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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 2000-01-0872

The Aerodynamic Stability of a Le Mans

Prototype Race Car Under Off-Design
Pitch Conditions
R. G. Dominy, A. Ryan and D. B. Sims-Williams
University of Durham

Reprinted From: Vehicle Aerodynamics

(SP–1524)

SAE 2000 World Congress

Detroit, Michigan
March 6-9, 2000

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2000-01-0872

The Aerodynamic Stability of a Le Mans Prototype

Race Car Under Off-Design Pitch Conditions

R. G. Dominy, A. Ryan and D. B. Sims-Williams

University of Durham

Copyright © 2000 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

ABSTRACT manufacturers to undertake thorough wind tunnel test

programmes during the design and development stages
The current generation of sports racing cars such as of their race-cars the information that is obtained is rarely,
those competing under the Le Mans “LM”P and “LM”GTP if ever, released for publication. Katz [1] provides force
regulations are particularly sensitive to the pitch of the and pressure data for a sports car from a limited range of
vehicle. This is a consequence of the low ground clear- test configurations but the information dates back to the
ances that must be adopted to maximise the benefits that IMSA regulations that were in force during the early
can be gained from ground effect and of the very large 1980’s which bear little relation to those in force today. In
floor plan area of these cars. To achieve optimum corner- the absence of relevant data it is difficult to analyse accu-
ing and straight line performance the suspension charac- rately the various factors that contribute to accidents of
teristics are often tuned to the aerodynamic forces in this kind or to assess their relative importance. In addition
order to reduce the pitch and hence the drag of the vehi- to the steady state aerodynamic characteristics of the car
cle at high speeds whilst retaining relatively high down- those factors may include aerodynamic perturbations
force when cornering. arising from the close proximity of other vehicles and
other external influences such as track surface contours
A series of accidents at the 1999 Le Mans 24-hour race
and the associated dynamic response of the suspension
have highlighted the potential instability of these vehicles
and tyres. The aerodynamic configuration of the cars is
which resulted in the catastrophic ‘take-off’ of one of the
largely dictated by the technical regulations which are
“LM”GTP cars during the race and others during qualify-
governed by the race organisers, the Automobile Club de
ing and the pre-race ‘warm-up’. The data presented here
l’Ouest [2]. A summary of those applying to “LM”GTP cat-
have been extracted from a detailed experimental study
egory is given in table 1.
of a typical “LM”GTP car under design and off-design
pitch conditions including extreme cases of nose-up
pitching moment to assess the onset of instability i.e rota- Table 1. Full scale vehicle parameters
tion leading to take-off. Additional data are presented to Max. length 4.90 m
demonstrate the influence of possible regulation changes Max. width 2.00 m
upon these parameters.
Min. weight 900 kg
Max. fuel capacity 90 litres
INTRODUCTION
Max. engine 8000cc ( atmospheric )
The 1999 Le Mans 24-hour race will long be remembered capacity 4000cc ( turbocharged )
for the spectacular take-off and somersaults of the Mer- Undertray Flat over the full width of the floor
cedes CLR driven by Peter Dumbreck. This and two bewteen the axles.
almost identical incidents, one during qualifying and the
Flat, inclined rear diffuser which
other during the morning ‘warm-up’ were unusual but by
must not rise more than 150mm
no means unique. Although the problems encountered by
above the flat chassis floor plane.
the Mercedes team clearly demonstrated that there was
a problem with their particular design other similar acci- Wings One, single element rear aerofoil
dents such as one involving the Porsche 911-GT1 of Yan- which must not project beyond the
nick Dalmas at Road Atlanta only months before suggest perimeter of the bodywork.
that the potential for take-off is much more widespread “LM”GTP is one of two categories that compete for over-
and may be inherent in GT and sports car configurations. all victory, the other being the Le Mans Prototype (“LM”P)
Although it is usual for all of the major racing sports car class. The regulations are designed to allow the cars to

