Quote:
Originally Posted by euromodder
The rails on the roof are there to keep the airflow from rolling off to the sides and crash with the air going along the sides.
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Actually, those roof rails are required by SCTA rules for cars going over 200 mph -
OR if you're running in a class where the current record is above that speed.
I asked the chairman of the rules committee why exactly that rule existed, and he said it was a safety thing.... If a car is going faster than 200, loses control and goes sideways, the airflow going SIDEWAYS across a car causes lift, as though the car is a blunt wing. So those two rails, which are to be as close to the edges of the roof as practical, are actually little spoilers - to kill lift in the case the car goes sideways at high speed.
The alternative, as Tom Burkland, former land speed record holder, once told me, is "Taking flight without a landing plan"