DeTomaso Mailing List: April 98, Message #278

David said
'Formula One banned sideskirts because they only generate downforce when the
>car is moving straight ahead. '

Not entirely true.  Even today all formula cars, even my Continental, (heck,
probably closed wheel as well)lose all there aerodynamic downforce when
sideways with today's wings.

Actually, Formula one banned sideskirts because of several reasons.
    1) They were so effective at maintaining the low  pressure under the car
that drivers did not have to lift in many corners and as a result were
carrying awesome speed.  Incredibly, the aerodynamics created many tons of
downforce and the cars cornered as if on rails.  They drove like it too, as
suspensions were bottomed out by the suction and the designers need to
maintain the proper clearance of the skirt against the road. The problem was
that these skirts that were rubbing against the track were often damaged
allowing the pressure differential to be lessened significantly.
Unfortunately, the drivers didn't discover the loss of downforce until they
continued straight at the next turn!  The drivers also complained that even
with the skirts functioning they had no telegraphing of when a car was at
it's limit which made them dangerous to drive. So the main reason was a
safety issue.

  2)  The Driver's contribution to the speed of the car was diminished.  No
longer driving by 'feel', it was believed the designers and engineers were
the real competitors.  Banning skirts, much like F1 moving  to narrower
wheelbases, was perceived as a positive way to increase the drivers
influence in the equation.

  3) An attempt to control the costs of car development as 2 decades ago
access and the cost of engineering in a wind tunnel  was challenging and
prohibitive. Thus providing well heeled teams a larger advantage.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Nunn <dnunn@axionet.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <detomaso@realbig.com>
Date: Sunday, April 05, 1998 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: Aerodynamics


>Formula One banned sideskirts because they only generate downforce when the
>car is moving straight ahead. As soon as a car got sideways, the downforce
>was instantly GONE and so was the car and sometimes the driver (eg. Gilles
>Villenueve). The accidents in those days were horrible. When the drivers
got
>sideways the cars became frisbees.
>
>