hey, not sure if anybody's looked at this yet, but the drag forces for the formula one car seem to be twice that of the nascar. did i write this down wrong?

3/27/2006 1:52:53 AM

who knows? maybe if you told us what the fuck you're talking about....

3/27/2006 2:27:35 AM

He's talking about the lab that MAE306 did last week that involved the wind tunnel in Broughton. He's doing a lab writeup and has a question about the drag forces relative to the two cars used.

I haven't started the writeup yet. Been a long weekend.

3/27/2006 2:56:10 AM

i have the same data. theoretically, it's not suppose to have a larger drag force. even, my ta doesn't know what's wrong. could have been something wrong with the car.

3/27/2006 9:51:34 AM

yes, the formula car is supposed to have a higher drag coefficient

it's because of the wide tires and spoiler. Formula cars have to go a lot faster than stock cars, so the designers give up some drag efficiency in favor of downforce given by the spoiler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_coefficient

Quote :

"For best cornering and racing performance, as required in Formula 1 cars, downforce and stability are crucial and these cars have very high Cd values."

Quote :

"0.7 to 1.1 - typical values for a Formula 1 car (wing settings change for each circuit)"

3/27/2006 10:07:30 AM

ah, explains a lot.

3/27/2006 11:40:02 AM

thanks a lot, makes sense now

3/27/2006 2:33:55 PM