Brabham BT46B

That car sucks... . . .

And would sure mess up the airflow of the car right behind it.

I'd never seen a picture of it before until someone on the Texas A&M site posted it.

That's one big radiator fan

youtube

2Gs standing starts and that's in the 70's

What a SWEET design!

Rog

why oh why can't we have stuff like this anymore?

I'd say that the Nissan Deltawing is first cousin - outlandish design unlikely to last very long. Super cool.

In reply to kreb:

Yeah, I was really happy I got to see it at Petit Le Mans, it was incredible to watch, and as quiet as the diesels.

Raze wrote: why oh why can't we have stuff like this anymore?

Because if Ferrari doesn't think of it first, it's unfair.

Raze wrote: why oh why can't we have stuff like this anymore?

Because a bump or curb would open up the skirts and instantaneously lose all that downforce. It's dangerous on a road course. Awesome, but dangerous.

I kinda want to make an Exocet sucker car for autocross domination. The underside is already completely flat, it just needs skirts, a snowmobile engine, and a bigass squirrelcage fan.

Someone did that with a corvette a few years back for the GRM challenge didnt they

The reason we can't have them is that they've been banned from everything except GRM.

Warren v wrote:

Raze wrote: why oh why can't we have stuff like this anymore?

Because a bump or curb would open up the skirts and instantaneously lose all that downforce. It's dangerous on a road course. Awesome, but dangerous.

Is that really true? I understand how that can be true with aero because a wing creating downforce only needs to tilt up a couple of degrees to create lift, but suction is suction. Is there some sort of exponential drop off when you raise the car an inch or is it linear?

I don't know how it compares, but a hovercraft is the same thing in reverse they don't lose all force instantly with a lift of a skirt like tunnels do.

That is insane! And very purposeful looking.

MrJoshua wrote:

Warren v wrote:

Raze wrote: why oh why can't we have stuff like this anymore?

Because a bump or curb would open up the skirts and instantaneously lose all that downforce. It's dangerous on a road course. Awesome, but dangerous.

Is that really true? I understand how that can be true with aero because a wing creating downforce only needs to tilt up a couple of degrees to create lift, but suction is suction. Is there some sort of exponential drop off when you raise the car an inch or is it linear?

Yup. Undercar downforce is very sensitive to ride height. Some cars even used sliding skirts that physically made contact with the road back in the heyday.

Keith Tanner wrote:

MrJoshua wrote:

Warren v wrote:

Raze wrote: why oh why can't we have stuff like this anymore?

Because a bump or curb would open up the skirts and instantaneously lose all that downforce. It's dangerous on a road course. Awesome, but dangerous.

Is that really true? I understand how that can be true with aero because a wing creating downforce only needs to tilt up a couple of degrees to create lift, but suction is suction. Is there some sort of exponential drop off when you raise the car an inch or is it linear?

Yup. Undercar downforce is very sensitive to ride height. Some cars even used sliding skirts that physically made contact with the road back in the heyday.

The reason they aren't allowed was mentioned in the vid I posted. The other teams that didn't have similar tech and put up a big stink because they couldn't compete. The big budget teams didn't want to lose their advantage of the more expensive powerful motors. The fan car was taking it easy and still blowing the competition away.

and showering all the other drivers with gravel at 100+ mph.

It was unsafe for the rest of the competitors

This is funny, I'd written a long thread about some of my favorite aesthetic F1 cars the other day, but was hesitant to post it, you'll see why when I do. The BT46 was one of those cars, although in non fan version.

Don't forget this car won it's first and only race after sandbaging in practice. The cars weren't banned, Bernie just agreed to to race them anymore to keep harmony and protect his political position of growing power.

As Keith said the ground effect cars had sliding skirts to keep contact with the ground for the venture tunnels to work as the ride height changed. The issue with that was the cars were super stiff which really beat up the drivers, and you still had massive accidents when air got under them. First the skirts we're banned and the static ride height raised, but every one just built cars that lowered themselves on the track, but we're even stiffer, more accidents so eventually F.I.A. got it right for a change and introduced the flat bottom rules.

I'll start my other post soon.

jere wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote:

MrJoshua wrote:

Warren v wrote:

Raze wrote: why oh why can't we have stuff like this anymore?

Because a bump or curb would open up the skirts and instantaneously lose all that downforce. It's dangerous on a road course. Awesome, but dangerous.

Is that really true? I understand how that can be true with aero because a wing creating downforce only needs to tilt up a couple of degrees to create lift, but suction is suction. Is there some sort of exponential drop off when you raise the car an inch or is it linear?

Yup. Undercar downforce is very sensitive to ride height. Some cars even used sliding skirts that physically made contact with the road back in the heyday.

The reason they aren't allowed was mentioned in the vid I posted. The other teams that didn't have similar tech and put up a big stink because they couldn't compete. The big budget teams didn't want to lose their advantage of the more expensive powerful motors. The fan car was taking it easy and still blowing the competition away.

That's the reason fan cars were banned but fancy underbody downforce devices keep getting cracked down on due to the general instability of it. As the overall downforce increases the fluctuations with ride height are bigger overall.

When fan cars are outlawed only outlaws will have fan cars

IIRC the super stiff suspension necessitated by massive aero downforce can be avoided by having the downforce act outside of the suspended portion of the car (on the hubs I think). Unfortunately it was outlawed.

aussiesmg wrote: and showering all the other drivers with gravel at 100+ mph. It was unsafe for the rest of the competitors

That could have been worked around without banning the fans.

All that aero stuff is simply a technological black hole. Fans, skirts, undertrays, the lot of it. I'd just as soon go back to pre-1975.

stroker wrote: All that aero stuff is simply a technological black hole. Fans, skirts, undertrays, the lot of it. I'd just as soon go back to pre-1975.

"GET A HORSE!"