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compete on equal terms and the most obvious visible dif- The forces were measured using a 6-component, elec-
ference between them is the open top nature of the tronic force balance that was designed and manufactured
“LM”P’s compared to the usually closed “LM”GTP’s. The at Durham University. The balance was mounted inside
accidents at Le Mans in 1999 and at Road Atlanta the the model ( figure 1 ) which was attached to the chassis
previous year both occurred with closed “LM”GTP cars via a hinge arrangement that allowed the pitch of the car
and for that reason this study has focused upon vehicles to be adjusted without changing the inclination of the bal-
of that type. At this stage there is no evidence to indicate ance.
whether or not cars conforming to the “LM”P regulations
Wake surveys were performed using a 5-hole pressure
are equally prone to instability.
probe which was mounted on a computer-controlled, 4-
This study was undertaken firstly to provide a compre- axis ( 3 linear and 1 angular ) traverse system.
hensive map of the aerodynamic characteristics of a
generic Le Mans “LM”GTP race car with a particular EXPERIMENTAL METHOD – All measurements were
emphasis upon its behaviour at extreme off-design, nose- made at a nominal wind tunnel velocity of 21 m/s giving a
up attitudes and secondly to analyse the effect possible Reynolds number ( based on length ) of 1.33 x 10 6. For
regulation changes upon the stability of the vehicle. each measurement the moving ground plane was
matched to the airspeed to an accuracy of better that
EXPERIMENT 0.1m/s ( ~0.5% ) under the control of the data system.
Under-belt suction was used for all of the measurements.
EQUIPMENT – The tests were performed on a 1/5th
The 5-hole pressure probe that was used for the wake
scale model of a typical race car conforming to the 1999
surveys was of the forward-facing pyramid type (as clas-
Le Mans regulations for “LM”GTP cars. The model was
sified by Dominy and Hodson [3]) with a wedge angle of
based upon the 1998 Mercedes CLR but the geometry
90° and a width of 3.5mm. A steady state calibration of
was only an approximate representation and the results
the 5-hole probe was performed at constant velocity over
should not be regarded as providing an accurate reflec-
a range of pitch and yaw angles from -40° to +40° in 2.5°
tion of the performance of that particular vehicle. The
increments and these data were stored as a look-up
upper body was manufactured from polycarbonate by
table. Data were collected from one half of the wake only
GM-modellsport. The design of the undertray was con-
since by assuming symmetry about the wake centre it
sistent with the race regulations and included maximum
was possible to achieve higher resolution within an
allowable diffusion behind the rear axle and typical
acceptable time scale. At each of the 210 positions within
under-nose diffusion. Rotating wheels were manufac-
the half-wake the pressures were averaged over 2048
tured from lightweight, rigid polyurethane foam and the
samples. Measurements were made at two downstream
exposed surfaces were sealed. They were attached to
traverse planes. The first ( plane 1 ) was located at x/L =
the model using trailing arms with the links set in the hor-
0.156 downstream from the rearmost point of the car and
izontal plane to eliminate errors in the lift measurements
the second ( plane 2 ) was located further downstream at
caused by the resolution of the drag forces acting along
x/L = 0.313, where x is the axial distance and L is the
the trailing arms. All of the measurements were made
overall length of the car. Although the upstream traverse
using the Durham University moving ground plane.
provides valuable information regarding the development
of the wake flow its location is not representative of typi-
cal vehicle spacings during slipsteaming and overtaking
manouvres and the data are not included here. More
detailed information concerning the slipstreaming tests
has been presented by Dominy et al [5].
Data were sampled using an Amplicon PC30-PGH card
which has a clock speed of 2Mhz and allows logging of 8,
Figure 1. The wind tunnel model 12bit differential channels. The card was driven by an
MS-DOS based PC which also controlled the traverse
The cooling flow paths on full scale vehicles are highly gear used for probe positioning and the road speed. A
complex and vary considerably from one vehicle to logging frequency of 800hz per channel was used and a
another. No attempt was made to model those cooling set of matched 250hz second-order analogue filters pro-
flows since accurate geometrical data were not available vided anti-aliasing. Pressure measurements were made
and the focus of this research programme was upon the with a set of identical Sensor Technics 103LP10D pres-
global aerodynamic performance trends of a generic sure transducers which were calibrated simultaneously
vehicle and not upon detail that is specific to a particular against a silicon fluid micro-manometer.
car. It was not considered that the global trends would be The datum configuration for the car was chosen following
greatly influenced by the cooling flows although they a preliminary performance mapping exercise which
undoubtedly have significance in terms of the precise lift, allowed an optimum aerodynamic configuration to be
drag and centre of pressure of a vehicle.

