motorsport as well as the manufacturers.
The 6 wheeled Tyrrell is like the bastard child of F1. Ironically enough, the Brahbam fan car was even weirder. Ecclestone's attempt at breaking the rules that lasted only 1 race.
If you want to see something cool about some of the history of aerodynamics in motor racing, there are a series of cool documentaries about it. My favorite is called "1 - Life on the Limit". Like when Lotus first designed their ground effects, Colin Chapman asked the mechanics to always huddle around the back of the car while sitting outside the garage. They duped the rest of the teams into thinking they had some trick gearbox, when in actuality, they had designed the first ground effects system under the car making the car 3 seconds a lap faster than everything else. O.o
Anybody in the Bay Area is welcome to come by and watch it on my projector
My bad. I admit I was a little off on the location.
You should see what Jackie Stewart had to say about the Tyrrell.
So the question is when are they going to add the blades, jump springs, cannons, hammers ETC.
This totally reminded me of an old Road and Track mag that reviewed the Mach 5. 6 G's on the skidpad, LOL.
You should see the aero packages students are using in FSAE competition these days. The cars look like minisprints. They're wings with wheels!
Wings in this case. I am so in for this thread tomorrow when I'm not on my phone. The books I shall write!