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NASCAR steps into the futureGeneration 6

FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

Issue 09 • Spring 2013 • www.racecar-engineering.com/stockcar



www.racecar-engineering.com

RUNNINGHEAD

4 NEWS

NASCAR looking to the uture with digital dashes, lasers in

tech inspection, and Ferrari to go stockcar racing?

8 NEW LOOK NASCAR

How the Generation 6 Sprint Cup bodwork was developed

with the help o the our manuacturers

14 WONKY WHEELS

As well as new body styles, Sprint Cup teams are now able

to run ar more camber on the new cars

16 EAKERS PLACE

The Aerodyn wind tunnel in North Carolina was instrumental

in the creation o the Gen 6 cars

20 UNFAIR ADVANTAGES

A new gearbox rom the UK, Microsot teams up with

Toyota, a golden heatshield and 3D printing

26 THE TWO CAR TANGO

Simulating two car drating

27 LUBRICATION

How engine oil will help some teams race to the ront at

Daytona, Talladega and Indianapolis

28 OPINION

Chassis consultant Mark Ortiz discusses setup on dirt tracksand Ricardo Divila learns to cheat

CONTENTS

Stockcar racing changed orever on one chilly Saturday night in

February in 2013. As the pace car peeled o at the start o the

NASCAR Sprint Unlimited race at Daytona the ‘Generation 6’ cars

made their long awaited debut, but that’s not what has changed.

As the green waved, not one o the crews knew what type o pit

stop they would have to make at the end o the frst 30-lap segment.

Indeed it was the ans who would decide. They were given the chance

to vote online or via a smartphone app about whether the cars would

make a a our-tyre pit stop, a two-tyre pit stop or no pit stop at all.

Indeed everything about the race would be decided by online voting,and while it may seem

to be a gimmick, this an

involvement is crucial to

the uture o the sport.

The Sprint Unlimited

ran in ront o largely

empty grandstands, a

problem that has become

an increasing trend

in stockcar racing as

spectator numbers have

dwindled. NASCAR has

realised that it needs to appeal to a new generation o ans, and that

means going digital with races streamed online, open inormation and

an interaction using social media.

This all has a knock on impact on the engineering aspects o the

sport. Lets not orget what made the guys at NASCAR Marketing realise

how important this digital stu is; a single picture tweeted out by Brad

Keselowski during the seemingly endless 2012 Daytona 500. It was

not an especially good, or interesting, picture but the reaction o the

ans was huge, as the bored driver replied to ans rom the cockpit o

his stationary Dodge, more than 100,000 people added his eed.

But something was bugging me. Why did Brad have a smartphone

in his car anyway? Its not like he was going to use it to call the crew

to get instructions. He had a radio. When you think o what makes upa modern smart phone you start to realise that they are all ftted with

pretty good GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes and in some, like the new

Blackberry Z10, they come with a Magnetometer.

In a tightly contested series, where in race data acquisition is strictly

outlawed, the data that could be derived rom smart phone could

be that crucial unair advantage. Indeed, it could easily be streamed

realtime to a similar device or laptop back in the hauler, giving the crew

a rudimentary orm o telemetry. At Daytona, NASCAR took no action

over Keselowski’s usage o the ‘phone in the race, perhaps because it

was great publicity or the series. Another possibility was that Brian

Helton and his squad had not yet fgured out what these devices could

do. By the time Keselowski arrived at Phoenix or the penultimate race

o the series, the technical inspectors had got wise. He was hit with

a $25,000 fne and placed on probation or carrying his phone in the

car. Did it make a dierence? Perhaps that will come out over time, but

a single $25,000 fne is irrelevant when you consider that Keselowski

took the Sprint Cup at the ollowing race.

Phones are small and, short o patting down every driver, you

have no chance o fnding them. In tech inspection NASCAR never

looks inside the radio housing. It would be easy to hide at least the

unctionality o a smartphone in that box and it remain undetected. As

NASCAR Marketing has had to change its thinking to deal with a post

digital revolution, so do engineers and NASCAR R&D.

Sam CollinsEditor

NASCAR has

realised that itneeds to appeal to

a new generationof fans through

social media




STOCKCARNEWS

NEWS

Advanced technology is set to change the ace

o stockcar racing, as NASCAR modernises its

racing series. Digital dashboards and substantial

engine changes are on the horizon according to

many in the garage.

‘You look at where consumers are today –

they’re getting younger and attention spans are

getting shorter,’ said NASCAR senior vice president

o racing operations Steve O’Donnell, ‘so we know

it’s imperative or us to innovate every day.’

‘We’re looking at the dashboard in each o the

cars and how we could bring technology into the

cars. We are working with our partner Sprint to do

that in a smart way and utilise Facebook, Twitter

– whatever it may be that’s out there to bring

in a younger audience and use the technology,

because at the end o the day we eel like we’ve

got the best story to tell when it comes to

technology and involving ans, so whatever we

can do in that realm, we’re going to go ater it. I

think you’re going to see a heavy emphasis on

that in everything we do moving orward.’

The arrival o EFI last year was widely seen

as a frst step on a road that will eventually lead

to the cars using smaller capacity direct injection

V8 engines in uture. Restrictor plates are also

thought to be on the way out as the McLaren ECU

can ulfl the same role electronically.

It is thought that cars running prototype digital

dashboards will run at some point in 2013.

New manufacturersconsidering NASCAR

New nameplates could

appear in Sprint Cup in uture,

according to a senior NASCAR

source. Porsche, Audi, KIA,

Jaguar and Honda have all

been rumoured to be evaluating

participation in stockcar

racing, but so ar none have

conrmed a programme.

‘Occasionally we’ll get a

cold call rom another

manuacturer, and we’ll sit

down and talk to them,’ says

VP o Competition at NASCAR

Robin Pemberton. ‘We explain

how things work and what

our garage area is and how it

exists and what we expect out

o manuacturers that come in.

I’m sure there’s some that are

taking a serious look at moving

orward, but there shouldn’t

be anything new or, say, the

next year or two.’

Dodge has hinted on more

than one occasion that it may

well return to Cup as early as

2014, subject to nding the

right teams to partner with.

Generation 6 could openthe technological foodgates




STOCKCARNEWS

NASCAR’s new laser platorm or

technical inspection did not make

the best debut, with the system

ailing during its frst real world

usage. The new system has beenintroduced along with the new

Sprint Cup cars in order to ensure

teams stay on the right side o the

regulations. ‘A lot o the gadgets

and trickery we had going on

underneath the back ends o the

cars – the sideways stu – will be

much easier or us to control,’ said

NASCAR’s John Darby.

The platorm, which was

developed by NASCAR with

the help o some outside

sources, does not provide a

scan o the car body, instead

it details components on the

underside. It will position the

car exactly to check the location

o various components.

‘The way it does that is that,

as the car rolls up on to the

platorm, it will identiy the carrom one o the RFID chips that

was put on it at certifcation. It

will then go through the entire

database o all the cars that have

been certifed, fnd that car, pull

the certifcation fle, look at it and

position the car on the platormexactly in the location that it was

certifed,’ Darby explains.

‘Where it excels is that

the process erases any doubt

by providing more exact

measurements,’ he said. ‘In

the past we used probably10 dierent gauges or pieces

o equipment to do the same

measurements that the platorm

does, especially when they

are put on at two separate

stations. Wheels are turning,

cars are getting pushed – you

don’t have a guarantee. We

elt pretty good about where

we were, but this eliminates

any questions.’

A back-up system was

employed at Daytona ater the

laser platorm ailed, though

it was put back in place ahead

o the 500.

NASCAR has a weakness, a

orce o nature it struggles to

overcome. That weakness is

rain and sometimes even snow.

But or 2013 there is a new

weapon in the war against the

weather. Less than eight months

ago, NASCAR chairman and CEO

Brian France tasked the team

at the NASCAR Research and

Development Center in Concord,

NC, with developing a means to

shorten the delays caused by rain

by 80 per cent. The frst result

o this project was revealed at

Daytona ahead o Speedweeks:

the Air Titan track drying system.

I you can get past the somewhat

over dramatic name the new

device is in essence a giant

Dyson air blade.

‘The system basically works

by having compressors eed air

at a high rate o speed through

a hose to the Air Titan modules,’

explains NASCAR senior vice

president o racing operations

Steve O’Donnell. ‘It is able

to blow air in narrow, highly

pressurised sheets over the race

surace down on to the apron,

and then on the apron we’ve

got a regenerative air vacuum

truck, which obviously absorbs

the water, and then we’ll have

jet dryers behind each cycle,

we’ll have fve o those, that

will move at a rate o speed at

approximately 3 to 5 miles per

hour. It is important or them to

maintain a consistent speed.”

As part o the Air Titan’s

testing process, NASCAR

enlisted the expertise o the

National Center or Asphalt

Technology (NCAT) in Auburn,

Alabama, International Speedway

Corporation’s track construction

group, Racing Surace

Technologies and QualPro Inc.

