(Note: feel free to criticize any idea, the fact it’s a long post for a simple idea, or the fact that this is my first post and I have no idea what I’m doing. Or criticize that the cappuccinos are only acceptable by Suzuki.)
I love NASCAR racing and I eagerly await for every race. In fact this Sunday is at Sonoma, one of my favorite races of the year. The problem that I hear is the competition at intermediate tracks (tracks of 1.5 miles in length) where cars lose a lot of front downforce when following another car. Quite the obvious problem, since NASCAR race cars have massive rear spoilers that punch a really big hole in the air. What this means is drivers complain about not being able to pass, and less racing action for the fans.
To my knowledge, NASCAR does not currently use diffusers and has no immediate plans to. After drinking a cappuccino and looking for distractions to not write my mechanical engineering application, I thought diffusers could help alleviate this issue.
Why diffusers?
Well if I’m interpreting it correctly, diffusers work on the expansion of air rather than pushing it a certain direction. I’m also going to assume that the “vacuum” behind the car (caused by the spoiler and flat rear of the race car) is what causes the great loss in downforce. By making the vacuum smaller, more air is hitting the car to the rear which would result in a less dramatic change in handling for the chasing car. Hopefully, resulting in more passing action in races.
Diffusers are also a downforce producing aero piece. Any extra downforce produced by a diffuser would reduce the need for a large rear spoiler, and allow for a smaller spoiler while still producing the same levels of downforce. Since the spoiler is a big reason for the big vacuum of air, a reduction in its size could allow for an even smaller vacuum, and more air to hit the rear car. This would further decrease the change in handling for the chasing car to where the difference in handling between a car in “clean air” and “dirty air” is minimized.
A diffuser in combination with a smaller rear spoiler would result in significantly less drag. Drag is bad. Even Carl Edwards thinks so. (Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn3C6nI616E&ab_channel=AbantecOfficialcommercials ) Less drag means higher speeds which is always fun to watch. I mean fast cars. Faster cars means drivers and cars are racing even more at the limit! Tl:dr – I think NASCAR should use diffusers
Comments
(Note: feel free to criticize any idea, the fact it’s a long post for a simple idea, or the fact that this is my first post and I have no idea what I’m doing. Or criticize that the cappuccinos are only acceptable by Suzuki.)
I love NASCAR racing and I eagerly await for every race. In fact this Sunday is at Sonoma, one of my favorite races of the year. The problem that I hear is the competition at intermediate tracks (tracks of 1.5 miles in length) where cars lose a lot of front downforce when following another car. Quite the obvious problem, since NASCAR race cars have massive rear spoilers that punch a really big hole in the air. What this means is drivers complain about not being able to pass, and less racing action for the fans.
Then I remembered Engineering Explained’s video on diffusers. Link because the dude is awesome and his videos are better than any professor’s lecture I’ve had.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvDerbIU-uY&ab_channel=EngineeringExplained
To my knowledge, NASCAR does not currently use diffusers and has no immediate plans to. After drinking a cappuccino and looking for distractions to not write my mechanical engineering application, I thought diffusers could help alleviate this issue.
Why diffusers?
Well if I’m interpreting it correctly, diffusers work on the expansion of air rather than pushing it a certain direction. I’m also going to assume that the “vacuum” behind the car (caused by the spoiler and flat rear of the race car) is what causes the great loss in downforce. By making the vacuum smaller, more air is hitting the car to the rear which would result in a less dramatic change in handling for the chasing car. Hopefully, resulting in more passing action in races.
Diffusers are also a downforce producing aero piece. Any extra downforce produced by a diffuser would reduce the need for a large rear spoiler, and allow for a smaller spoiler while still producing the same levels of downforce. Since the spoiler is a big reason for the big vacuum of air, a reduction in its size could allow for an even smaller vacuum, and more air to hit the rear car. This would further decrease the change in handling for the chasing car to where the difference in handling between a car in “clean air” and “dirty air” is minimized.
A diffuser in combination with a smaller rear spoiler would result in significantly less drag. Drag is bad. Even Carl Edwards thinks so. (Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn3C6nI616E&ab_channel=AbantecOfficialcommercials
) Less drag means higher speeds which is always fun to watch. I mean fast cars. Faster cars means drivers and cars are racing even more at the limit!
Tl:dr – I think NASCAR should use diffusers