F1 Cars: What drive layout(AWD or RWD)?

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
Hanford device? Huh?

Do they not use it anymore?

It was a thing they put on the rear wing to create a bunch of drag. The cars were exceeding 240mph at Michigan and the California oval, and they had to slow them down. As a consequence of doing this, the lead car punched a huge hole in the air and guys behind could pick up a monstrous tow off of it. There would be stretches where there were literally two passes for the lead every lap, for several laps in a row. There was nothing you could do to prevent the pass, when a guy came up behind you with that kind of a draft. It was pretty crazy.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: SludgeFactory

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
Hanford device? Huh?

Do they not use it anymore?

It was a thing they put on the rear wing to create a bunch of drag. The cars were exceeding 240mph at Michigan and the California oval, and they had to slow them down. As a consequence of doing this, the lead car punched a huge hole in the air and guys behind could pick up a monstrous tow off of it. There would be stretches where there were literally two passes for the lead every lap, for several laps in a row. There was nothing you could do to prevent the pass, when a guy came up behind you with that kind of a draft. It was pretty crazy.

Ahh, you mean Gurney flaps.


Linkyfantastication

 

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
that'd be why, i haven't paid attention to either series in the last 2 years. i do know that CART had way more power than it does now back about 8 years ago. but CART is almost dead, what with all the old timers going on about how they have to race at indianapolis and blah blah. i wonder if CART would be on top of nascar had that arse tony george not broke up the series?

I've pretty much quit watching CART too. And I catch F1 when I can, it's not something I religiously tape and archive. Luckily I have Speedvision for now.

Yeah, the power disparity was in CART's favor back then. Wonder what the numbers are now.

Fvck Tony George. It's a joke that an open wheel racing series is not the top racing series in the country, or at least close to being so. Can't say that Nascar wouldn't have eventually gone ahead of CART anyway, but that split hastened the demise. And in the process it dropped the most important auto race in the US to second-tier status. Fvck Tony George.

 

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser

Ahh, you mean Gurney flaps.


Linkyfantastication

No, it's something else. It was put on the cars for those two specific races to slow them down.

There's a picture of it on this page

 

[FrustratedUser]

You mean this?

I don't know what it looks like and if it is being used.

 

[ElFenix]

i remember the 1998 US 500. best race i ever saw. 62 official lead changes but the lead would change twice a lap for the first couple hundred laps between michael and the crazy colombian. instant classic

 

[SludgeFactory]

Yeah, that's it. Reading your link, I had forgotten about the accident there that prompted it.

If you go to that page I linked, find the picture (near the middle of the page) that's captioned "The Hanford device". It's that big-ass slat across the back of the rear wing. Compare to the other pictures of the car on that page, they don't have that slat.

 

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
i remember the 1998 US 500. best race i ever saw. 62 official lead changes but the lead would change twice a lap for the first couple hundred laps between michael and the crazy colombian. instant classic

That was amazing, I remember that one.

Greg Moore died at the California race. What were the circumstances of that? I never did see a good replay and the announcers seemed clueless at the time.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
Yeah, that's it. Reading your link, I had forgotten about the accident there that prompted it.

If you go to that page I linked, find the picture (near the middle of the page) that's captioned "The Hanford device". It's that big-ass slat across the back of the rear wing. Compare to the other pictures of the car on that page, they don't have that slat.

Ohh, the thing that looks like a brick wall?

 

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
Ohh, the thing that looks like a brick wall?

LOL, no you can't really call that subtle can you?

The first time I saw them show that thing on TV, I was surprised how simple and crude it looked.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: SludgeFactory

Originally posted by: ElFenix
i remember the 1998 US 500. best race i ever saw. 62 official lead changes but the lead would change twice a lap for the first couple hundred laps between michael and the crazy colombian. instant classic

That was amazing, I remember that one.

Greg Moore died at the California race. What were the circumstances of that? I never did see a good replay and the announcers seemed clueless at the time.

i don't remember

might have been one of those dale earnhardt types

there was also the one at sears point

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: SludgeFactory

Originally posted by: ElFenix
i remember the 1998 US 500. best race i ever saw. 62 official lead changes but the lead would change twice a lap for the first couple hundred laps between michael and the crazy colombian. instant classic

That was amazing, I remember that one.

Greg Moore died at the California race. What were the circumstances of that? I never did see a good replay and the announcers seemed clueless at the time.

i don't remember

might have been one of those dale earnhardt types

there was also the one at sears point

I saw that crash. Terrible. He touched the outer wall and rebounded straight into the inner wall. He died on impact.

 

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
I saw that crash. Terrible. He touched the outer wall and rebounded straight into the inner wall. He died on impact.

I never did see a replay that showed what happened to cause him to lose control. ABC missed it apparently. Maybe there's some tape somewhere. All I ever saw was him already spinning, coming out of a turn leading onto one of the straightaways and heading into the infield, where he hit a fence and then a retaining wall and then flipped several times. It was brutal. He was a great driver, one of the best in CART.