Additionally, Elgin Sweeper

Company, Sullair and Ring Power

CAT also provided equipment

during the testing, and will be

part o the track-drying process

at Daytona during Speedweeks.

For the immediate uture, jet

dryers and vacuum trucks will

continue to be used during track-drying eorts. The next evolution

in the innovative technology will

be to optimise the power source,

but it is clear that the new system

is very much a prototype and its

use will be limited initially. ‘I think

we want to see how it goes,’ says

O’Donnell. ‘Keep in mind that this

has never been tested during a

race or during ull rain conditions

at a track, so we’ve still got some

work to do once we see it, i we

do see it in play, and we’ll learn

rom there and make sure we’ve

got the best model going orward

possible or other tracks.

‘I think i everything works

where we see it going in the

uture, you could see jet dryers

being a thing o the past. You

could see the model o tracks

that purchae jet dryers – they

could now purchase the Air

Titans and have their own air

supply at each track, because

obviously they host more than

just NASCAR events.’

NASCARdevelops new

track dryer in-house

Laser-guided tech inspection has bumpy start




STOCKCARNEWS

John Monsam has been hired as

crew chie at Tri Star Motorsports,

replacing Wes Ward or driver

Eric McClure in the NASCAR

Nationwide Series. Monsam

last worked or McDonald

Motorsports and has previously

acted as crew chie at Dale

Earnhardt Inc, Roush Fenway

Racing and Kevin Harvick Inc.

Adam Stevens will be

crew chie at Joe Gibbs Racing

or driver Kyle Busch in the

NASCAR Nationwide Series, the

announcement coming ater

Busch was signed to a long-term

contract extension. Chris Gayle –ormer team engineer or Busch’s

Sprint Cup team at JGR – has

been promoted to crew chie

or a third JGR Nationwide team

driven by Elliott Sadler.

Chris Rice has been named

crew chie or rookie driver

Alex Bowman at RAB Racing,

Rice served in the same capacity

or RAB’s NASCAR Truck Series

team in 2012.

Mike Bumgarner has

been hired as crew chie in the

NASCAR Nationwide Series at

JR Motorsports or drivers Kasey

Kahne and Brad Sweet. Greg Ives

has been hired in a similar position

or the Chevrolet, driven by Regan

Smith. Both crew chies are ormer

Hendrick Motorsports personnel.

Mike Hester has returned

as crew chie or Ricky Benton

Racing Enterprises and driver

Scott Riggs in the NASCAR TruckSeries or 2013. Hester had a

brie hiatus due to ill health.

Also in the Truck Series,

veteran crew chie Gary

Cogswell has joined T3R2

Motorsports as crew chie or

driver Brian Silas.

Chad Walter has been hired

by Michael Waltrip Racing as

director o race engineering or its

three Sprint Cup teams. Walter let

his post as crew chie at Penske

Racing or driver Sam Hornish

in the Nationwide Series. Walter

was replaced by Greg Erwin at

the end o 2012 and replaces

Steve Bowyer, who has returned

to a position outside racing or

the second time. Long-time

Penske Racing technical director

Tom German has departed the

company to take the position o

chie technical ofcer at MWR.

Current MWR technical directorNick Hughes will be moving

back his native Australia at some

point during the year ollowing

fve years at MWR.

In addition to the drivers

name in the centre ‘shade band’

area o the windshield, all o

the Gen-6 NASCAR Sprint

Cup cars will also have the car

manuacturer’s logo on either

side o the windshield in an eort

to urther give brand identity.

Team owner Tommy Baldwin

will return to a crew chie role

within his two-car NASCAR Sprint

Cup team and will serve in that

position or Dave Blaney. The

team also hired long-time Hendrick

Motorsports employee Charlie

Langenstein as competition

director and Joe Lax as crew chie

or driver JJ Yeley’s Chevrolet.

SR2 Motorsports is

growing its Nationwide

Series operation purchasing

its neighbour in Mooresville,

North Carolina MacDonald

Motorsports. The Toyota team

will become a three car operation.

Driver/owner Joe Nemechek’s

NEMCO Motorsports has joined

orces with Jay Robinson

Racing, combining eorts tofeld Toyota’s in the Sprint Cup

and Nationwide Series driven

by Nemechek and with engines

leased rom Race Engines Plus.

Bill Romanowski, a veteran

16 seasons NFL player, has

become a minority owner o

the Brandon Davis owned Swan

Racing in the NASCAR Sprint

Cup Series. Romanowski’s

dietary supplement company,

Nutrition53 will also be the

primary sponsor o the David

Stremme driven Toyotas in 10

races, and have an associate role

in the remaining 26 events.

The latest Race Moves

Europe’s leading oval racing

category is evaluating its own

next generation cars. The

NHRPA National Hot Rods could

use sportscar bodies in place

of the current hatchback and

coupe designs currently racing.

‘No manufacturer is preparedto put the investment in for new

National Hot Rod body shapes,’

series owner Deane Wood said.

‘There’s no guarantee that

when you’ve put anything up to

£40,000 investment in to come

up with a new body, that you’re

going to have a car that beats

what’s already out there – the

Tigra – so why would you?

‘I’ve got hold of a Ferrari

that we may use to build a car

up from. I think we’ve got to

do something to change the

formula a bit, and get the kids

excited about the cars. Like

Ferraris and Porsches – exotic

cars racing on a stockcar track.We’re not doing anything about

it yet, the climate is wrong

at the moment. But I could

easily see 2-litre Hot Rods

[the NHRPA’s equivalent of the

Nationwide series] being the

ordinary cars and Nationals

being the supercar class.’

Chassis builder SHP has

released a concept rendering

of what it feels the new cars

could look like, based on the

Mazda RX-8.

Ferrari stockcarsin England?

The Mazda RX8 could be the frst o

the new breed o stockars

“All Gen-6 NASCAR Sprint Cup cars

will have the car manuacturer’s

logo on each side o the windshield

to urther give brand identity”



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SPRINT CUPCARS

It is probably the rst time that the

NASCAR rulebook has been infuenced by

an Australian touring car championship,

but the new look Sprint Cup cars were

introduced as a result o GM executive’s

work in V8 Supercars. Mark Reuss, now

president o General Motors North America,

served as managing director o Holden rom

February 2008 to September 2009.

When Reuss returned to GM in the UnitedStates, uniying the brand identity between

the Cup car and a street car was at the top

o his to-do list. He met with NASCAR

president Mike Helton and NASCAR principals

Lesa France Kennedy and Jim France. The

agenda eatured only one item: a new car.

‘The rst thing I did when I came back rom

Australia was to sit down with Mike, Lesa and

Jim,’ said Reuss. ‘The racecar had little to do

with an Impala. The car beore that had little

to do with a Monte Carlo. We hadn’t been

doing this right or a long time.’

While GM never threatened to quit the

sport, the writing was on the wall, according

to team boss Rick Hendrick. ‘I think Mark

Reuss said that i we can’t be relevant, we

don’t race,’ he said. ‘So we had a lot riding

on that. I think that’s when everybody

started talking, along with Ford and Toyota.

But Mark pushed the button with NASCAR,

and I’m glad he did. It’s sure paid o.’

Indeed, Reuss was not alone. The Car

o Tomorrow (aka Generation 5) was an

ugly thing. This was the sentiment that was

almost universally held rom the moment

NASCAR introduced it in 2007. It becameeven more apparent when a new, better

looking version o the concept was rolled

out or the second tier Nationwide series

in 2010. It was clear that something would

have to change.

‘Once we got the Nationwide car

nished, everyone looked at it and realised

that we could build a better looking, more

representative Cup car,’ explains Howard

Comstock, manager o engineering or

Chrysler Group’s Street and Racing Technology

Motorsports division. ‘The Car o Tomorrowwas a huge technological advance. They

were a lot stronger, saer, and many things

about it were better. But it was not a good

looking racecar in any shape or orm and,

quite rankly, it turned the ans o. We

needed to get the ans back on our side.

The proportions, in my opinion, were not

good, and were not representative o current

passenger car design. For example, I don’t

think the roo was anywhere close to being

racecar-like and the C-posts were splayed to

keep air o the spoiler, which hurt our ability

to move the tail orward.’

All o the manuacturers were unhappy

with the almost total lack o brand identity

on the Cup cars. Stockcars has always had at

Following a raft of well-received rulebook changes, NASCAR hope a new look and

renewed relevance will make 2013’s Sprint Cup cars a huge hit both on and off the track

The sixthGeneration




SPRINT CUPCARS

least a nod to the shape o the production

cars they emulate, but the introduction o

the CoT meant every car on the track was

essentially an identical shape beneath the

stickers. They also wanted to go urther

than they did with the Nationwide car.‘

On the Nationwide car, rom the middle o

the bumper upwards to the base o thewindshield is the area we were allowed

to put in brand identity. The rest o the

car is common, which is basically rom the

windshield base rearward, including the

sides and tail, and then the lower nose,’ said

Bernie Marcus, Ford Racing’s aerodynamicist

who has worked on every NASCAR vehicle

since the 2004 Taurus. ‘We were able to

put on the upper nose with the grille,

headlights and then a hood bonnet. We went

away rom true Stockcar racing and got

to a point where the cars we were racing in

Sprint Cup were very vanilla.’

