Vodafone McLaren MP4-27 Mercedes

[strad]

[wesley123]

Interesting. So how much downforce do think this car will make? What about drag? Where do think they can find downforce and reduce drag from the design? Do you think the car has better downforce and drag figures than the -26 or the RB8? Do you think it has a better or worse L/D than the -26 or the RB8?

I'm interested because you seem to be able to tell a lot from these few pictures and the "fact" that the car is "fat".

I am just giving my view, jeez. Why shouldnt we quit all discussion? No one here knows how much df and drag it makes, so conversation about it would be useless.

Okay so why dont you compare Red Bulls sidepods to this? Or from any other old team. You will see the sidepod is higher, and has less coke bottle shape than others. To be precise, the sidepods of the 24 were much smaller. They took away the U-sidepods so you'd expect the sidepods to be much more downsloping, or tighter at the rear, well they barely are.

Also exiting the air over the floor, not a great idea, when you can blow it a little higher and supply the top of the floor with clean airflow.

Apart from that, the sideview shows a shape of bodywork flowing upwards, generating the idea that McLAren took a lot of time in optimising internal aerodynamics.

It seems like they build some shelter in there, they claimed they knew Red Bulls secret so maybe they have Newey 'on board' again?

Also that bulge there, sure that is really good for aerodynamics. You do not need to be an aerodynamicist to know that that bulge is aerodynamic ruining in a critical area.

Overall the car looks incredibly fat and German, like I already said. How it will perform we will see but I'll say it again, that huge bulge will disappear before the first race

[munudeges]

It's a neat design. I like the way the intakes match up well to the clear air above the suspension when you look at it from the front and the engine cover is well sculpted when compared to the previous two seasons. It's a little closer to the RB7 in detail than one might imagine and it's got most of the touches. We haven't seen exactly where they're going to put the exhausts but from the back of the car below the beam wing the smart money is on getting the exhaust gas into that brake duct area and using it cleverly. I'd like to get a closer look at that splitter.

Whether they've gone far enough it's difficult to tell right now but I've gone from being fairly critical of McLaren in the past couple of seasons to cautiously optimistic.

[munudeges]

Needless to say, ugly doesn't necessarily mean slow, but then if it looks right, it more often than not is right?

Quite often, yes, especially when it comes to aerodynamics. Sharp, ugly surfaces tend to create unwanted variables.

[Gerhard Berger]

I've photochopped the exhaust bulge off the 27.

In simple terms of exposed floor surface area, the 27 has the 26 and 25 easily beat. The 27's sidepod tapper starts earlier and is more pronounced.

The width (fatness) of the bodywork around the rear wheel centre line does show that the 27 is the slimest of McLearens recent cars.

Would be nice to see an overhead of last years RB and this years Caterham side by side.

I think most teams will be able to slim down the rear end this year since they no longer need exhaust pipes going to the diffuser.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Paddy Lowe said their windtunnel has seen its best days & it's time for a new one. Jenson says in the simulator the '27 is better in high speed corners. Sound like they have found some downforce.

[Tozza Mazza]

I'm working on a little analysis of the MP4-27.

Here it is so far. Should be done soon!

Need to work on sidepods, nose, undernose, splitter and engine cover...

Just using regulations, the side image of the car, common sense, and CAD for this...

[thestig84]

Paddy Lowe said their windtunnel has seen its best days & it's time for a new one. Jenson says in the simulator the '27 is better in high speed corners. Sound like they have found some downforce.

They use the Toyota one as much as they can from what I hear. They have been for some time. I heard that quote from JB...sounded very promising, said with a satisfied smile too

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Paddy Lowe said their windtunnel has seen its best days & it's time for a new one. Jenson says in the simulator the '27 is better in high speed corners. Sound like they have found some downforce.

They use the Toyota one as much as they can from what I hear. They have been for some time. I heard that quote from JB...sounded very promising, said with a satisfied smile too

Lowe told reporters today it's time for a new one and I believe it was said the building was either up already or going up soon.

Jensons wish list in Sept 2011 was to have a car better in the high speed corners. In the simulator the '27 is much better. If the data from the simulator correlates to that on the track, McLaren should be quite well.


Edit: The wind tunnel has been approved. It is said it will of course be superior to the Toyota tunnel. Word is it will be an underground facility.

[gridwalker]

Nice work Tozza

[Pup]

Paddy Lowe said their windtunnel has seen its best days & it's time for a new one...

Lowe told reporters today it's time for a new one and I believe it was said the building was either up already or going up soon.

...

The wind tunnel has been approved. It is said it will of course be superior to the Toyota tunnel.

The current one is what, 8 years old? Sometimes I think McLaren is also printing money in their underground lair.

[raymondu999]

I've photochopped the exhaust bulge off the 27.

In simple terms of exposed floor surface area, the 27 has the 26 and 25 easily beat. The 27's sidepod tapper starts earlier and is more pronounced.

The width (fatness) of the bodywork around the rear wheel centre line does show that the 27 is the slimest of McLearens recent cars.

Would be nice to see an overhead of last years RB and this years Caterham side by side.

Paddy Lowe said that the wheelbase is still the same as last year; so I think you have to rescale that....

[Tozza Mazza]

Wheelbase is around 3560mm.

[bhall]

Using the same principle as the now-banned EBDs, is it possible that the exhausts, as configured, create virtual flip-ups?

Still no thoughts on this?


(I'm digging the undertones of disappointment within this thread. This is what Ferrari fans - at least this one - have felt for the last few years.)

[Just_a_fan]

Using the same principle as the now-banned EBDs, is it possible that the exhausts, as configured, create virtual flip-ups?

Still no thoughts on this?


(I'm digging the undertones of disappointment within this thread. This is what Ferrari fans - at least this one - have felt for the last few years.)

I think they may be doing something like that - using the exhaust to alter the airflow.

And I'm not disappointed with the car. I think there is some interesting stuff on it. Until we see it on track we won't know how good it is. We also need to see the other cars. Looking forward to Friday now...