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established within prescribed limits of lift, drag and centre at a point close to the centre of gravity of the full scale car
of pressure. In particular it was ensured that the centre of ( figure 1 ). Pitching about this point corresponds approx-
pressure was located to achieve a reasonably neutral imately to the conditions that occur under braking and
understeer/oversteer cornering characteristic but with a acceleration as the car pitches about its centre of gravity.
small, rearward bias to allow for the changes in pitch and
ride height that occur at the high straight line speeds that
are achieved at Le Mans. An appropriate centre of pres-
sure was determined using the established laptime pre-
diction method of Dominy [4]. In view of the nature of the
accidents in the 1999 Le Mans 24-hour race particular
attention was paid to the lift characteristics under nose-
up pitch conditions.
Measurements were also made when the model lay in
the wake created by a similar, upstream vehicle. The data
presented here correspond to a spacing between the
vehicles of 0.5 vehicle lengths ( i.e. x/L = 0.5 ).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

THE DATUM CONDITION – The configuration that was

chosen as a datum condition is described in table 2 Figure 2. The effect of chassis pitch upon downforce at
which also provides details of the forces that are gener- constant central pivot height (+ve pitch = nose-up )
ated.
For each data point shown in figure 2 the rear wing angle
was held at a constant incidence of -1.5 degrees relative
Table 2. The Datum Configuration to the flat undertray. Changing the attitude of the vehicle
Ground clearance (front axle, mm @ 31.5 from +0.4 degrees ( nose up ) to -0.7 degrees ( nose
full scale ) down ) shows an almost linear increase in the total down-
Ground clearance ( rear axle, mm @ 64.2 force generated which corresponds to a rate of 4400 N/
full scale ) degree. At the negative pitch angles that are usually
Rear wing incidence ( degrees ) 2.2 experienced when racing, typically in the range 0° to -
Pitch angle ( degrees ) -0.7 0.7°, the rate at which the downforce changes with pitch
is almost identical at the front and the rear. However, the
Downforce ( N @ 320 kph, full scale ) 8887
percentage of the total downforce that acts on the front
Drag ( N @ 320 kph, full scale ) 4475
axle increases from 38.7% at 0° pitch to 41.8% when the
% Lift acting on front axle 42.0% pitch is set to -0.7° , reflecting a forward movement of the
The force data are presented in terms of the forces acting centre of pressure. Pitching the car nose down about a
upon a full scale vehicle at a velocity of 320 kph ( ~200 point between the axles leads to the reduction of the
mph or 89 m/s ) and not in coefficient form. This is done throat area ( the minimum cross sectional area that
for two related reasons. The first is that race car con- occurs beneath the car at or near the nose ) with an
structors are interested primarily in absolute forces and associated increase of the cross sectional area beneath
the units that have been used here are those that have the rear of the car. More severe diffusion rates therefore
been adopted widely throughout the industry. The second occur along the entire length of the undertray down-
is that many of the changes made to race cars result in stream from the throat and the primary effect is to accel-
significant changes in the frontal area which are not eas- erate the flow beneath the front of the car to higher
ily measurable and which therefore make the use and velocities and lower pressures leading to increased
interpretation of traditional coefficients difficult. These downforce generation. The total downforce acting upon
forces are reasonably representative of a generic Le the car rises from 6476N to 8887N over the same pitch
Mans prototype vehicle conforming to the closed angle increase which corresponds to a 37% downforce
“LM”GTP regulations and configured for relatively low increase. At nose-up attitudes the gradient of the rear
drag and downforce as would be appropriate for the Le axle downforce ~ pitch curve becomes steeper whilst at
Mans circuit. the front axle the gradient is reduced. This corresponds
to a considerable forward movement of the centre of
PITCH EFFECTS – Figure 2 demonstrates how the pressure ( 46% acting on the front axle ) but with greatly
downforce changes as the vehicle is pitched about a fixed reduced downforce. Around corners these dramatic
point. For these measurements the pitch was changed by changes in the centre of pressure would be unacceptable
rotating the car about the balance/model attachment because of their strong influence upon the understeer/
pivot which was located just behind the wheelbase centre oversteer characteristic of the car and in the light of this