It was something that irritated senior

gures within the manuacturers, and was

genuinely raising questions about uture

participation. ‘My management was making

it very clear that our car had to have more

Dodge identity. It had to look like a Dodge

or they would be ar less interested in

continuing with racing in the series,’ said

Comstock. ‘It was something echoed by

all o the manuacturers, and we all went

separately to NASCAR and said we need a

better looking Cup car. They quickly sent

that up the line and the management there

agreed wholeheartedly, so their technical

people and ours got together. As a result,

NASCAR made the pretty big decision to let

the our OEMs go a long way down the path

to see where we ended up.’

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

But to achieve what the senior management

o ‘the big three’ and Toyota all wanted,

the technical departments o the our

manuacturers would all have to work together.‘There was a group o our o us – one

rom each manuacturer,’ continued Comstock.

‘We know each other and we see each other

every week. We wanted to start out by

correcting the errors on the car as it is

now. We thought the nose was too short,

so we lengthened it by three inches. The

tail was way too long, so we put an extra

six inches into the centre o the vehicle.

The car now has the short tail, longer hood

look that we think is representative o more

current passenger cars.’ Once the broad

parameters o the new design were set, the

manuacturers each went their own way

with the car design, developing their own

range o body panels and shapes.

‘NASCAR encouraged us to put a lot o

identity into the ront o our cars without

limiting us to designated shapes. We moved

the base o the windshield ahead by ve

inches, and made it look sleeker, longer and

lower, even though the centre roo height is

the same, and the car would have the same

chassis, the same track, the same wheelbase

and the same wheel and tyre combo.

‘The upper and lower ascia are unique to

each manuacturer, the tail is also dierent

or each make and – or the rst time ever –

NASCAR has opened up the sides o the car

or us to put identity into the sides, as well as

adding wheel arch fares. So we can closely

emulate trends in perormance car design.

Pretty much any production perormance car

has fares. We all made a pact that we were

going to listen to the stylists rst, then wewould dump the problem on the aero guys.

‘Fortunately, NASCAR wanted to keep

the downorce/drag balance and side orce

close to the existing car. Not exactly the

same, but close. They wanted to give

enough latitude that the cars would be

dierent, and they thought we could shit

some o the balance i we needed.’

Once these sections were decided, the

stylists were essentially given ree rein over

the look o the car, and each manuacturer

tackled it in their own way. For Ford, the

process behind developing the 2013 body

was signicantly dierent to some o

the previous models, where race teams

such as Penske and Roush Racing actually

built, designed and did the majority o the

development on the Ford Taurus, prior to its

debut or the 1998 season.

‘We started by going back to our design

community and nosed around with guys that

have been with the company the longest.We can’t remember the last time designers

were involved with helping NASCAR,’ said

Ford Racing NASCAR operations manager

Andy Slankard. ‘This time, we had the luxury

o support rom the Ford Design Center to

give us these sleek shapes and new look.

Only designers could do that, not a bunch o

engineers or racecar guys.’

One o the people heading up the Design

Center part o the project is Garen Nicoghosian,

design manager or specialty vehicles. A

sel-proessed race an, he embraced this

opportunity and called it one o the highlights o

his time so ar at Ford. Some o the challenges

the design team aced centred around various

NASCAR rules, and common areas such as

Ford used its long proven production

car body styling process to get the look of

its Generation 6 car just right, including

making this full-scale mock up in clay

Ford conducted aero testing at full scale in

the AeroDyn wind tunnel in North Carolina

“The Car of Tomorrow was a huge technical

advance, but it wasn’t a good looking racecar”




SPRINT CUPCARS

the greenhouse that all o the manuacturer

vehicles share. But there were other, more

obvious ones that had to be overcome.

‘There is a size dierence between

the production and the racecar, and the

proportions are so dierent,’ explained

Nicoghosian. ‘The street Fusion is a ront-

wheel drive, ront engine car, and the racecaris a ront-engine, rear-wheel drive car with a

really long hood, and a much lower and wider

stance. The undamentally dierent profles

and proportions o the two vehicles, as well

as other constraints, presented a bigger

challenge than simply taking a Fusion and

putting NASCAR stickers on it.

‘The challenge was to design a racecar

with the look and eel o the production car.

To do this, you have to rely on design identity.

We paid close attention to the way we

shaped the details on the racer, such as the

headlights, grille and og light openings, as

well as the body side sections, character lines

and overall surace language. When parked

side by side, the racer and the street car

“eel” the same, even though the two share

absolutely no common suraces.’

‘We’ve really embraced the Design Center’s

philosophy and process o how they would

design a car or the street,’ explains Ford

Racing NASCAR programme manager Pat

DiMarco. ‘We started with some conceptual

drawings that our design team did, and

worked with the aerodynamicists to see

what was easible and what was not.’ That

resulted in some 40 per cent clay models that

helped assess the car’s overall look and how

it would react aerodynamically in the wind

tunnel. Eventually, a ull-size clay model was

constructed and reviewed.

Dodge, on the other hand, took a rather

more pragmatic approach to the car’s design:‘We wanted to see a car go past and be able

to tell what it is just rom the side,’ explains

Dodge Motorsports’ Dave Bailey. ‘We had a

lot o un doing that, because we grated the

body o a current production Charger on to a

CoT. It wasn’t all lined up properly or anything,

but that was the frst concept we showed to

NASCAR. It was really a production car sat on a

racecar chassis, and we made a model o it and

showed it to Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice

president or competition. I remember he liked

it and that meeting went well!’

FINAL DESIGNS

Once all the designs were ready rom a

manuacturer perspective, they then had to

present the fnal designs to Pemberton and

his team at NASCAR R&D, who would then

work with all our designs to ensure a level

playing feld, rom an aerodynamic standpoint.

‘When we ran the car or the frst time

in the tunnel, we were quite surprised that

we were within a reasonable range o what

NASCAR was looking or, and with only minor

corrections we were able to meet the balance

they required,’ said Comstock. ‘NASCAR put

aero targets on all our OEMs and, by June,

we had to hit targets or drag, horsepower,

downorce and side orce.’

Unusually, or a competitive series with

multiple manuacturers, all our used the

same base car to do the ofcial aerodynamic

tests, both at Dodge’s ull-scale wind tunnel in

Detroit and at the similarly sized but specially

designed tunnel at AeroDyn in North Carolina.

‘NASCAR built a chassis with universal

body mounts, which they sent to us as a

CAD fle,’ added Comstock. ‘What we have

done is make body panels. As the greenhouse

is common, they put that on and it was

fxed. Each o us then made a set o bits

and took them to the wind tunnel. We ran

Substantial amounts of aerodynamic work

was conducted using both scale models

and full-scale cars. Here we see the Dodge

under development at the ARC wind tunnel

“NASCAR encouraged us to put

a lot of identity into the front

of our cars without limiting us

to designated shapes”




a control body rst, then each o

us ran our kit o bits on the car.

Once that was done, they took

the car out and scanned it or

each manuacturer.’

Part o the aerodynamic

programme was to develop the

car to work in the real world, butalso to ensure no manuacturer

was at an advantage.

‘We not only ran at inspection

height and attitudes, we ran

in the wind tunnel at real world

ride heights,’ said Comstock.

‘There are some universally

accepted numbers about what

the car runs at when it is on the

race track, and we put the car

at those heights and checked

the cars at the attitudes and yaw

angles you would experience

in reality. So now we have a

good idea on the aero.

‘We ound that with a shorter

tail we needed to do a air bit

o work on the greenhouse,

and we quit expelling air o the

side o the car so it didn’t get

to the spoiler. We now had to

encourage air to the spoiler so

we could keep the same amount

o rear downorce, as we don’t

want the cars to be aero loose

fat out at Talladega.’

OPEN BOOK DEVELOPMENT

The manuacturers had an open

book on each other’s aerodynamic

gures on the test car and – as you

would expect – there was some

discord about balancing the cars.

‘Some were draggier and some

had more downorce than others,

so NASCAR had to decide what

the targets were going to be.Some people cried, some people

cheered. But it’s NASCAR’s game

and we have to play to their

rules. We were all smiling though,’

enthuses Comstock. ‘We ound

that what we expected was really the case.

CFD is a hugely useul tool or production

car design and we kinda stole those guys in

Detroit to work on the racecar, so we had a

pretty good idea it would work. And it did.’

The arrival o the new bodies or the

2013 Daytona 500 will see most Cup teams

having to rethink the way they work. Instead

o the bodies being largely abricated by

the teams rom sheet metal, most o the

body will be supplied to the teams ready

to t. The roo, bonnet, wings and sides

will be supplied as stamped steel parts,

while there will be a ‘new’ material or the

nose, tail and boot lid – something that

may surprise many when they see it

employed in NASCAR bodies – carbon bre.

