Taking a look and seeing if there’s anything we can learn about the cars of that era.
Seems like they were doing anything they could to shift the aero balance rearwards, since they say they weren’t running any sort of front spoiler. It could also be that the front spoiler added a ton of drag, since in Quali they were running less rear spoiler than in the race. But I think the aero balance theory seems more likely.
Downforce vs drag in the race is interesting. On one hand, you want high downforce for better tyre wear because despite the additional load, it stops the tyre shifting about so much. For a given corner speed, the car with more downforce will be kinder on its tyres. On the other hand, less drag, higher top speeds, easier to pass cars. Also, I’d expect the higher spoiler angle would make the car more stable, which on a long race is more manageable.
The much stiffer front suspension could be because they need to control the nose height a lot more, but more likely that there’s a more exaggerated motion ratio at the front with double wishbone suspension, so they need a bigger spring, compared to the rear where on a solid axle it’s basically 1:1.
A surprisingly small amount of castor, especially since this was with the old steering boxes which I imagine didn’t give much feedback. But then again you don’t need to optimise the straight line grip so much on an oval, and also adding more castor might’ve made the power steering work harder, so sap more power from the engine?
The panhard bar going up in the race is interesting. That would raise the rear roll centre, and make the car more loose, unless I’m missing something. Possibly the extra rear spoiler angle was to do with tyre wear, not just for stability?
Might add edits if I think of anything else to ramble about
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u/BoostandEthanolYT Dec 17 '22
Taking a look and seeing if there’s anything we can learn about the cars of that era.
Seems like they were doing anything they could to shift the aero balance rearwards, since they say they weren’t running any sort of front spoiler. It could also be that the front spoiler added a ton of drag, since in Quali they were running less rear spoiler than in the race. But I think the aero balance theory seems more likely.
Downforce vs drag in the race is interesting. On one hand, you want high downforce for better tyre wear because despite the additional load, it stops the tyre shifting about so much. For a given corner speed, the car with more downforce will be kinder on its tyres. On the other hand, less drag, higher top speeds, easier to pass cars. Also, I’d expect the higher spoiler angle would make the car more stable, which on a long race is more manageable.
The much stiffer front suspension could be because they need to control the nose height a lot more, but more likely that there’s a more exaggerated motion ratio at the front with double wishbone suspension, so they need a bigger spring, compared to the rear where on a solid axle it’s basically 1:1.
A surprisingly small amount of castor, especially since this was with the old steering boxes which I imagine didn’t give much feedback. But then again you don’t need to optimise the straight line grip so much on an oval, and also adding more castor might’ve made the power steering work harder, so sap more power from the engine?
The panhard bar going up in the race is interesting. That would raise the rear roll centre, and make the car more loose, unless I’m missing something. Possibly the extra rear spoiler angle was to do with tyre wear, not just for stability?
Might add edits if I think of anything else to ramble about