H
HardScrabble
Guest
Many, many fans are complaining about the aero matched and overly aero sensitive cars of todays racing leading to follow the leader parades of marginal interest.
Not to mention that the intense interest the teams pay to gaining every possible micro edge in body development is very costly. It makes efforts of the less well funded teams very difficult on the tracks where the aero advantages are multiplied.
Many folks have talked of solutions. But of late there has been a bit of discussion about a solution which actually makes sense. would be easy to implement and police, would not require any of the teams to spend an exorbitant amount of money and most importantly of all could be applied to every track on the circuit.
The first person I heard espouse this idea was Mike Waltrip, though it is entirely likely he picked it up from elsewhere. But some research and questioning has led me to believe it to be a very valid approach. I have no idea if NASCAR is looking at this at present but they may well be.
Under the current configuration the teams are running very very soft front springs, plus additional suspension travel to allow the soft springs to function. The idea is to get the nose down, way down. Seal that front valance to the track and create as much front downforce as possible. In addition the springs are soft enough that on compression they actually go into coil bind to create a virtual bump stop, true bump stops being illegal. But one other thing has occured. In order to accomodate this much travel the front frame crossmember has been raised. Once was the front crossmember was always at 3 and 1/2 inches, now teams are running this at 5 inches or more. They have to run it up to keep the frame from bottoming out.
Make the 3 and 1/2 inch height a rule and slightly reduce the front air dam. Everything else will fall into place almost automatically. The teams will have to run stiffer springs to keep the frame off the ground. Without the suspension travel the front valance cannot seal to the ground, front downforce will be reduced and the chassis itself will to provide the grip. With front downforce reduced, the team will have to reduce rear downforce in order to maintain any type of balance at all. In short the whole aero game will start being reversed.
Cost to the teams? Some new sets of springs and some trimming on the front valance. A bit of testing, which they all do anyway. Some teams are gonna be quicker to figure it out than others, but that is always true.
Seems simple enough...............but is there a problem I don't see?
Not to mention that the intense interest the teams pay to gaining every possible micro edge in body development is very costly. It makes efforts of the less well funded teams very difficult on the tracks where the aero advantages are multiplied.
Many folks have talked of solutions. But of late there has been a bit of discussion about a solution which actually makes sense. would be easy to implement and police, would not require any of the teams to spend an exorbitant amount of money and most importantly of all could be applied to every track on the circuit.
The first person I heard espouse this idea was Mike Waltrip, though it is entirely likely he picked it up from elsewhere. But some research and questioning has led me to believe it to be a very valid approach. I have no idea if NASCAR is looking at this at present but they may well be.
Under the current configuration the teams are running very very soft front springs, plus additional suspension travel to allow the soft springs to function. The idea is to get the nose down, way down. Seal that front valance to the track and create as much front downforce as possible. In addition the springs are soft enough that on compression they actually go into coil bind to create a virtual bump stop, true bump stops being illegal. But one other thing has occured. In order to accomodate this much travel the front frame crossmember has been raised. Once was the front crossmember was always at 3 and 1/2 inches, now teams are running this at 5 inches or more. They have to run it up to keep the frame from bottoming out.
Make the 3 and 1/2 inch height a rule and slightly reduce the front air dam. Everything else will fall into place almost automatically. The teams will have to run stiffer springs to keep the frame off the ground. Without the suspension travel the front valance cannot seal to the ground, front downforce will be reduced and the chassis itself will to provide the grip. With front downforce reduced, the team will have to reduce rear downforce in order to maintain any type of balance at all. In short the whole aero game will start being reversed.
Cost to the teams? Some new sets of springs and some trimming on the front valance. A bit of testing, which they all do anyway. Some teams are gonna be quicker to figure it out than others, but that is always true.
Seems simple enough...............but is there a problem I don't see?