Or at least that’s the plan…

However, this does not mean that

North Carolina will suddenly be awash with

unemployed sheet metal workers. Indeed,

Comstock believes that there will actually

be more demand or them: ‘I think there will

be more abricators on it,’ he

said. ‘Whatever anyone supplies,

the teams will always nd

a way to make it better. We

will do what NASCAR asks –

supply the panels and the

teams will no doubt then try

to make them better.’This ‘making it better’

can oten stray beyond what

is strictly allowed in the

regulations, and new bodies,

new methods and new materials

will mean NASCAR’s technical

inspection process will also

have to change. ‘We all did our

nal wind tunnel runs in June

and, once everyone passed,

NASCAR scanned all o the cars

and will use that as an electronic

record,’ added Comstock. ‘It’s all

so much easier in the electronic

age. They have every square

millimetre o our suraces in

there. As a result o that, the

templating process will be very

dierent. There will be ewer

big, shaped aluminium claws

and more breglass moulded

plugs to t over areas o the car

to keep the teams honest.

‘Scanning, too, is a

tremendously successul tool,

but we may not see it on

Friday inspection. Now though,

i you win a race, the car goes

back to the tech centre on

Monday or a detailed scan o

the body suraces, and NASCAR

knows exactly what is required

o the cars and exactly what

the tolerances are!’

The new bodies will not

be limited to Sprint Cup or

long, and the new processesbeing implemented will have

signicant impact on lower

level classes such as ARCA

and Late Model Series. ‘I

think there is no end to how

much better we can make the cars look

in a whole range o series,’ said Comstock.

‘The one-piece breglass body on the

Dodge at the launch [at the Las Vegas Motor

Speedway] showed how easy it is now.

With the improvements in the way we can

make one-piece bodies, it seems to me

that a lot o the lower series could instantly

have better identities, so the ARCA guys

could just leaprog over the CoT and go

direct to the Generation 6 car.’

SPRINT CUPCARS

Manuacturer identity can now be ound all over the new bodies,

which is the key part o the Generation 6 concept

Another huge change is that – or the frst time in years – manuacturers

are able to have dierent sides on their cars to one another




SPRINT CUPCARS

The 2013 cars made their debut at

Daytona or the Sprint Unlimited race in

mid-February with – perhaps ttingly – a

Chevrolet taking the fag. But the new cars

came too late or one manuacturer, Dodge,

which pulled out o the series at the end o

2012, despite having designed a Generation 6

car. Perhaps it will return, but the rumour millsuggests that others rom the Far East may

also be on the way thanks to the new cars.

TUNING THE CONCEPT

Even once NASCAR had nalised the overall

bodies or the Generation 6 cars, there were

still plenty o small changes made, a process

that is still ongoing.

‘We knew where last year’s car was and

the input that we got about aerodynamics

and how cars act around each other. We

set out to make a car that works better

than that,’ explained Pemberton. ‘As a

result – and we have given the teams more

under the underbody to work with – we’ve

extended the splitters a little bit, so they

should react a little bit better in the drat.

Our goal was to start better than we let

the last models, and we do have better

numbers on the car. I think the drivers’

condence that they can hustle these a

little bit more will be there once they get

their setups ne-tuned.

‘We have worked on where we get our

downorce, how we evacuate air rom up

under the car i a team chooses to do so with

dierent ductwork, cooling hoses and so

orth. That’s all in an eort to make the cars

run a little bit better in groups or in packs.’

It seems to have worked. The debut race

at Daytona showed that the cars could run

in a pack as well as pass each other, though

the eedback rom the drivers was somewhat

mixed. ‘The car drives well,’ mused Greg Bife.

‘Maybe we will work on the aero package

… the car stalls out ast here, it’s got a lot

o drag.’ One thing that remains somewhatunknown territory or the drivers is bump

drating, as Sprint Unlimited winner Kevin

Harvick explained. ‘There is still a lot to be

learned with a ull pack o cars,’ he said, ‘and

we’ll kind o ease into that with the Duels

and then on to the 500.’ The debut race and

some o the practice sessions saw a number

o crashes caused by drivers losing control

when in contact with other cars. ‘The ront

bumpers have a very small contact patch

in as ar as how you can push and how you

can’t,’ Harvick continued. ‘When things don’t

line up correctly, you see what happens.

You just have to be patient. It reminds me

o how we raced 10 or 11 years ago with

those types o cars and that type o package.’

“There’s no end to how much better we can

make the cars look in a whole range of series”



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GENERATION 6CAMBER

A fresh startGeneration 6 cars don’t just look different – rules on camber mean they’ll behave differently too

The changes to the

Sprint Cup car aren’tlimited to the new

bodies – there have

been many detail

changes to the car mechanically,

most important o which is a

decrease in weight allied to a

substantial change to the rules

governing allowable camber.

‘I had my list o everything

that I didn’t really like about the

Car o Tomorrow and things that

I wished we could change,’ says

Sprint Cup series director John

Darby. ‘Some o those changes

were not practical to do in the

middle o a run o a style o car

– it just creates too much chaos.

So when we started putting all

the parts and pieces together

or the Gen-6 car, it was time to

look at introducing a lot o those

things, and with the help o our

engineers at the tech centre –

and a lot o sessions, talks and

comparing notes – there’s so

many things that have changed

beyond the bodywork. We put

more toolbox drawers ull o

tools back in the crew chies’

hands. There’s more things

or them to work with,

to adjust, to move

around, and to

experiment with.

‘Teams now have a whole list

o goodies now that everybody isplaying and experimenting with,

changing the mousetrap just a

little bit. But rom leaving last

year’s car and working on this

new one, there’s enough that’s

dierent, and a lot o the changes

have all been pointing to making

lie easier and more adjustable or

the guys in the garage as well as

enhancing the actual perormance

o the car on the racetrack.’

The car weight is one o those

actors. While the Generation 6

cars retain the CoT or Generation

5 chassis, the minimum weight

has been reduced by 68kg and

new spindle designs have been

approved. Largely throwing out

much o the tyre and setup data

accumulated over the years

by the teams, this

becomes apparent when you

consider that the rule deningcamber limits has changed.

‘At Daytona, or example,

the ront wheels look like

they’re pretty much straight

up-and-down, versus going to

Martinsville where the wheel

looks like it’s going to all o.

That’s camber when you move

in and out,’ explains Darby. ‘It’s

a very adjustable component on

the ront o all the cars and has

been or years. When the radial

tyre was introduced, the value

o camber on the rear axle also

started being experimented with.

‘Back in the 1990s, as teams

learned about camber, they

started to show up at Martinsville

with a whole bunch o rear

camber. Hal a dozen cars dropped

out o the race with broken axles,

because the technology o doing

all that probably wasn’t

as researched and

rened as well as

it should

have been. So NASCAR put a rule

in that said you could only have1.8 degrees o camber, which has

been in place right up until the

start o this season.

‘Today the materials are better,

the engineering is better, and your

ability to make all o that happen

without breaking parts is better.

So realising how much o the

tyre we weren’t really using, we

decided to change that rule. On

the Generation 6 car, the teams

are now allowed 3.5 degrees

o rear camber – you will see it

especially clearly on the right

rear.’ This change will put a lot o

stresses on the axle shat as well

as the suppliers and teams trying

to get components designed and

approved by NASCAR in time or

the races on the paperclip.

‘The teams will be running

a lot o durability testing at the

moment,’ adds Darby. ‘They do that

in a lot o dierent ways. They can

simulate that type o loading and

rigs on a machine right at their

shop, but a lot o teams like to just

simply put the miles on the car to

get a really good picture o all o

that. I you watch the tyre with an

onboard camera, especially when

goes into a corner, it’s incredible

how much those tyres move when

they’re under load. Adding camber

to match the banking o the turns

helps stabilise that load and

stabilise that tyre, so the ootprintstays fatter on the racetrack.’

“In the 90s, teams showed up atMartinsville with a whole bunch of

rear camber, and half a dozen cars

dropped out with broken axles”



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TECHNOLOGYBODYWORK

The introduction o the

Generation 6 cars to

NASCAR has meant

a reliance on the

expertise o the wind tunnel

specialists, and in particular

the AeroDyn acility in North

Carolina that was chosen by

NASCAR to make the fnal

verifcation or the bodies ahead

o their introduction at Daytona.

AeroDyn will this yearcelebrate its 10th anniversary,

having accepted its frst paying

client in April 2003. Since then,

it has seen business expand

rapidly in the frst fve years,

beore the fnancial crash in 2008

that led to a gradual decline in

trade over the next two.

However, since 2010,

business has picked up once

again, and its reputation has

strengthened considerably.

In the company’s early years,

their main tunnel – which

oers a boundary layer control,

spinning wheels and an

automatic ride height

adjustment that is accurate

to the third decimal percentile –

was in use 24 hours a day,

fve days a week, plus extra

time on Saturday. They’re

now running 18 hours a day, fve

days a week, which is –

says general manager Steve

Dickert – a more comortable

position to be in, allowing

engineers time to maintain theacility between sessions.

