924Srr27l
New member
John Sims said:If only Porsche had spoken to some bloke at MIRA when they designed the 944. Who would have thought that a Company like Porsche would have learnt nothing from the disasters of the early 916 and would have no comprehension of the aerodynamics of the 944. I am sure they didn't bother testing anything and the plastic panels on the belly of the Turbos were just put there so that they could charge more.
I seem to recall from Adrian Newey's book that he did Aeronautical design with a view to automotive design as there wasn't courses in aerodynamics at the time, as such. And wasn't it Colin Chapman who first considered wings on an F1 car? I also seem to remember sundry references to supposition and even testing causing contrary results when put into practice.
A Positive rake is not required for road use John, it uses more fuel and would of hurt the production consumption figures,
Only beneficial for Racing
Which bit are you calling the belly? Under the Engine or the rear under bumper diffuser spoiler?
Yes the point is Adrian studied aeronautics wing and flow design which gave him a better understanding of the principles of aeroplane wings that he could apply in reverse to an automotive Racing application, some modern designers have only studied CFD and hence why as you mentioned some of this info does not correlate to the track!
There are still lots of Employees working in F1 that are old Skool from the 1980's, these people were so much more hands on they have much more of a idea than some of the newer breed who can only draw on CAD, Even Adrian still sticks to pencil and a drafts board and he has never wanted to reteach himself Computer aided designing...
In 1973 My father was with BRM and la mechanic with Niki Lauda who you may know sadly passed away this week(RIP), in these days there were no computers telemetry on the car at all, only the driver could and would know what the car was or wasn't doing, but best of all only a very select few (Niki Included) understood how to make the car handle better.
Today's F1 is no different as in many people all have the same job but some people are far more exceptional at understanding the art of making car's faster, where others fail or to be PC are just not as talented.
R