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Silicon Valley Nation: Engineering against death on race tracks
Brian Fuller
10/29/2012 5:06 PM EDT
FONTANA, Calif.--The tolerances in racing engineering these days are
astonishingly tight, whether it's electrical or mechanical.
We heard this time and again as we toured the garage and pit lane here as part of the Littelfuse Speed2Design project this fall with James "Sulli" Sullivan of SH Racing. The engineering insight is exceptional but abstracted somewhat as Sullivan talks about optimizing a IndyCar vehicle for conditions and tracks. It's not so abstracted when the subject of Dan Wheldon comes up.
[Learn more about the Indy 500 at the Littelfuse Speed2Design site.]
Wheldon, the 2011 Indy 500 champion was killed in a horrific crash at the Las Vegas IndyCar event on Oct. 16, 2011. The crash and his death prompted the race league to take a step back and a hard look at the rules that dictate how they manage that tension between speed and safety.
The tension revolves around downforce--what keeps what could otherwise be an airplane from flying off the track. At some tracks and conditions, there's more or less a 1:1 ratio between the vehicle's weight and the necessary downforce; in others downforce can be three to four time the car's weight.
And like most engineering decisions, some tradeoffs can take precedence over others. In the aftermath of Wheldon's crash, league officials altered downforce rules to reduce the amount of "pack racing" that bunches up cars and can cause accidents. That was considered a factor in the Wheldon's crash at Las Vegas.
But as we walked around with Sullivan here at the Auto Club Speedway, E.J. Viso, one of three drivers on the KV Racing team, which Littelfuse sponsored, threatened to pull out because of downforce rules. That afternoon on Twitter, he tweeted: “If more downforce is not fitted for this race I’m not racing!”
The league was easing down-force pressure, but if you ease downforce, cars have less stability and become hard to handle in other ways. Viso didn't pull out and he finished 25th after completing just 65 of 250 laps.
Listen as Sullivan explains the physics behind downforce in auto racing and how race teams alter their tactics and cars to suit conditions. Earlier, Sullivan also talked about why race cars don't turn, they rotate and gave us a breakdown of why racing is so expensive.
Related stories:
-- Whether F1 or IndyCar, clever engineering is key
--Five lessons from race teams
--Dream engineering job?
--The racer's edge
--Limiting innovation
--Innovation in racing helmets
--Engineering mischief and a legendary racing shocker
-- To driver Arie Luyendyk, it's about engineering and racer's edge
--Littelfuse Speed2Design project
We heard this time and again as we toured the garage and pit lane here as part of the Littelfuse Speed2Design project this fall with James "Sulli" Sullivan of SH Racing. The engineering insight is exceptional but abstracted somewhat as Sullivan talks about optimizing a IndyCar vehicle for conditions and tracks. It's not so abstracted when the subject of Dan Wheldon comes up.
[Learn more about the Indy 500 at the Littelfuse Speed2Design site.]
Wheldon, the 2011 Indy 500 champion was killed in a horrific crash at the Las Vegas IndyCar event on Oct. 16, 2011. The crash and his death prompted the race league to take a step back and a hard look at the rules that dictate how they manage that tension between speed and safety.
The tension revolves around downforce--what keeps what could otherwise be an airplane from flying off the track. At some tracks and conditions, there's more or less a 1:1 ratio between the vehicle's weight and the necessary downforce; in others downforce can be three to four time the car's weight.
And like most engineering decisions, some tradeoffs can take precedence over others. In the aftermath of Wheldon's crash, league officials altered downforce rules to reduce the amount of "pack racing" that bunches up cars and can cause accidents. That was considered a factor in the Wheldon's crash at Las Vegas.
But as we walked around with Sullivan here at the Auto Club Speedway, E.J. Viso, one of three drivers on the KV Racing team, which Littelfuse sponsored, threatened to pull out because of downforce rules. That afternoon on Twitter, he tweeted: “If more downforce is not fitted for this race I’m not racing!”
The league was easing down-force pressure, but if you ease downforce, cars have less stability and become hard to handle in other ways. Viso didn't pull out and he finished 25th after completing just 65 of 250 laps.
Listen as Sullivan explains the physics behind downforce in auto racing and how race teams alter their tactics and cars to suit conditions. Earlier, Sullivan also talked about why race cars don't turn, they rotate and gave us a breakdown of why racing is so expensive.
Related stories:
-- Whether F1 or IndyCar, clever engineering is key
--Five lessons from race teams
--Dream engineering job?
--The racer's edge
--Limiting innovation
--Innovation in racing helmets
--Engineering mischief and a legendary racing shocker
-- To driver Arie Luyendyk, it's about engineering and racer's edge
--Littelfuse Speed2Design project
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