Quote:
Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob
Aha! You are already having crashes from getting out of shape. Try to understand that you are basically "in flight" at speed, but trying to stay on the runway. Aero stability comes first. That does not come from length, but from balance. Nor does length aid "flowing," past a certain point. The Railton is the only famous Bonneville car that does not waste surface area. Air is sticky as well as pushy.
With no rules, purity is up to you. A rocket sled would make it very easy. You could add fans for downforce, push, or both. You could use a catapult for acceleration and a catch-net at the end. Or, you could do it the hard way and use the suspension to adjust wings for sufficient traction with minimum drag. You probably want a big wing, to become effective early on when there's gobs of power for acceleration and little drag.
You are very lucky with regard to the potential for laminar flow, which can radically reduce drag. If you produce a suitable shape accurately, turbulent flow will only begin at the wheel openings, and spread at 15 deg along the streamlines.
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I agree completely. I want stability and adequate downforce most of all. I believe I will have more than enough horsepower to get me "there". It will easily generate around 15hp and could peak as high as 20. Pretty crazy for what it is!
My crashes to date were all my fault making adjustments to the suspension that negatively adjusted the rake of the car.
I do want to stay somewhat pure in that the car will be wheel driven. The adaptive aero could help in braking. The ESC has a drag brake function which does a great job of slowing the car down in a controlled manor. I'm not too worried about the slowing down part...
As a point of reference below is a guy that I have been following. He has one of the worlds fastest 1/8 scale cars, which is largely a production Traxxas Slash 4x4 with more power added along with a sleek car body. His best is this run at 163mph:
-Liberty