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pitch sensitivity it is not surprising that these cars fre- degree ). Not until the nose-up pitch angle reaches an
quently operate with very stiff front springs to minimise extreme value of +2.25 degrees does the vehicle begin to
ride height changes at the front of the car. Front wheel create aerodynamic lift which suggests that aerodynamic
rates in excess of 175 N/m ( 1550 lbs/inch ) are com- forces alone are insufficient to lead to take-off since the
mon. Because of the long, fast straights that are charac- entire weight of the car is still acting downwards. How-
teristic of the Le Mans circuit there is a strong incentive to ever, consideration of the overall forces may be mislead-
minimise the drag forces that act upon the race cars. This ing. Figure 4 also shows clearly that the front axle
can often be achieved by reducing the pitch of the cars experiences a lifting force at an attitude of only +0.7
and because of the need for stiff front suspensions the degrees. A further increase to +2.2 degrees generates a
most common solution is to operate with soft rear front axle lift that exceeds the front axle weight (approxi-
springs. mately 3600N) which is sufficient to pivot the nose
upwards about the rear axle. By comparison the rear
Figure 3 presents the corresponding results for the case
downforce remains almost constant throughout the entire
where the pitch is achieved by the rotation of the car
attitude range.
about its rear axle. This approximates to the car passing
over the brow of a hill and is more akin to the situation
DYNAMIC STABILITY – The accident involving the
that may lead potentially to take-off. The range of inci-
Dumbreck Mercedes CLR at the 1999 Le Mans 24-hour
dences was therefore extended to +2.5 degrees (figure 4)
race occurred soon after the car passed over the crest of
which lies considerably beyond the usual operating
a hill whilst following closely behind another car. Wright
envelope.
[6] has described the factors that influence the behaviour
of a car as it crests the brow of a hill. If the curvature of
the track surface is high the inertia of the car prevents it
from accurately following the track contour and the nose
of the car will rise up on the suspension leading to an
increase in the front ground clearance and an effective
change of the pitch attitude of the car. For a race car that
is dependent upon ground effect for the generation of
downforce this will result in a momentary loss of down-
force. The precise magnitude of the downforce reduction
will depend upon the design and operating point of the
particular car but the qualitative behaviour will be much
as described above. Although the car does not precisely
follow the road surface as it moves on its suspension it
will nevertheless follow an arc that has a radius that is
comparable to that defined by the road surface and it will
therefore experience a transient, upward centrifugal
force. It is estimated that the brow at the start of the
Figure 3. The effect of chassis pitch upon downforce Dumbreck accident has a radius of approximately 1000m
when pivoted about the rear axle and simple calculations ( mv2/r ) show that the accelera-
tion experienced by the car reaches almost 0.8g. This is
The influence of pitch upon downforce is very similar to sufficient to reduce the effective weight of the car to only
that observed previously and the approximate linearity of 2000N and the effective weight acting on the front axle to
the downforce ~ pitch curve is maintained throughout only 900N ( assuming a typical 45/55 % front to rear
most of the very considerable pitch range. weight distribution ). The vehicle attitude required to
achieve this front axle lifting force is only +1° ( figure 3 ).
Most “LM”GTP designs are designed to operate at nega-
tive attitudes at all times and it is unlikely that the +1°
threshold will be approached. However, there is clear
photographic evidence that, probably uniquely, the Mer-
cedes is allowed to operate at small nose-up attitudes [7]
and would therefore appear to run with less of a safety
Figure 4. The model at +2.5 degrees ( maximum ) margin. Another potentially influential factor is the addi-
incidence tional rise of the nose due to spring extension as the load
upon the suspension is momentarily reduced when the
The greater distance between the undertray and the road car passes over the brow of the hill. Wright [6] in his
surface under these conditions reduces the forces review of the Dumbreck accident also describes the
induced by ground effect and the gradient of the curve is effect of a local bump upon the car as distinguished from
therefore reduced relative to the case of rotation about the much longer wavelength undulation that has been
the centre of the vehicle ( ~3000N/degree c.f. 4400N/ considered above. He argues that the excitation of the

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suspension together with the spring-damper characteris-

tics of the suspension and of the tyres is sufficient to gen-
erate pitch amplitudes of as much as 2°. Some witnesses
to the accident are reported to have observed that the car
rode up on the kerb immediately before the accident so
Wright’s comments could have direct relevence.

