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Are there either any supercars or tuned sports cars with Nascar style passive flaps for safety?
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roof_flap"]Roof flap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
[url="http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/nascar-basics/nascar-safety2.htm"]HowStuffWorks [/url]
AFAIK the closest things are the Pagani Huayra active flaps.
Being passive the Nascar flaps can be retrofitted into almost any car.
Maybe autobahn tuned German cars will lead?
Cars don't have the issues that Nascar design led them to.
So not really necessary for any "real" cars.
The original Porsche 917 developed a variant with dynamically adjusted winglets on each rear corner to improve grip during corners.
As soon as introduced it was banned :)
The Porsche museum has a fantastic video showing the original in operation !!!
So just as with the Pagani, it's about maintaining effective aero rather than a "panic option" when going backwards at speed -- when the Nascar design induces lift that had to be stopped.
NASCAR flaps are the same category of aero add-on as the big honking fin on the LMP cars....probably actually more effective than the LMP fin....
Also, normal cars don't operate in nearly the same regime as the oval track cars at 200mph....I don't see the need for it...no more than the need for every car to have a roll cage...
[quote=Matra et Alpine;1000733]The original Porsche 917 developed a variant with dynamically adjusted winglets on each rear corner to improve grip during corners.
As soon as introduced it was banned :)
The Porsche museum has a fantastic video showing the original in operation !!!
[/quote]
I'd be very interested to see that video if you have a link available. I did a little searching on YouTube but I couldn't seem to find it.
I've got it in the camera folders somewhere. Not very good, video of a flat screen showing their video, but I'd not seen it before and is brilliant to then look at the actual car and work out how it was all done with linkages, no computers at all :) :)
FSAE car's been doing that also, but now people are actually moving into computer controlled wings now....one of the few area where FSAE is going further than what most other racing series since there are less rules...
[quote=RacingManiac;1000756]FSAE car's been doing that also, but now people are actually moving into computer controlled wings now....one of the few area where FSAE is going further than what most other racing series since there are less rules...[/quote]
Sadly, that's kind of why my school's program jumped ship to Baja SAE. We simply couldn't raise the R&D funds to keep up with teams running carbon-fiber chassis, movable aero, and all that stuff.
You have teams like Oregon State which have enough money to make a film about their program with its own website.
I don't see that as an issue. You can still do well in FSAE without all those, you might not win, but all the engineering skills and experience is still valid.
Design judges will still recognize what you have done with what you have available...