Friday, March 14, 2008

aero what?


No, it's not a magazine, and yes, I am literate. (like an elementary school book report, haha)

Competition Car Aerodynamics, by Simon McBeath.

Read it.

This literary masterpiece is an eye opener if you have any interest in the factors that dictate those complex shapes in F1 or Le Mans. Terminology is explained in plain english to schmoes like you or me, and the concepts are all extremely easy to understand. Always wanted to know more about Bernoulli's Theorem, Anhedrals, Dynamic Pressure, Pressure gradients and Reynolds numbers? Yes, yes, and yes please.

Surprisingly, a lot of the aero devices in use in competitive motorsports are actually NOT engineered to be the most aerodynamically efficient- a ton of it is to satisfy FIA regulatory requirements intended on DECREASING downforce, not to mention increase advertisement space. Who woulda thought? Further coolness points for the brief introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

And if you still can't get enough, or just want to look at pretty pictures and aren't literate- go to Mulsanne's Corner. (warning- you'll waste away your entire work day...)

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/

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