Red Bull RB8 Renault

[Kiril Varbanov]

Lovely detail of the exhaust and the rear (do I spot a more humpy surface?)

[bhall]

Nothing in what you did shows what is sticking out the back of the exhaust. To me, it looks like all 4 headers from the engine come from below so why would the be a T-joint in the exhaust pipes? Of course I could be wrong & so could others but I'll go with Scarbs thoughts as well as my own.

[...]

If you can explain what this is, I might change my mind, but the exhaust is exiting the other way & the 4 pipes come from the bottom.

It was a complete misunderstanding on my part. I thought you guys were talking about the part of the exhaust I've indicated with the blue arrow. That's why I was scratching my head.

The actual part in question, which I've indicated with red arrows, is definitely a Helmholtz resonator. You can even see how it extends up and behind the radiator.


(Click to enlarge)

[Crucial_Xtreme]

It was a complete misunderstanding on my part. I thought you guys were talking about the part of the exhaust I've indicated with the blue arrow. That's why I was scratching my head.

The actual part in question, which I've indicated with red arrows, is definitely a Helmholtz resonator. You can even see how it extends up and behind the radiator.


(Click to enlarge)

yeah I figured you weren't sure exactly what we were talking about, which is why I did the arrow thing. No worries my friend. I actually didn't notice the resonator further up by your second arrow..

Edit: new pics of the floor today

[gato azul]

[PlatinumZealot]

It was a complete misunderstanding on my part. I thought you guys were talking about the part of the exhaust I've indicated with the blue arrow. That's why I was scratching my head.

The actual part in question, which I've indicated with red arrows, is definitely a Helmholtz resonator. You can even see how it extends up and behind the radiator.


(Click to enlarge)

yeah I figured you weren't sure exactly what we were talking about, which is why I did the arrow thing. No worries my friend. I actually didn't notice the resonator further up by your second arrow..

Edit: new pics of the floor today

This is the give away picture. It shows that the purpose of the tunnel and guide vanes inside it is to help give an even distribution of air-flow through the second set of 4 inch tall guide vanes and finally a even flow over the top of the diffuser. I believe this is to give better pressure characteristics at the diffuser exit and possible better influence towards vortex formation at the sides. Very good Idea. But It must be said that if the ramp was not there, you wouldn't need that foremost set of guide vanes... the second set would have worked OK by itself.

[Kiril Varbanov]

Am I wrong with this comparison? I.E. I'm not totally sure whether VET and WEB used the same exhaust.
Anyway, my humble contribution to their continuing exhaust iterations:

[marcush.]

very good spot...the whole area is alot more sculpted and rounded in the inlet area now...one has to imagine that you need a very good surfacing guy +someone who does all the molds to produce those parts....staggering effort.. =D>

[Gridlock]

Such obvious exhaust blowing shenanigans in FP1, judging by the soundtrack. Very raspy and level through corners, noticeably different to eg the Caterham or Lotuses.

[bhall]

[Image]

This is the give away picture. It shows that the purpose of the tunnel and guide vanes inside it is to help give an even distribution of air-flow through the second set of 4 inch tall guide vanes and finally a even flow over the top of the diffuser. I believe this is to give better pressure characteristics at the diffuser exit and possible better influence towards vortex formation at the sides. Very good Idea. But It must be said that if the ramp was not there, you wouldn't need that foremost set of guide vanes... the second set would have worked OK by itself.

Actually, I think the tunnel is still mostly about keeping the exhaust plume separate from the air flow around the sidepods. The guide vanes at the back aren't so much guide vanes as they are diffuser strakes that extract the air flow through the tunnel, because they initially had problems with it being choked by too much air.

In essence, they have a very legal and literal double diffuser: the normal one below the floor and the new one on top of the floor.

[Owen.C93]

Tunnel exits are both behind those vanes so I'm not sure what you mean by that.

Such obvious exhaust blowing shenanigans in FP1, judging by the soundtrack. Very raspy and level through corners, noticeably different to eg the Caterham or Lotuses.

Caterham was much louder than RB. RB8 was pretty similar to the McLaren maybe about the same as the Saubers.

[bhall]

Are the areas I've denoted below with red dots not tunnel exits?

Something else caught my eye. Does the end of the beam wing look to anyone like it has a sort of NACA duct (inset)?


(Click to enlarge)

It very much seems like the rear end of this car is keeping a lot of secrets.

[Matt Somers]

Are the areas I've denoted below with red dots not tunnel exits?

Something else caught my eye. Does the end of the beam wing look to anyone like it has a sort of NACA duct (inset)?


(Click to enlarge)

It very much seems like the rear end of this car is keeping a lot of secrets.

Yes I have a better picture of that area somewhere, I'll post it in a moment. It definitely has some holes in that section....

[Matt Somers]

[bhall]

OK. Thanks. I thought for a moment they might be blowing the beam wing. But it appears as though they're just taking advantage of the loophole that allows them to deem as part of the end plate that part of the wing. Ferrari did it last year with their rear wing.

[N12ck]

From listening to the Redbull live at silverstone (national pit straight) and to the caterham they are deffinatley using some overrun, it sounds like last years car.