Quote:
dat383 wrote:
you have to be kidding teretonga.the spoilers on that datsun are so small that it would need to do 200mph to make any difference to cornering or braking.your whole argument is fundamentally flawed.when you increase downforce you need more power to go the same speed,its called drag.look at f1 cars,its basic physics.so if converted put these on his car and it went faster,they either do nothing to increase downforce or he fitted a turbo at the same time.if he actually did go faster i would say its more to do with how he was driving.the difference between a good lap and a bad lap is just one missed apex or braking marker.not his crappy little wings.as for using flares to cover tyres when the cars track changes,that datsun in the picture looks as stock in width as they come.only one thing looks worse than flares,and thats when you fit them and the tyres dont come out past the standard wheel arch!race cars should be tubbed to fit larger tyres not butchered with bolt on lego blocks.
see Improved Production Racing has rules about what you can and can't do to a car to make it faster, which is very different to street classes of drag racing. for example, a stroker 383 V8 would not be legal in a Datsun 1200, but that's OK, because no-one who had half a clue want to do that anyway. the rules prevent tubbing or modification of the inner wheel arch. but again, that's OK, because we have to try to get around corners too, unlike drag racing. How can I explain it for you? hmmm, corners are kinda like the things that link the drag strip to the return road. So if you have to build a car that can go as fast as possible around those things, a wider track is generally a useful thing. I can see how a drag racer would not see any advantage to it. Our rules allow flares of certain dimensions so we use them if we think it will be an advantage.
If you think the front of the white car above looks like standard track, I would recommend you stick to drag racing, because at least going straight ahead isn't all that difficult and might be the only place suitable for the vision impared petrolhead.
the front spoiler (or air dam) prevents alot of air from going under the front of the car which does 2 things:
1) prevents lift being generated
2) improves engine cooling by forcing more air up through the radiator and by creating a low pressure area under the engine bay for hot air to escape. When you are running more than 1320ft at a time, cooling become important.
The spoilers made a noticeable improvement to the handling of my 1200 at Lakeside when i first fitted them. The fast bumpy kink on the front straight and under the bridge at the back of the track were the main areas where the car felt alot more settled and was able to hold a slightly tighter line. It also increased the speed I could carry onto the front straight by roughly 500rpm if my memory is right. That was on street tyres, the difference would probably be even more marked on semi-slicks with the higher speeds they would carry through those turns.
If you think they don't do anything, ask your self why nearly all the front running cars make full use of the dimensions permitted for front and rear spoilers in the IPRA rulebook. And also ask yourself why the IPRA rulebook sets size limits to them if they do nothing anyway. You could also ask yourself, being a V8 man, why the Group C cars ran flares and spoilers. They only stopped using them in Group A because the rules didn't permit them. And then manufacturers released homologation models with front and rear spoilers to alllow them to be used in racing. Why goto that trouble if they do nothing for lap times?
anyway, enjoy your drag racing and powercruising... by the way, for those who only venture out onto a race track for powercruise, this is what they are really for - pushing 10/10ths through the corners, not lining up beside someone on the straights and trying to drag them off
