How did the bodywork in the F132T generate downforce?

[hollus]

I am reading the F1racing issue from february, where there is an interview with Mauro Forghieri. There he mentions that the Ferrari 312T generated downforce with its bodywork that many at the time could not understand. And looking at it, unless we are talking of very little downforce, neither does my feeble brain. This being 1975, I assume that they are not talking about ground effect, so:

How did the bodywork in the F132T generate downforce?

[mep]

This being 1975, I assume that they are not talking about ground effect,
http://a404.idata.over-blog.com/2/73/25 ... 12t_01.jpg

Why not? Ground effect was discovered later but it was always there. It makes sense that the engineers could not understand the source of the downforce when they did not understand the theory behind ground effect.

Apart from that it can be really everything. At a modern F1 car you can gain or lose significant amounts of downforce with very small details of the car.

[Sombrero]

At the time (1975) some cars had more downforce at the front than others.


Here the Ferrari 312 T : note the front wing quite high but done in one single element with maximal width.
This started with the revisited Ferrari 312 B 3 and was taken for all the 312 T (T to T5).
Easier to operate and generate more front downforce than the typical front end of the time.


Here the McLaren M-23 aka the typical front end of the era.
We have a front end with two wings elements from each side of the nose relatively high mounted.
The total width of the two elements is shorter than the one of the 312 T. Less downforce at the front.


Interestingly one other car had probably even more downforce at the front than the 312 T at the time.
Tony Southgate's UOP-Shadow DN5 : the front end consisted of two elements but it was run much closer to the ground.
It experimented true ground effect because of the boundary layer effect. That car was very fast in 1975...

Source : Nigel Bennett, Mauro Forghieri and Tony Southgate books.

[flyboy2160]

The angled noses (separate from the front wings), the angled cockpit lead ins, and any rake in the body (note the Shadow), will produce force directed downward. Although there aren't diffusers, there might be a small amount of down force achieved by the rear end drag area sucking on the back end of the floor-to-ground opening.

The Ferrari 14T appears to have reverted back to trying to get down force from a downward sloped nose.

The Shadow, in this and in other photos, appears to have rake in the floor. This will act (poorly without he proper back end diffuser opening) like a long suction area for the back end drag area. Looks like a harbinger of Red Bull's rake.