Thread: Wind car
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Old 01-28-2008, 09:17 PM   #4 (permalink)
MetroMPG
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Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
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Sailing craft "create" their own wind when they start moving.

With proper sail design, trim & a low resistance hull (or chassis), the faster you go, the more apparent wind your sails "see". If you take advantage of the increasing apparent wind speed by trimming the sails (and/or adjusting your heading - because the apparent wind direction also changes), you can just keep creating more apparent wind and more acceleration (up to a point).

An optimized sail, well trimmed, on an optimized low resistance hull (hydrofoil, in this case) can do amazing things... like this:

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