Flying Cars

[olefud]

I hope a few of you will bear with me concerning a safety issue that has me perhaps overly concerned. NASCAR had a rash of airborne cars that threatened to defeat spectator safety. My inexpert analysis suggested that, when a car reversed direction at high speed, the rear wing generated enough lift to elevate the rear of the car enough to, in conjunction with the front air dam, create a powerful ground effect sufficient to elevate the car above spectator safety barriers. The switch back to a rear deck spoiler appears to have remedied the problem, though blowout panels in the front dam might be a good idea.

Aero-rich F-1 car appear to have similar concerns. We know that they will fly forward with a pitch rotation when the front wing attains a lift-generating angle of attack. I suspect that bad things would happen if they were to get backwards -probable on the grass at high speed. While the big rear wing would be a big lifter, the wheel wake would seemingly shield the front wing. Rear-moving undercar dynamics get a bit more complicated, at least for me.

A number of lift-killing devices come to mind once a hazard is recognized. Any thoughts as to the validity of this concern?

[wesley123]

quite unfixable, the effects and chances of takeoff can be reduced, but will never gone. The 2004 LMP rules where aimed at reducing this sensitivity with mixed results.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0VEOp9Pv-8[/youtube]

There you see the BK Motorsports Lola just taking off when it started sliding into the corner and hit the inside wall.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNkySVNN ... re=related[/youtube]
Here the Oreca in 2008 on Monza. The car makes a sudden turn and just takes off.

They (ACO) now regulated an fin for new 2011 prototypes to kill these forces and induce incredible drag with a sudden 90 degree turn, the same is done in NASCAR with the airbrakes which open up in a 90 degree spin. Due to the reduction in speed the lift forces cannot be sufficient enough to let the car go airborne.

I Cannot remember about an F1 going airborne by a sudden yaw turn, although there have been moments of an F1 car taking off, this was mostly due to the loss in downforce on a certain part, cause instable aerodynamics, when already in air this just causes the car to take off, most recently in Valencia last year.

I cannot recall a single injury which happened from a crash with a sudden high yaw turn, therefore to say it is a real danger, I have to disagree with that. The helemt safety is one that is imo of much higher priority. In 2007 Wurz almost got his hands chopped off and most recently Liuzzi almost cut Schuey's neck when he couldnt avoid him anymore. Then we havent seen the worse, although not in F1 there is areal danger of your head getting squashed because with the low nose you get under another car, shoving it up your face. In LMP's this isnt the case due to the wheelarches, and even if one gets on top of the car, there still is enough space between the head and another car.