‘AeroDyn was the frst

wind tunnel in the United

States designed specifcally

or NASCAR race series,’ says

Dickert. ‘O late, we have been

able to oer some testing

capability to OEM manuacturers

that they don’t get in their

own wind tunnel – very

controlled and accurate boundary

layer system, and automated

ride height control system

that is accurate to the third

decimal place. Those are

unctionalities that wind tunnels

at GM, Ford and Chrysler don’t

have, all at the same time.’

The move to the new cars,

coupled with the ofcial sanction

rom NASCAR, has meant that

the tunnel is busy enough, andthe work is becoming more

complicated. Teams have to start

rom scratch with their aero

fgures as there is no baseline

rom which to work with the

Gen-6 cars. It has been six years

since the last big rule change to

stockcar racing, and the engineers

are, rom an aerodynamic point o

view, pretty much starting aresh.

‘The cup teams are

extremely sensitive to security,’

adds Dickert, ‘so we can’t have us

be a conduit or one cup team’s

advantage to another cup team’s

advantage. We provide and

operate a precision laboratory

that meets or exceeds the needs

o our customers.’

The Gen-6 cars have

required much the same

aerodynamic developmentas previous generations, but

have to immediately be on the

pace in a closely contested

environment. Much as Formula

1 is looking ahead to the

rule changes in 2014 with

apprehension ater one o its

closest seasons ever in 2012,

the pressure is on or the

NASCAR teams to get it right

frst time out in 2013.

‘It is interesting that the

level o teamwork between

NASCAR and manuacturers

is unprecedented with the

development o the new cars,’

Setting the standardBased in the heart o NASCAR country, the AeroDyn wind tunnel in Mooresville, North Carolinahas been picked out to validate the fgures or the new Generation 6 cars

“The level of teamwork betweenNASCAR and manufacturers is

unprecented with the new cars”

The 2013 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS

during wind tunnel testing




TECHNOLOGYBODYWORK

says Dickert. ‘The development

has always been driven by

NASCAR, but this time it really is

a team eort.’

The AeroDyn tunnel is built to

accommodate ull-scale cars

only, with speeds up to 130mph.

The loads rom 130-200mph

are linear with dynamic pressure.

‘With scale model testing,

there is a signicant Reynolds

number mismatch – or example

a hal-scale model must be

tested at twice the ull-scale

speed. By using the ull-scale

car you can appreciate the

defections,’ says aerodynamic

consultant Gary Romberg.

‘We think that gives a better

simulation to what you get on

the track. Our normal testing

is 130mph, but we can run

other speeds below that, and

even a ew speeds above it.

The general speed is 130mph,

which is almost 40lbs/sqt in

kinetic energy.’

Also on site is the second

wind tunnel – A2. This tunnel isa smaller, economical solution or

customer teams that are involved

in everything, rom land speed

record attempts to road racing, and

karting. Available at $490/hour,

the company also oers

aerodynamic expertise through

its own dedicated sta says David

Salazar, general manager o A2.

‘It is a smaller tunnel, o

the same design as AeroDyn

with an 85mph maximum wind

speed. It does not have spinning

wheels, active boundary layer

control or ride height control,’ says

Salazar. ‘What is does

have is a greatly reduced rate,

so that smaller teams and

privateers – and by privateers I

mean people who are attempting

land speed records on salt fats,

they come there quite regularly.

They can get large gross aero

advantages or very little money

in a very controlled laboratory.’

This can be essential to them,

and, or a series were the winner

gets a hat or a T-shirt, not prize

money, this proves to be a great

tool when on that kind o out

o pocket budget.

Most o A2’s customers come in

as rst time users and have never

set oot inside a wind tunnel. As

such, Aerodyn oers assistance

or these teams to help point

them in the right direction and

teach them how to understand the

wind tunnel data. This assistanceis valuable because most people

are intimidated by testing in a

wind tunnel or the rst time and

don’t normally know where to

begin. Along with this help is the

understanding that AeroDyn do

not develop the cars or tell them

what other customers are doing

with their aero programmes. As

many low budget teams don’t have

an engineer, the rm can oer

some assistance in guiding

them along until they better

understand the process.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Since opening or business in

April 2003, AeroDyn believes

that it has tested more racecars

than any other independent wind

tunnel in the world. It has tripled

the amount o data customers

collect in a single test session,

improved repeatability rom

1 per cent to 0.8 per cent, and

decreased ault-related down

time by a actor o six.

In the period since 2006,

AeroDyn has added the ollowing

upgrades to the acility:

Ride Height System

Installed in November 2006,

the new system is completely

computer operated. To increase

testing eciency, teams provide

a complete map o heights they

would like to run or a given

The management team at the AeroDyn acilty do not consider

the rise o Computational Flow Dynamics (CFD) to be a

threat to its wind tunnel business, having investigated with

teams and manuacturers the viability o providing in-house

expertise. Most o the teams and manuacturers have their

own capabilities, and even the smaller NASCAR teams on the

grid have access to such data.

‘Nasa has said that CFD and wind tunnels are not at odds,’ says

aerodynamic consultant Gary Romberg. ‘They are complementary.’

A last generation car on the move in the main AeroDyn tunnel

Having developed a strong reputation within NASCAR, AeroDyn

is now looking to expand beyond the confnes o stockcar

racing, and has started working with teams in Indycar, Grand-Am,

and the American Le Mans Series, already with promising results.

‘We’ve had some data with an Indycar team which correlates

very closely with what was achieved on the track,’ says

general manager Steve Dickert. Although European tunnels

are looking more to alternatives to motorsport, AeroDyn

is looking more at OEMs. ‘Manuacturers do have their

own tunnels, but most o them don’t have the capabilities

o the rotating wheels, extensive boundary layers, and

precise ride height settings, so we think this is the area we

can expand into,’ says Dickert.

There are no plans to build a third tunnel, however.

“With NASCAR’s new cars, therules are so tight that teams look

for microscopic changes”

: :

Wheels are not rotated in A2, the smaller alternative to the main tunnel

CFD CAPABILITIES

EXPANSION PROGRAMME




TECHNOLOGYBODYWORK

AERODYNAlso known as ‘Eaker’s place’, AeroDyn

was built expressly or the purpose o

testing stockcars, and its Mooresville,

North Carolina location means that

many teams requent it primarily or the

cataloguing o cars. ‘We built the walls

or stockcars, not or everything rom

Formula 1 to karts and everything in-

between,’ explains the tunnel’s creator

Gary Eaker. ‘We originally dened thatwe deal with stockcars and trucks only

– we lock these walls and leave them

where they are at.’

Opened: 2003

Scale: 100 per cent

Type: Closed Jet with slotted walls

Rolling Road: None, wheels spun

on rollers

Max airspeed: 130mph (147mph

possible with recalibration)

A2 TunnelOpened: 2006

Scale: 100 per cent

Type: Closed Jet with adaptable ceiling

Rolling Road: None

Max Airspeed: 85mph

ARCThe most popular scale tunnel

or NASCAR teams is surprisingly

not in North Carolina. In act it is some

distance away in Indianapolis. Auto

Research Centre (ARC) not only provides

its 50 per cent scale tunnel or use, but

also makes many o the models used by

teams, oten in collaboration with C&R

Racing.

Scale: 50 per cent

Type: Open Jet

Rolling Road: Belt

WINDSHEARWindshear (see also let) is a very large

three-quarter open jet rolling roadtunnel

situated on the edge o Concord Airport

in North Carolina.

The acility is capable o running

at speeds o up to 180mph, and is

climatically controlled. Emphasis has

been placed on the ull-scale tunnel

being used by NASCAR teams though

IRL and Formula 1 teams have also used

the tunnel. Reliability and repeatability

are the ocus o the technical team

behind the acility.

Opened: 2008Scale: 100 per cent

Type: ¾ Open Jet

Rolling Road: Steel belt

Max airspeed: 180mph

test. The height tables are

imported into AeroDyn’s system.

This has dramatically increased

the eciency o ride height

studies, as well as controlling

heights within 0.001-inch.

Automated Yaw System This system, added in January

2008, is completely computer

operated and uses the latest

in measurement technology

to assure accuracy and

repeatability. Standard yaw

increments are pre-programmed,

based on the customer test

schedule. Additional yaw

increments can be input with

resolution to 0.1 degrees. The

accuracy and speed o establishing

each yaw setting has increased

testing productivity signicantly.

New Test Section Floor Based on the introduction o

the Car o Tomorrow, the test

section foor was redesigned

in June 2008 to increase the

perormance o the foor

boundary layer control. The

splitter and ront end under-body

is an extremely sensitive area on

the car. As such, the boundary

layer system was signicantly

improved and oers a very good

simulation. The total power in

the boundary system is now our

times what it used to be.

Active Boundary Layer control This system, added to the

acility in January 2010, is

completely computer controlled.

By changing the boundary layer

control rom a ‘passive’ speed

setting to an ‘active’ pressure

setting, the system very

accurately matches the boundary

layer conditions to actual ree-

stream dynamic pressure in

order to maintain a constant

Cp ratio. As a result, the overall

tunnel sensitivity is extremely

high and the smallest, most

subtle changes to a test model

can be measured.

