Brabham BT46B 'fan-car', A working ground effect car! Options

[conti_rowland]

Graham

"Olive picking - arguably the most fun you can have with both hands"!!!!!!!!

I've got to disagree with you there Graham - I HATE olive picking - why do all Expats except for me think its fun??????

Anyway thanks for your comments mate - i'll bring it round tomorrow night........

On the weight testing i'm doing it with the card held (by the air not by me) directly to the underside of the car - it wont hold at all if there is even a slight gap.

Andi

[conti_rowland]

and look what Chris (Beardog) just sent me - my latest venture - a 4WD formula 1 car.......

[flyingscotsman]

Hi conti_rowland,

This is absolutely fantastic! A great tribute to one of the most original and ingenious Formula 1 cars of all time.

Well done!

Dave

[Graham Lane]

I find olive picking enormously rewarding, seeing all those olive building up in the net, taking them to the mill and bringing back all that lovely oil. It's also a very social event for us. Family and friends join in and we have a great rustic lunch each day and a lot of fun. You can't be doing it right.

Anyway, back on topic. That 4WD is luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurvely. Looks like it is already four-wheel drive and only needs detailing and painting?

And the Vanwall? Where's that?

[Bigskybanker]

Chris (Beardog) certainly knows how to build a superb car. As do you.

I'm sure you'll have a blast detailing Chris' Lotus. Here's a photo of an open wheeler that Chris scratch built for me last year; it's the pride of my collection:




It's a pleasure watching your projects develop.

Best wishes,

Mark

[Gone Racin]

On the weight testing i'm doing it with the card held (by the air not by me) directly to the underside of the car - it wont hold at all if there is even a slight gap.

Andi

Hi Andi

As we discussed earlier, what's important is the pressure under the car when it's on the track. As the car obviously doesn't run with the chassis constantly touching the track, the relevance of that card test is going to be quite limited. A more relevant test would be to do that sort of test with a larger piece of card at the level of the track. At the front the card would be resting on the front wheels and braids. At the rear the card should have a couple of spaces the same thickness as the ground clearance between the rear tyres. Obviously the card would need cut outs to clear the guide blade and spinning rear tyres.

This sort of test is relevant to cars producing their down force by fans (like this Brabham and the Chaparral 2J), it would be useless for ground effect cars working on under body air flow (like the Lotus 78, 79 and the ground effect cars that filled the GP grids for the following few years)

There are other problems like getting skirts to work well on a moving slot car running on a less than perfectly smooth track. As you say your car is sensitive to even a slight gap, this sounds like a real problem.

You say you were thinking a wind tunnel with a moving floor. Something like this would be needed to explore Lotus 79 type ground effect. I know from experience that producing a wind tunnel good enough to give meaningful measurements is far from simple. I'm not optimistic this will help much with developing skirts that work well.

[Philip P]

The BT46B looks brilliant. Thanks for sharing the build with us and the 4WD should be another great project.

Keep us in the loop....

Cheers,

Philip

(I hate strawberry picking. Is olive picking any better?)

[the Professor]

Great project, you have built an amazing racecar. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[conti_rowland]

Wow Sir, that is the new record! 4 posts in 6 years!

I am really honoured to have been one of them - thanks...

Andi

[Slotrace.dk]

Don't know how I missed this topic. Awesome work!!!

[Ian H]

What a cracking thread and what a great project.

The finish on the car looks amazing too.

Very brave!

[lee606]

Stunning! Amazing job!

[conti_rowland]

No, lee 606, you hold the new record. 1 post in 2 years. I'm honoured.

Where were you guys the first time round??

Thanks anyway.

Andi

[RacingSnake]

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

Gordon Murray on BBC4 Sunday 8th July. There is even a clip of the fan car as a teaser.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f11hp

Enjoy