TECHNICAL UPDATE
mostly in the ways the wing is mounted to the chassis. With teams running their rear wings
tilted back as much as five degrees in qualifying, engineers need to be able to make quick adjustments when necessary. As HVM Racing IndyCar engineer and
SPEED.com contributor, Michael Cannon, shared, the extremes teams will go to in order to shed downforce to gain straight- line speed at Indy straddles a fine line: ‘The rear wing stops losing drag and starts making lift at about -4.5 degrees. Anything more is truly terrifying, yet you will see people run -5 degrees. Simply because you can flatten out the front wings and there are a variety of ways to shave off just that much more drag, the trade-off for downforce is big. You lose a lot of drag, and gain speed, but the car is almost impossible to hold on to in the corners. The guys running -5 degrees are truly heroes!’ The majority of teams use mount plates
fastest method of all – but this puts extra items in the airstream. Rules dictate the rear wing end
plates must conform to a specific point of coordinates in relation to rear wing angle and, as a result, when wing angle changes are made, teams usually make an adjustment to the angle of the rear end plates, too.
Damper solutions Another area where teams are free to use the product of their choice is dampers. Öhlins, Penske and Dynamic Shocks are three of the most common products used, but Cannon says teams tend to go with what seems to be winning most consistently at the moment. ‘It’s a case of ‘monkey see, monkey do,’ he says. ‘We’ve been running around on Öhlins and what we are doing with the Öhlins is better than what we are doing with the Penskes at this point in time. Is one better than the other
“A highly developed and evolved damper is your best bet”
that provide a range of adjustment at their base, where the wing is bolted to the crash attenuator, while others use plates with few external adjustment holes, opting to make their wing angle changes inside the wing where it mounts at the bottom of the element. The latter style of adjustment offers small aerodynamic gains, but takes considerably longer than the former style of mount plate. A few teams have even developed a ratcheting style of angle adjustment – the
though? I doubt it. A highly developed and evolved damper is your best option. ‘Öhlins makes an excellent and very
adjustable damper, the most common one being a through-rod design. This uses a series of springs and shims to generate force. They are very configurable and very light weight, but they are still a through- rod damper. ‘They don’t offer the same platform or
support feeling that a monotube damper like the Penske does.
Rear wing location devices vary significantly from car to car, though the key is ease and speed of adjustability at the track
72
www.racecarengineering.com • August 2011
Damper choice is open in IndyCar but teams tend to follow each other and opt for the ones that are winning most at the time
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