HD Camera System

Incorporated in February 2010,

this is a completely new system

and again is 100 per cent

computer controlled. Most

tunnels simply provide viewing

o the test model through a

window, and oten only one

side view o the model is

available. AeroDyn’s customers

have the ability now to view

the model in real-time, in HD

(1080p) resolution, and eight

dierent camera angles.

This system is valuable or

studying panel defections,fow vis, and model integrity

during a test. The data

collection system is programmed

to automatically capture a

snapshot o all eight camera

angles at the beginning and o

each data point.

Additionally, the customer

has the ability to record video

in 1080p o any camera angle.

The video is then downloaded

to an external hard drive or the

customer at the end o the test.

Increase Yaw Sweep

The original yaw system was

+3 to -3 degrees. With the

advent o the new car design, it

became necessary to gather

data to -5 degrees. This

upgrade, added in November

2010, required signicant

modications to the tunnel

foor, balance, actuation system

and data collection.

The test section foor was redesigned in 2008 to increase the

perormance o the foor boundary layer control

Windshear was ormed in 2006 to provide ull-scale rolling road

wind tunnel access to North American and international teams.

Their acility opened in September, 2008, the frst acility o its

kind in North America, and the third rolling road wind tunnel that

operates on this scale. It was also the frst ull-width rolling road

that supports ull scale vehicle testing.

The project was unded by Haas Automation, the company

that owns Windshear. Facility design and construction were

overseen by Jacobs Technology, whose engineers manage theday-to-day operation o the tunnel.

The air in this closed-circuit wind tunnel covers and area o

160,000 square eet, its main an is 22 eet in diameter and rated

at 5,100 horsepower, capable o producing air speeds o up to

180mph. Air temperature is tightly controlled to within 1degF.

The MTS Flat-Trac Rolling Road measures 10.5 eet wide by

29.5 eet long. It easily keeps pace with the wind, accelerating

rom zero to 180mph in less than a minute. This ‘road’ is actually

a continuous stainless-steel belt just one millimetre thick. During

testing, the through-the-belt sensors precisely measure the

aerodynamic downorce under each tyre.

The acility’s 40-hour weekly operating schedule is flled

with NASCAR and Indycar racing teams rom all over North

America. Teams rom Europe and Asia are also bringing their

wind tunnel testing to Windshear.

THE OPPOSITION NASCAR WIND TUNNELS




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NASCAR elt that speeds in Sprint

Cup races on super speedways

had gone too high, with the

so-called two-car tango drating

style. So it decided to make some

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aster,’ said Lake Speed, a certifed

lubrication specialist at Joe Gibbs

Racing who was tasked with

fnding away around this problem.

In the two-car tango, only

the trailing car ran a high

temperature, and the leading

car ran as normal. But in a Sprint

Cup race, any car could be leader

or trailer, meaning that the oil

had to be able to cope with both

types o running conditions.

‘It was common to see oil

temperatures above 135degC

during the race,’ said Speed.

‘Previously, 105degC was normal

and 115degC was cause or alarm.

O course, the “cold” temperatures

o 105degC allowed us to use

very thin oils – 0W-10. Now, with

temperatures reaching 140degC or

more, we increased the viscosity

o the oil to 0W-20. That was a

step in the right direction, but

pack racing led to sustained high

temperatures. We could have gone

to a much heavier oil – that would

have raised oil pressure. However,

these actually generate more oil

temperature, so we did not want

to do something that contributed

to higher temperatures.

‘Chevron Phillips has recently

pioneered synthetic base oils that

provides greater thermal stability.

Developed or wind turbine

gearboxes, these new synthetic

base oils provide a much higher

viscosity Index. The higher this is,

the less the oil thins out at higher

temperatures. Using these new

oils, we created a new 0W-10 oil

that would not thin out too much

at high temperature.’

The experience and expertise

these teams are gathering has

started to flter down to other

parts o the sport. The Joe Gibbs

products, or example, are made

available to rival teams as well

as smaller outfts as part o the

‘driven’ range o products.

How lube specialists came up with an oil-based solution to the two-car tango problem

The high temperature high

shear (HTHS) viscosity o an

engine oil is a critical property

related to engine durability and

uel economy. It is essential

to have a ‘thick’ enough

HTHS viscosity to maintain a

protective oil flm between

moving parts, but you also want

the right balance o protection

and ease o movement. The

oil has to be thick enough to

maintain separation o the

critical moving parts, but

thin enough to allow or uel

efcient operation.

New uel economy

regulations implemented

by the US Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) seek

to improve uel economy in

the years ahead. In Europe,

the reduction o greenhouse

gases through improved uel

economy marches orward, and

lowering HTHS enables these

uel economy targets to be

met, but lower HTHS requires

careul balancing. Lower HTHS

viscosity tends to improve uel

economy, but higher HTHS

viscosity aords better wear

protection. The right balance

must be struck between

durability and uel economy,

and this must be maintained

throughout the oil lie.

SAE International recently

approved the new ‘16’ viscosity

grade that will allow car

companies to speciy lower

HTHS oils such as 0W-16 and

5W-16. These new oils will

be oered or specifcally

designed engines. Engine

manuacturers are currently

evaluating older engines to see

i engine durability is an issue

with low HTHS viscosity oils. I

durability does prove to be an

issue, manuacturers may have

to redesign their engines to

take advantage o the potential

uel savings. No engine tests

in the current diesel engine

oil category, API CJ-4, address

adhesive wear, which oten

occurs during running-in, and

the use o low HTHS oils could

lead to excessive premature

wear i misapplied, especially

during running-in.

This is o particular

interest to perormance auto

enthusiasts, as many use

diesel engine oils or running-in

and use low viscosity road car

oils in their racecars. As ueleconomy regulations continue

to orce change in motor oil

ormulations, auto enthusiasts

need to be aware o the possible

consequences o these changes

on their high perormance or

vintage engine, especially in

regards to bearing lie

New mPAO synthetic base

oils are now available that

improve HTHS perormance.

The new mPAO base oil used

by leading companies in its

synthetic oils boosts HTHS while

maintaining viscosity grade.

THE HTHS BALANCING ACT




STOCKCARPRODUCTS

A modern alternative to the Ford Type E transmission from Quaife

Replacing the Rocket

For many years the

venerable Ford Type E

‘Rocket’ transmission

has been standard

equipment on

European circle track cars such

as NHRPA National Hot Rods.

The our-speed single rail

gearbox, was tted to many

European Ford sedans such

as the Mk2 Escort and Sierra

models, and or years examples

were abundant. But things havechanged and one amily-run

English engineering rm has

decided to bring the European

oval track market up-to-date.

‘The original Rocket is 40-50

years old, so parts supply is

limited,’ explains Michael Quaie,

director o RT Quaie Engineering.

‘But it’s a very successul

transmission and it will never

die, so there’s a large demand or

dierent ratios to suit dierent

orms o motorsport. But the

problem is that ratio availability

is limited and users are ed up

with having to carry alternative

crown wheel and pinion ratios.

This is why we’ve designed

QBM1M, to provide a modern

alternative, which oers a wide

range o gearing options with

its drop gear system and all-new

gear-change mechanism.’

Quaie used its in-house CAD

and analysis capability to design

the new transmission in such a

way that the required versatility

was included, while the shape o

the new box allowed it to be a

straight swap or the Rocket. ‘Oval

racing is the reason the design o

QBM1M evolved as it has,’ says

Quaie. ‘Firstly, it’s our-speed, it’sas light as the standard Rocket box,

it uses the same stud pattern, plus

it’ll take roughly the same level o

overall power as the original. But

it’s much, much more compact and

users can position the gearbox and

gear lever where they want to in

the car, whereas with the original

Rocket you’re limited because o

the long tailcase.’

Despite its versatility, Quaie

expects that it will take some

time or the new transmission

to gain in popularity in the UK

circle track market, but it will

likely nd applications in other

areas. ‘I think it will take some

time to penetrate the market,

and I’m not looking to food the

market anyway,’ says Quaie.

‘There would be no dierence to

the design i it was to be used on

road courses. There is such a large

selection o drop gears that you

can simply drop the propshat,

change the drop gears and you’ve

altered the overall gearing. It’s

easy to change between ratiosthat would suit Lydden Hill or

Spa,’ he explains.

The transmission could nd

markets urther aeld and will

be available or sale in the rst

quarter o 2013. ‘We’re looking at

it costing around $5,000 excluding

taxes,’ says Quaie. ‘It will be on

sale worldwide – there is still quite

a lot o demand in United States

or Rocket transmission parts.’




STOCKCARPRODUCTS

In 2013, some NASCAR

Sprint Cup teams will

be using a technology

developed by the British

atomic energy industry

which was originally designed to

be used in Formula 1. ‘Zircotecis constantly asked by our

automotive customer base or

lighter solutions to protect

against heat problems,’ says

Terry Graham, the company’s

managing director.

