Quote:
Originally Posted by jimepting
It is interesting on the Benz tropfenwagen that that they did not take the rather obvious step of streamlining the wheels. Maybe I'm wrong and they were right;-)
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Later,Daimler-Benz would publish a paper from wind tunnel research they conducted on their Gran Prix race cars.
The crux of what they learned,was that by enclosing the 'monoposto',exposed-wheel car,even with a greater frontal area,the overall drag was reduced.
In 1987,GM's Oldsmobile Division would use the same trick with AEROTECH,by enclosing a March Indycar chassis in a shrink-wrapped aero body,cutting drag by more than one-half and beating Mercedes' C-111 closed-course speed record at speeds up to 278-mph.(They considered higher speeds but A.J.Foyt was experiencing involuntary lane changes as gusts pushed him around on the Ft.Stockton,Tx Bridgestone/Firestone test facility track,same track where Car and Driver's test driver of my CRX was killed while at speed in a Renn Speed M-B.)