SLIPSTREAMING – Another potential influence upon the

Dumbreck accident was the presence of another vehicle
approximately one car length ahead. The influence of the
wake from an upstream vehicle is less easy to analyse.
As a first approximation the following car can be consid-
ered to operate simply at a reduced relative dynamic
head. However the wake from a race car may be
expected to be highly complex including upwash, down-
wash and lateral velocity components which may locally Figure 5. Dynamic head contours in the near wake
be very intense in the regions of highest vorticity such as ( x = 0.313 L )
those associated with rear wing tip flows. In the absence
of published data relating to the wake structures of con-
temporary sports racing cars a detailed wake survey has
been performed behind this model. Dynamic head con-
tours derived from area traverses at a plane 0.313 car
lengths downstream are presented in figure 5. It should
be noted that the rolling road extended only to 0.07 car
lengths downstream of the model so some error would be
expected to be present in the near floor measurements at
the traverse plane as a consequence of the growth of a
new ground boundary layer . Figure 5 shows the
recorded dynamic head pressure contours at the traverse Figure 6. Secondary Velocity vectors in the near wake
plane. It should be noted that the wake flow was only ( x = 0.313 L )
measured to one side of the vehicle’s centre line and that
the apparently complete, symmetrical wake that is pre- As expected, the most intense zones within the wake cor-
sented here was generated by mirroring the data to the respond to the stagnating regions such as those immedi-
unmeasured side. An outline of the vehicle surface has ately behind the bluff, rear body sections and to the
been superimposed on the contours to assist the analy- boundary layer flows that have been generated over the
sis of the wake flow and the corresponding secondary upper bodywork and beneath the chassis. The energy
velocity vectors are also shown ( figure 6 ). Two distinct loss above the car may be attributed to the supporting
pairs of vortices are clearly visible. The upper pair of vor- strut. An integration of the dynamic head has been per-
tices ( z/W=0.47, y/W=± 0.48 ) were generated at the formed over the central zone of the wake which is defined
wing tips whilst the lower pair of vortices ( z/W=0.34, y/ by a box that has the same width and height as the car
W=± 0.30 ) are created by the inflow at the rear of the itself. This provides an estimate of the dynamic head that
car. A strong upwash is evident about the centre line of would be experienced by a second car following directly
the car. behind the first. In this test the integrated dynamic head
was found to fall to only 39.4% of the free stream value
which may be expected to lead to a downforce reduction
of 3550N for the following car. This figure may only be
regarded as an approximation but it provides a helpful
indication of the effect of slipstreaming. In practice the
downstream mixing of the wake would be expected to
result in an greater influence upon the front of the follow-
ing car than upon the rear. Direct force measurements