Zircotec’s ceramic coatings

are renowned in European

motorsport. Supplying 11 o

the 12 Formula 1 teams last

year, and hal the BTCC grid, its

products are trusted to manage

heat eectively. The rm’s

ceramic thermal barrier coatings

oer surace temperature

reductions o over 125degC, and

is almost universally used on F1cars in areas such as airboxes and

brake ducts. However, in some

specic applications the teams

were using ‘gold’ in addition to

refect heat away. ‘Engineers

would sometimes attempt to

apply “gold” over our coating,

but it was time-consuming,

expensive to use, and required

complex adhesives,’ added

Graham. He smiles when saying

‘gold’, as analysis discovered that

several were in act copper. ‘While

there are already a signicant

number o “gold” heat refective

products on the market, these

are generally not real gold.They oer no real perormance

benet, but to the untrained eye

they can appear similar to gold,’

claims Graham. ‘Gold lea is very

dicult to handle and apply,

while metal oil (normally copper)

that has been electroplated with

gold is too rigid, also carries a

weight penalty and deteriorates

quickly at high temperature

due to oxidation o the copper

substrate.’ But Graham’s rm

had to react to the demand

o the teams, especially as

temperature control will increase

in importance substantially with

the introduction o Formula

1’s new powertrains in 2014.

Its solution, the ZircoFlex Gold

heatshield, is just 0.17mm thin

and at 225g/m² is hal the weight

o the current ZircoFlex product.

Combining superlight weightwith its ability to be cut and

olded, it’s attractive or weight

sensitive or package restricted

applications. Supplied as a fat

sheet, it can be used to protect

ancillaries such as batteries as

well as bulkheads, composite

parts and uel tanks and crucially

is something the teams can

carry and apply as necessary

‘in the eld’. ‘We expected ater

Autosport Show that F1 would

be the key market or this, but in

act we have received signicant

orders or ZircoFlex Gold rom

NASCAR teams,’ says Graham.

A versatile, superlight new coating that oers real gold and real benefts

Canned heat

“Gold heat refective products

are generally not real gold,and carry a weight penalty”

The new ZircoFlex Gold is half the weight of the previous ZircoFlex product




STOCKCARPRODUCTS

I

n a world where everything

is defned by speed,

the motto is simply ‘be

aster’. Stockcar racing

is a sport where ractions

o inches can separate the

winners rom the losers.

More and more this world

is looking or innovative

technologies, and one area many

teams has started to investigate

is 3D printing, especially

additive manuacturing.

In addition, the teams require

unctional parts to be available

with very short lead times, so

the materials used in the

printing process have to have

the right mechanical properties.

This has led some in the cup

garage to look beyond the the

shores o the USA to the world

o Formula 1, where the practice

is more commonplace. Leading

the market there are the

Windorm amily o materials

developed by CRP Technology, an

Italian-based company.

The additive manuacturing

procedures used by the frm

allow a fnished and ullyunctional mock-ups to be

obtained in a short amount o

time. This is especially important

in aerodynamic programmes,

where teams work between the

templates to fnd that extra edge.

The Windorm materials have

been specifcally developed or

motorsports applications, can

withstand high temperatures

and have material properties

previously unheard o or

selective laser sintered (SLS)

materials. It has opened up a new

world o possibilities or the top

designers in NASCAR. Functional

parts and small volume

production runs are possible in a

ew days, instead o the weeks

that they would have taken in

the past. Driver compartment

accessories, custom ducting and

packaging optimisation are just

a ew areas where engineers are

designing custom solutions using

SLS material technology or on-

track production parts.

Scale model and rolling road

wind tunnel programmes are as

common and available in NASCAR

today as they are in F1. Anywhere

there is a high demand or rapid

development cycles o highly

complex geometries, programmes

can beneft rom CRP’s additive

manuacturing knowledge and

F1-derived experience.

Indeed the demand has

been such that the Italian

frm has set up its own North

American subsidary CRP USA

based o course in Mooresville,

NC. It has already completed

many projects or Cup teams

such as Earnhardt-Childress

Racing or the manuacturing o

an alternator shroud.

Alternators are one o the

most problem-prone parts on

NASCAR race engines. The

combination o high under-hood

temperatures (up to 350degF),

high vibration (up to 600g), and

high electrical current demand (up

to 140A) present unprecedented

design challenges. Initial attempts

at implementing a duct involved

ftting a secondary rear cover to

the alternator with an integral

hose attachment. Packaging was

tight and cooling efciency o the

cover was sacrifced by retaining

the original OEM rear cover.

ECR designed a replacement rear

cover or a standard NASCAR-spec

Bosch alternator that ftted well

and provided maximum cooling

The irrepressible rise of additive manufacturing to create functional parts, fast

3D printing and newmaterials, the secret

of stockcar racing

ECR designed a replacement rear cover for a standard NASCAR-spec Bosch alternator using 3D printing




STOCKCARPRODUCTS

3D printing is enabling frms to prepare and release

prototypes or testing at a much aster rate

efciency. Once this potential

solution was ound, the next step

was one o how to manuacture

the parts needed using a

reliable material in a short lead

time. Traditional machining and

moulding oer reliable materials,

but once the cost o tooling isincluded and the time penalty

incurred, neither approach was

really adequate. 3D printing was

really the only way orward.

Windorm LX 2.0 was chosen

as the material to use, as it has

the right strength and thermal

resistance properties. This

improved version o the material,

has increased perormance in

both mechanical and thermal

properties. It is non-conductive,

and in the case o the alternator

cover, it is critical that the

material does not interere

with the electrical operation

o the device. Six alternator

cooling covers were produced

in a very short time, much to

the satisaction o ECR Engine

technical director Dr Andrew

Randolph: ‘The Windormalternator covers rom CRP ft

perectly rom the onset and

we have not a single alternator

ailure since instituting them on

all ECR’s NASCAR Cup engines.’

Many other applications

have been carried out with 3D

printing and Windorm materials

in NASCAR, though most are

still confdential. One though has

seen two companies relatively

new to stockcar racing work

together to create a new product.

CRP USA have designed and built

a part or DC Electronics, one o

the leading manuacturers o

custom-built electrical systemswhich has its North American

ofce sited next door to CRP

USA. DCE made its entrance into

stockcar racing by producing

wiring harnesses or the Sprint

Cup Fuel Injection systems. The

company is also expanding its

product range and required an

enclosure or a new electronic

circuit it had designed. Several

iterations o enclosures were

developed with a fnal version

produced in Windorm LX 2.0. In

comparing the cost and weight,

the Windorm enclosure came out

on top compared to the traditional

carbon fbre mould and layup that

DCE would normally use.

‘As we went through the

design process, it was evident

that the enclosure size and shape

would continue to evolve until

testing was complete,’ enthusesDavid Cunlie, ounder o DCE

Electronics. ‘By using 3D printing

rom CRP, we managed to greatly

reduce the cost and cut the lead

time dramatically, allowing us to

release the prototypes or testing

at a much aster rate.’ While this

part is pending approval or racing,

the enclosures have perormed

extremely well in all testing, and

will be ready at a moment’s notice

or ull production.

Thanks to 3D printing and

the perormance o Windorm

materials, the time rom concept

to production has been reduced

rom weeks to a matter o days,

enabling the NASCAR teams to

fnd the right solution, in a near

instant timescale.

“The Windorm enclosure came

out on top compared to the

traditional carbon fbre mould”




STOCKCARPRODUCTS

When tablet

computing frst

appeared, ew

thought that

it would have

a role in the motorsport world

beyond sending a ew emails

rom the hauler and reading

publications like this one. With

Apple leading the market or

these devices with its iPad, it did

not seem plausible that teams

would fnd real-world applications

or them beyond using them as

a tray to carry coee back to

the hauler on. Very ew serious

engineering sotware packages

are able to run on the OSX

operating system, but when

tablets running Windows came

on the market, everything

changed – and some big players

started to get involved.

Just ahead o the 2013

Daytona 500 Toyota announced

that it had been working

with Microsot to develop a

touchscreen app or Windows 8-

equipped tablets. Unlike many

o the apps announced or

motorsport applications, this

one has a real-world purpose,

and orms the centrepiece o

a new strategy to improve the

perormance o the Toyota

teams competing in NASCAR.

When drivers, crew chies and

team engineers expressed

the need or a more mobile

computing platorm to monitor

real-time perormance data,

TRD (Toyota’s North American

motorsport subsidiary) developed

the app and named it Trackside.

During practice, drivers

and crew chies previously

had to record racing perormance

data with sotware on a

laptop, or even with pencil

and paper, requiring drivers

to get out o their racecars

to view inormation about

the car’s perormance, as well

as to explain what was

happening on the track.

With the new app, race teams

can capture perormance data

and share it with the crew in

real-time, enabling mechanics

to immediately get to work

fne-tuning the car. It also oers

real time data that gives the

crew chie and driver insight and

analysis on timing and scoring

data versus competitors, allowing

a team to determine i the right

adjustments have been made to

the car, or what adjustments may

need to be made.

‘Trackside running on Surace

Pro means more time is spent on

the track and less time is spent

talking, said Steve Wickham,

TRD’s vice president o chassis

operations. ‘Teams are back on

the track aster, allowing themmore time to determine the

optimum setup or the racecar.’

