I feel almost guilty by interrupting this wonderful and warm thread. It's truly a pleasure just to have any kind of association with so many enthusiastic and nice people.
In the discussion of braking and anti dive and such, there are many different forces at play, causing and reacting to different inputs. Myself, I make a mental picture of a side view of a Formula One car, and draw little lines. There are certain points, such as tire contact patch (where at the end of the day, all the forces pass through), center of gravity, center of aerodynamic downforce, center of aerodynamic drag, to name a few. Of course, this all can be visualised by simple trigonometry. Force vectors, and the resulting forces. And as I said before, and this is very important, different laws of physics and forces from different sources. Mass, center of gravity, inertia. Aerodynamic drag and downforce. The torque from the drivetrain, the rear wheels attempting to lift the nose on acceleration and the front wheels trying to raise the rear under braking. Then there are the suspension mounting points and the fundamental geometry of the suspension. The torsion bars, their loads, where they are mounted, and act upon. Tons and tons of different lines, but each one having an effect on how the car reacts.
One good example is under braking, where the brake pads grip the disks, which apply a (negative) torque to the suspension, and could make it rise or dive depending on the geometry. Then there is the center of gravity, and all that mass. The car still wants to keep moving forward, but the force on the contact patches of the tires apply a leverage. And then the wings, having virtually no mass, but pressing hard down relative only to the velocity of airflow. The wing doesn't care if the driver is on the gas or brake, it just wants to push down.
Whew, it's late here in the great White North, and I'm doing the late night vigil to watch the qualifying. My head is already spinning. My rant is just to try to point out that when discussing this stuff, we should try to identify and separately categorize each individual force, and what it does to the rest of the car. Yea, it is complicated, but only if you try to digest it all in just one bite (hmm, reminds me of one of my favorite sayings.... how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time...
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A Formula One car is a wonderful ballet of mechanical interaction, designed for a brutal attack on the laws of physics, resulting in a complicated, but gorgeous display of beautiful motion. Hmm, so is a blonde in a bikini on a hot beach... my mind digresses.
How about hydraulic motors on each wheel? It would still be as dangerous as electrical wires to motors, but if we every hit a chipmunk at speed, at least it wouldn't expire in a flash of light.......? lol
Why not have the driver sit facing backwards since the force of braking is higher than acceleration? Just use lots of mirrors and have a monkey motion steering system. Of maybe have the cockpit roll with the G's?
Under braking have the rear wing unfold like a wind generator, and flash subliminal messages to the spectators? Buy Shell, buy shell, buy shell, I love Max.. lol.
I'll sign off for now, it's time to locate my center of sanity and watch the qualifying. Peace all.