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have also been made when a second model was located are logical reasons why nose length could be influential.
directly upstream from the instrumented vehicle. The The first is that the relatively hard front wheel rates and
second car was positioned 0.5 lengths ahead of the test soft rear rates adopted by most competitors allow the
car. It should be noted that the leading car was similar to cars to pivot about the front axle on bumpy surfaces. With
but not identical to the primary test car and that it was a short nose the change in ride height at the very front of
mounted above a fixed ground board so the wake struc- the car is proportionately reduced as the rear rises and
ture will have differed from that of the test car. The mea- falls resulting in reduced throat area change and hence in
surements reveal an overall downforce reduction of 31% reduced pitch sensitivity. A second benefit is the small but
which is less that the reduction implied from the dynamic potentially significant reduction in the overturning
head integration. This would be explained in part by the moment about the rear axle should the nose lift. When
greater vehicle separation for the force measurements adopting a shorter nose it is necessary to either increase
which would lead to the following vehicle experiencing a the downforce generated at the front of the car or to
less intense wake. However, the figure derived from the reduce the rear downforce in order to maintain an accept-
integration must be viewed with considerable caution able centre of pressure. In practice the former will usually
since it is very sensitive to the area over which the inte- lead to better laptimes even at the high speed Le Mans
gration is performed. Increasing the integration area by circuit but of greater significance in the context of this
50% raises the averaged dynamic head value from 0.394 study is the greater downward force at the front of the car
to 0.536 which is much closer to the value required to which reduces the risk of take-off. One means of increas-
match the force measurements. ing front end downforce would be to relax the regulations
regarding the permitted dimensions of the rear diffuser.
In terms of take-off stability these results imply that in
Larger diffusers would enhance the ground effect which
pure aerodynamic terms there is no reason why a slip-
is usually manifest in greater front-end downforce.
streaming car should be any more prone to take-off than
when in free air. The reduction in downforce that is The suggestions relating to nose length can not yet be
recorded at nose-down attitudes as a consequence of verified experimentally because the wind tunnel model
the reduced dynamic head would be expected to be used for this study did not facilitate the use of different
mirrored by a reduction of front lift under extreme nose- nose geometries within the scheduled time scale.
up conditions. Unfortunately there was not sufficient time
within the test programme to allow the downstream car to CONCLUSION
be tested at an extreme nose-up condition when lying in
the wake of the second car but on the basis of effective Wind tunnel test data have been presented from a
dynamic head considerations alone the lift force would be detailed experimental study of a typical “LM”GTP car
expected to reduce. However, it should be noted that under design and off-design pitch and ground clearance
wake flows are notoriously unsteady and that unsteadi- conditions including extreme cases of nose-up pitching
ness may exaggerate the contribution of the other moment. It is shown that the aerodynamic forces alone
dynamic influences that have been described above in are unlikely to be sufficient to lead to the onset of instabil-
terms of the overall dynamic stability. The unsteadiness ity ( rotation leading to take-off ) even at high angles of
in the wake has not yet been measured. attack. However the effective weight reduction that occurs
as a car passes over a relatively sharp brow is shown to
POTENTIAL REGULATION CHANGES. – The results reduce the incidence required for rotation to only 1°.
that have been presented here do not provide an ‘instant Although this is beyond the operational envelope of most
solution’ that would allow the governing body to imple- cars there are realistic combinations of aerodynamic
ment rule changes that could eliminate the potential for characteristics, suspension characteristics and track con-
accidents such as this to be repeated but they do add to tours that could, in extreme cases, place some designs
our insight into the problems. One widely suggested close to or even beyond the critical point. A suggested
change has been to implement regulations to further mechanism to move designs further from this critical
reduce the downforce of the cars in a similar manner to operating condition is to reduce the permitted overhang
those adopted in Formula 1. However, the analyses pre- at the nose of the car whilst allowing greater flexibility to
sented here, albeit highly simplified, suggest that what is generate downforce using ground effect.
required is more downforce, not less in order to counter
the effects induced by track undulations. Reducing the REFERENCES
downforce would simply reduce the largest single force
that is available to prevent the initial lifting of the nose. 1. Katz, J., Race Car Aerodynamics- Designing for
Speed, Pub. Robert Bentley, ISBN 0-8376-0142-8,
A better solution may be to limit the length of the nose
1995
ahead of the front axle. The nose of the Mercedes CLR is
particularly long at approximately 1.1m in comparison 2. Automobile Club de l’Ouest, 24 Heures du Mans,
with its competitors such as the Audi R8R ( 0.9m ) and Technical Regulations Prototype “LM”P & “LM”GTP,
1998
the BMW ( 0.83m ). This may be coincidental, but there

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3. Dominy, R.G., Hodson, H.P., An Investigation of Fac- CONTACT

tors Influencing the Calibration of 5-Hole Probes for
3-D Flow Measurements, ASME Journal of Turboma- Dr. R. G. Dominy, Director, Centre for Automotive
chinery vol. 115, pp 513-518, 1993. Research, University of Durham, School of Engineering,
4. Dominy, J.A., Dominy, R.G., Aerodynamic Influences South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, U.K.
on the Performance of the Grand Prix Racing Car. Email: [email protected] ),
Proc. IMechE Part D vol. 198, pp. 1-7, 1984. Web: http://www.dur.ac.uk/car
5. Dominy, R.G., Ryan, A., Sims-Williams, D.B., The
Influence of Slipstreaming upon Race Car Perfor- DEFINITIONS, ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS
mance, to be published IMechE, Autotech, 1999
6. Wright, P., Cleared for take-off, Racecar Engineering, Downforce: negative lift
vol.9, No.7, pp 16-18, 1999 Dynamic head: 0.5 x density x velocity2
7. Racecar Engineering, vol.9, No.7, p36, 1999 L: vehicle overall length
Pitch: positive pitch angle denotes nose-up
W: vehicle width
x: distance in the axial direction
y: lateral distance
z: vertical distance measured from the ground