Kendt Eklund writes:
>> Why don't they use powered wings ?
>> The driver presses the button on the straights and the wings lay down.
>> Wooaa!
>> Is it banned too ?
>Yes, I think the restriction is against "any moveable aerodynamic device."
>Others may have more info, but I think this was in response to the Brabham
>"fan car" - they put a huge fan at the back of the car to pull air through
>a radiator, but what it really did was suck air through the ground effects
>under the car. The cars crushed the competition in the few races they ran,
>and rumor has it the drivers were sandbagging and the true performance of the
>car was never seen.
You are correct about the restriction on moveable aerodynamic devices. I >> Why don't they use powered wings ?
>> The driver presses the button on the straights and the wings lay down.
>> Wooaa!
>> Is it banned too ?
>Yes, I think the restriction is against "any moveable aerodynamic device."
>Others may have more info, but I think this was in response to the Brabham
>"fan car" - they put a huge fan at the back of the car to pull air through
>a radiator, but what it really did was suck air through the ground effects
>under the car. The cars crushed the competition in the few races they ran,
>and rumor has it the drivers were sandbagging and the true performance of the
>car was never seen.
think that this rule was used to ban active suspension in 1994, because they
made the entire body a moveable aerodynamic device -- as suggested by earlier
posts on this thread about changing the angle of attack of the body on
straightaways for reduced drag.
I don't know if this rule was a response to the fan car, but I believe that
the fan car ran only one race before being banned. It won quite handily with
Niki Lauda at the wheel, I think.
John Oliver
Canton, MI