Wing-car - Lotus

[Laurent]

I've seen some photo's of the famous "wing-car" of lotus.

The only problem is ==> I can't see the wing in that car!

Is there anyone who can explain what happens with that car?

thanks

[Guest]

Do you mean the ground-effect Lotus?
If so,you wont see them as they are in the sidepods.

[Steven]

hi Laurent, can you specify the type model or active years of the car so that we know what car you are specifically talking about?

You can look here too:
http://www.f1technical.net/history/cars/

[Monstrobolaxa]

here is a pic of a ground efect undertray.....as you can see there is a kind of inverted wing at the bottom....this is a Williams...but the concept is similar to the Lotus concept.

[CFDruss]

Oh yes, the delightful Lotus type 78, gorgeous car. The first ever race vehicle to use the idea of an inverted wing in ground effect back in 1977. To sum the design up, it works by Bernoulli’s theory that if the area of fluid flow decreases that the velocity must increase hence the pressure decrease, so with the correct shaping of the under body, a low pressure could be create under the vehicle, `sucking it to the ground`. The design was also greatly improved by the lower mounting of the rear wing which had the additional function of pumping air under the car to aid ground effect. The only draw back to this early design, was the the amount of downforce produced was dependant of the ground clearence of the inverted wing and seal skirts and so was very sensitive. This design is what led to the regulation currently in place of 1) No side skirts and 2) a minimum ground clearence for the bodywork which was established in 1981. However, in 1983, the regulating body tried to end the ground effect wars by drawing up a regulation for flat bottomed vehicles!!

The Ground Effects Lotus 78 developed in excess of 2500 pounds of down force. The Lotus would round corners 20 to 40 mph faster than the competition. It also used Cellite sandwich material (aluminum honeycomb) in the monocoque chassis.

More information about it here, http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/lotus-ford-79.htm

The picture below is infact the original wind tunnel model from lotus

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[West]

20 to 40 mph gain, that's crazy. Does anybody have the exact quote Lotus engineers said about a "new transmission" to explain that gain? I heard that was their excuse to everybody

[manchild]

Here is something from my Favorites, nice material with photos, drawings and explanations
http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/lotus79.htm

[Reca]

An Andretti’s 78 still alive, during the TGP last week :

[Guest]

here is a pic of a ground efect undertray.....as you can see there is a kind of inverted wing at the bottom....this is a Williams...but the concept is similar to the Lotus concept.

Yeah, that's right, the season after Colin Chapman made his wing car concept everybody stated to implent it in their own cars, and it's called wing car because the principle is the next: a plain flights because the air goes faster under the wing than over, when you turn it around you get that the air gous faster over the wing (now car) and you get an enormous pressure. Later they sealed the sides of the car with skirts so that downforce rised even more.

[zenzo]

here is a pic of a ground efect undertray.....as you can see there is a kind of inverted wing at the bottom....this is a Williams...but the concept is similar to the Lotus concept.

Yeah, that's right, the season after Colin Chapman made his wing car concept everybody stated to implent it in their own cars, and it's called wing car because the principle is the next: a plain flights because the air goes faster under the wing than over, when you turn it around you get that the air gous faster over the wing (now car) and you get an enormous pressure. Later they sealed the sides of the car with skirts so that downforce rised even more.

sorry, forgot to login before

[DaveKillens]

But that Lotus sure was a groundbreaker, it was one of the designs that changed forever the face of racing.
Personally, I believe that only Cooper's successful application of the mid engine concept had more impact.

[zenzo]

But that Lotus sure was a groundbreaker, it was one of the designs that changed forever the face of racing.
Personally, I believe that only Cooper's successful application of the mid engine concept had more impact.

I gotta agree with you, but the wing car concept was a something extravagant, it was a big surprise (if we can say so). Well after all I think that Colin Chapman was the best engineer ever!!