[wildman10]

Without wishing to stray further from the thread's aim, I want to point out to casual readers that air racers have far more done to them than just pitching weight and reducing form drag in order to optimize them for their very particular environment of fast low level turns. I'm particularly interested by the changes to counter the compressibility effects from going at close to 500 mph.

Also, I think we should be careful not to believe what is good for them is good for aircraft in general. For example, shortening the wing span will reduce stability and increase drag over most of the flight envelope.

Where P51 air racers are perhaps relevant is their use of water sprayed onto the radiator face. For example, Dago Red has a 45 gallon tank and generates significant thrust from the steam accelerated out of the exhaust ducting. Furthermore, their water/methanol mix engine induction injection systems are particularly relevant to the Wankel/rotary-engined car I'm working on as these engines are particularly susceptible to detonation.

Interestingly, its use in air racing has brought the P51 full-circle back to its origins, where the first versions (P51A) were generally used only at low level because their engines ran out of steam very quickly with height.