Capps Body scraping.

[John Capps Sr.]

While i wont say who did it... and dont laugh at where my expericne comes from.. but i learnd about areo form a 1/10th scale tunnel...built by a r/c car company...lol... learned how to add tape skirts around the bodys that would fold when the car squated but pop back up on the straits... a Cup crew chief in the 90's saw me do it at an r/c race and asked.. found out later that he tried and got away with something like that at a couple Cup races till some one complained...lol

Somewhere in my collection is an old textbook on "deformable structures in fluids" or something like that. Most alcohol and fuel racers have tried to get a wing/body to "deform" somehow at speed to reduce drag (after the veh transits from the "traction-limiting-zone" to the "aero-limiting-zone" down track) but there are those pesky NHRA, NASCAR and INDYCAR rules. By the way, Dr. Kahm started laying back the windshields on early Daimler cars and that started the serious work on reducing drag.

John Capps Sr.

 

[Surfer Ed]

Dr Wunibald Kamm's theory is considered somewhat controversial. Some areodynamic professors don't agree that displacing the air without attempts to returning it to near the same flow is benefical. Some feel the "Kamm effect" can actually slow the foreward progress as the vacum at the rear applies a braking like force.

 

[John Capps Sr.]

Dr Wunibald Kamm's theory is considered somewhat controversial. Some areodynamic professors don't agree that displacing the air without attempts to returning it to near the same flow is benefical. Some feel the "Kamm effect" can actually slow the foreward progress as the vacum at the rear applies a braking like force.

Thanks for correcting my spelling. I try to stay with the way it was explained to me. There is now a theory that wing lift is not caused by the difference in amount of molecule hits top/bottom, but due to the void left by the wing (I think I saw it in one of the "TED" talks). All of that is over my head but I try to keep up on the new ways of looking at stuff.

We are lucky to be able to see the Kamm effect every time a funnycar or prostock does a burnout. What you see in the smoke trail is the rear spoiler causing a rotation that seperates a rotating mass from the "smoke trail" and the mass moving down to fill the void at the rear of the body. Kamm's thinking was that the energy it takes to move that displace air back into position in a laminar flow would take more energy than inducing a turbulance and using some of the stored energy in the turbulance to help move the air mass down into the void..., or something...???

I could be wrong in the way I explained it, but not far. By the way, I am not an engineer and not challenging anybody to a war of wits...!!!

John Capps Sr.

 

[sdwarf36]

While i wont say who did it... and dont laugh at where my expericne comes from.. but i learnd about areo form a 1/10th scale tunnel...built by a r/c car company...lol... learned how to add tape skirts around the bodys that would fold when the car squated but pop back up on the straits... a Cup crew chief in the 90's saw me do it at an r/c race and asked.. found out later that he tried and got away with something like that at a couple Cup races till some one complained...lol

On one of the "look what we found in our attic" type shows, they had the great niece of the Wright brothers that had a suitcase she found-filled with little metal pieces. Turns out they were prototype wing angles-that they were testing in their home made scale (and I presume the very 1st one) windtunnel. Historical hijack over.

Ferrari was doing some "flexy wing" stuff last year in F1. At certain speeds the front wing would move around to do ' something' that the other teams weren't--and were upset about. But I'm sure their Aero dept. has more budget than all the Force + Schumacher teams--combined.

 

[John Capps Sr.]

On one of the "look what we found in our attic" type shows, they had the great niece of the Wright brothers that had a suitcase she found-filled with little metal pieces. Turns out they were prototype wing angles-that they were testing in their home made scale (and I presume the very 1st one) windtunnel. Historical hijack over.

Ferrari was doing some "flexy wing" stuff last year in F1. At certain speeds the front wing would move around to do ' something' that the other teams weren't--and were upset about. But I'm sure their Aero dept. has more budget than all the Force + Schumacher teams--combined.

I didn't see the show on Wright Bros. wing thing, but there was an article on the final shape of the wings that seemed to "droop", making the plane less likely to make quick wing drop moves. (it is interesting that they bent the wings to steer rather than use flaps) Those guys spent a lot of research time.

The F-1 wing thing has really changed, just a few years ago if a wing was seen to deflect or shake over bumps, the teams were fined millions of $. Now they are allowed to use "stall-sensors" and adjust the wings on the track..., makes for better racing when cars actually pass each other GRIN.

 

[DrRocket]

.... But I'm sure their Aero dept. has more budget than all the Force + Schumacher teams--combined.

All that money, and their cars STILL suck!