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3 Apr 2000, 20:39 (Ref:10788) | #1 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Apr 2000
Posts: 211
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Several weeks ago I read an article in Aviation Week about the Williams FXJ-2
fanjet engine. According to the article, the FXJ-2 weighs 85 pounds and produces a thrust of 770 pounds. If a pair of these engines (one in the nose and one in the tail) were installed in a car that looks like a 1937 Auto Union grand prix car it would be (with thrust vectoring) the most highly maneuverable oval track car ever. It could be run for thousands of racing miles with no maintenance other than checking the oil. It could probably be built with a dry/empty weight of only 800 pounds and still be as safe as existing Indy cars. Using the twin fanjet setup in a 1937 Auto Union grand prix style car, a driver in a turn could kick the car sideways using vectored thrust then straighten out the nozzles so that forward thrust can hold the car off the wall. Sort of like sprint cars. Among other things, this could be a useful maneuver for a car that has come into a turn too hot and needs to bleed off speed. You might want gill-type inlets in the sides so that the engines can keep breathing even if the car gets really sideways. (This is my proposal that Brock Yates discusses in his current Speedvision column as one of my responses to his Sandbox Formula concept.) Another of my proposals that Yates mentions is the idea of using a Williams fanjet (for propulsion and thrust vectoring) in conjunction with a 2,000+ horsepower gas turbine, four-wheel drive, steering fins (a pair of pivoting vertical fins mounted at the center of gravity), and a large tailfin with clamshell-type speed brake (not the little stub tailfins they've been running). If a car starts to spin, especially at 200+ mph, a large tailfin mounted BEHIND the gearbox will prevent the car from rotating more than about 90 degrees. Even in current CART/F1/IRL cars, a substantial tailfin behind the gearcase would help safety a bunch, particularly in those highspeed incidents on an oval where a car goes through a turn and a broken oil or water line dumps fluid on the rear tires. Not only would the tailfin help the car stay straight, if a car did get substantially sideways the tailfin would act like a giant speed brake. The wing systems on CART/IRL/F1 cars are arguably stuck in 1969 Because that's about the time some genius in the FIA decided wings should not be mounted directly to the suspension. Since the springs don't have to support any downforce in this set-up, when the wings are mounted directly to the suspension much softer springs can be used.Also if the undertray were attached to the suspension instead of the frame, the problems of maintaining ground clearance to get consistent downforce would be largely eliminated. In his column in the January/February issue of RACECAR, Paul Van Valkenburgh discusses drag chutes for Indy cars. He points out that with rocket-propelled chutes (similar to what ultralights are already using) inflation times can be substantially reduced. However, Van Valkenburgh leans toward an alternative to the drag chute using a spring-loaded inverted mushroom underneath the car that would snag an arrestor cable layed out along the edge of the track. In the latest drag chute release mechanisms, drivers don't even have to take their hand off the wheel. All they have to do is push a button. And in some cases they don't even have to do that. Systems have been developed where an external observer (such as a crewman or track official) can release a chute by remote control. |
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