When it came to choosing

a device, TRD wanted a high-

perormance, lightweight, touch-

enabled computer to complement

the ast-paced environment at

the race track. Several tablets

were tested during the pilot

phase, but the Surace Pro was

ultimately chosen because

it delivered the power and

perormance o a laptop PC in a

tablet package, as well as being

able to withstand the harsh

environment o the garage.

Far removed rom web surfng, email and Angry Birds, tablet technology is becoming

increasingly invaluable in motorsport through applications such as TRD’s Trackside

Sofware upgrade

Complex data is compiled quickly, giving the crew chief and driver insight and analysis on timing and scoring data

With Trackside, race teams can capture performance data and share it with the crew in real-time




TECHNOLOGYCONSULTANT

We don’t know or sure i this

Dirt-style Modifed is behaving

like this on its own, or i the driveris ‘driving a tight car loose’

The image below

shows a Dirt-style

Modifed, cornering in

a powerslide, with the

let ront wheel high in the air,

a large roll angle, and the rear

wheels visibly aimed to the right.

I can tell that the car had

maintained the attitude or

some time when the picture was

taken – the let ront wheel has

stopped turning.

To address one part o what’s

happening dynamically, the right

rear tyre is probably the most

heavily loaded on the car, but it

is not more heavily loaded than

it would be i the car were set up

to corner on our wheels. On the

contrary, it’s as lightly loaded as

it can be, at that lateral orce. The

let rear is as heavily loaded as it

can be on that car, at that lateral

orce. The ront load transer is

100 per cent, and the rear loadtranser is whatever remainder

is needed to keep the car

rom tipping over, which is the

smallest value it can have.

This means the rear tyres are

as equally loaded as possible

under those conditions, and

consequently the car should be

tight. The exaggerated rear steer

is needed to counter this eect.

Really, we can’t tell rom the

picture whether the car is tight

or not. It’s in a state o obvious

oversteer. The rear slip angles are

greater than the ront, even ater

allowing or the roll oversteer.

Without talking to the driver we

don’t know i the car does this on

its own, or i the driver is ‘driving

a tight car loose’. Many times

I’ve seen vehicles on dirt tracks

corner outrageously sideways,

more so than their competition,

and had the drivers tell me their

vehicles had a push. What’s

happening in such cases is thatthe driver is pitching the car on

entry, and then horsing the tail

out with the throttle, simply

because i driven any other way

the car won’t rotate at all.

LATE ARRIVAL

The car is exhibiting a design and

setup strategy that frst became

popular in dirt Late Models, and

has since become airly common

in the lower-cost IMCA-style

Modifeds as well. Part o the

strategy has even been in the

news lately in relation to upper-

division Nascar pavement cars.

There are basically two

elements to the strategy. The

frst is to aim the rear wheels

out o the turn, either statically

or dynamically, or both. Doing

this statically is what has been

recently tried on Cup cars, and

has now been limited by Nascar

in a mid-season rule change. The

second element, mainly on dirt

cars, is to make the car ‘hike’.

That is, make the let rear jack

dramatically, typically in response

to both lateral and longitudinal

orce. The rear suspension is set

up with large amounts o thrust

anti-squat, especially on the

let, and with a beam axle this

concomitantly produces a lot o

roll oversteer. Most commonly

there are two trailing links per

side, attached to the axle with

rotating brackets called birdcages.

The links are not extremely long.

The axle ends move in a paththat is both sloped and curved.

The wheels move rearward,

at a decreasing rate, as the

suspension compresses, and they

move orward at an increasing

rate as it extends.

Typically, there is also a short,

steeply raked Panhard bar on the

let side o the car, which jacks

the let rear up in response to

lateral orce. The result is that

even on a dry slick track, the

car will jack the let rear up so

much that the let ront tyre will

come o the ground. This would

normally make the car push like

Mark Ortiz Automotive is a

chassis consultancy service

primarily serving oval track and

road racers. Here Mark answers

your chassis setup and handling

queries. I you have a question

or him, get in touch.

E: markortizauto

@windstream.net

T: +1 704-933-8876A: Mark Ortiz,

155 Wankel Drive, Kannapolis

NC 28083-8200, USA

Rear steer and hikingDeciphering unusual behaviour on a Dirt-style Modifed

Q Below is a photo o a northeastern

modifed in a turn at Fonda speedwayin NY by my son. He has chosen artistic

expression with a camera as his lie’s

passion over his ather’s preoccupation with

physics and chassis dynamics in particular

and racecar engineering in general. Most days

I think he is the smart one.

Could you please look at the image and give

me an assessment as to what’s occurring

dynamically with this car at this instant in time?

I will withhold my thinking at this time as to notmuddy up the water.

The only bit I’ll add is that this chassis

attitude, on this car, in this location o the track is

the same almost every week and it carries this

mode over a considerable distance along the

corner – ie this is not a quick snapshot o the

phenomenon; the car maintains this attitude over

a certain length o time.




TECHNOLOGYCONSULTANT

a pig, but the exaggerated roll

oversteer at the rear is used to

kill the push.

It’s not uncommon or the

hiking eect to use up all or

most o the suspension travel

at the rear, in compression at

the right rear and extension

at the let rear. This leaves the

suspension with little ability

to absorb bumps.

TWISTING LOGIC

Does this make sense? From

the standpoint o tyre and

suspension dynamics, it doesn’t.

It makes more sense to have

only as much dynamic wedge

as it takes to balance thehandling, with the tyres and car

construction the rules permit.

Hopeully, we will still have some

travel let in the suspension to

absorb bumps, and some ability

to vary the amount o dynamic

wedge to control the car’s

balance. The let ront tyre will

probably still be the most lightly

loaded o the our in many cases,

and will contribute the least to

the total cornering orce, but

what’s the sense in throwing that

away and turning the car into a

tricycle unnecessarily?

Yet there is a long history o

popularity or this approach, and

cars using it have won a lot o

races. What might be the reason?

It could have to do with

aerodynamics. In the case o

the Cup cars with the axle

snouts aimed to the right, that’s

undoubtedly the case. It used to

be standard practice on all but

the astest tracks to work the

body rules by moving the tail to

the right, relative to the rest o

the body. This got more air to

the rear deck and spoiler when

running at some letward yaw

through a let turn. But in recent

years this has been prohibited, or

severely limited. A similar eectcan be had by simply yawing

the whole car by aiming the rear

wheels rightward.

Not only does more

aerodynamic yaw get more air to

the rear deck and spoiler, thereby

generating more downorce, but

it also generates an aerodynamic

lateral orce. This is maximised

when the car has extremely

slab-sided bodywork. Hiking the

let rear also lits the spoiler

higher. It would be possible to

just have it higher statically,

but the rules restrict that.

Rather similarly, it would be

possible to statically lead the

let rear a lot, but the classes

we’re talking about have rules

limiting wheelbase inequality on

the two sides o the car. It might

be possible to get around this

by moving the let ront wheel

ahead o the right ront. However,

the engine setback rules oten

(though not always) speciy how

ar the nearest spark plug can be

rom the let ront upper ball joint.

When this is so, we can’t move

the let ront wheel orward; we

can only move the right ront

back. The only way to aim the

rear wheels to the right without

losing engine setback is to makethem steer that way dynamically.

UNKNOWN QUANTITY

Having the car rolled a lot also

should get us some downorce

rom the lateral component o

the airfow. On the other hand,

especially in a Late Model with

a ull-width ront end, having

the let ront corner high costs

us downorce by letting more

air in under the let ront.

Whether there is a net gain in

downorce, or exactly when there

is or isn’t, is not known.

Why? Because it’s not easy

to test this in existing wind

tunnels. Most teams involved

in dirt racing don’t have

the budget or wind tunnel

testing anyway, but even i

they did, most tunnels will

not accommodate the yaw

angles required. The belts or

wheel support rollers won’t

accommodate the required wheel

positions. Most tunnels aren’t

big enough to accommodate the

aerodynamic ront-view width o

the car when yawed dramatically.

Blockage eects would result

which would compromise the

accuracy o the testing.

It might be possible to try tomodel and mesh a dirt Late Model

and apply computational fuid

dynamics (CFD) to the problem.

But that’s not cheap either at the

level that would be required.

One possibility might be to

instrument a Late Model, and

adjust the suspension so it

would run in various hiked and

yawed positions when running

straight on smooth pavement,

and measure the suspension

displacements with various

setups. Aerodynamic orces

might then be inerred rom that.

A Late Model in the wind tunnel – something few teams can afford – where the hiking affect can be examined and assessed




STRAIGHT TALK RICARDO DIVILA

Bending the rules

Interpreting the regulations

governing the technical

aspects o motor racing is

like playing the bagpipes

– no one can judge i it is

good or bad.

The NASCAR garage has an

expression: ‘i you ain’t cheatin’,

you ain’t tryin’. Junior Johnson had

this to say: ‘I’d have our o ve

new things on a car that might

raise a question. But I’d always

leave something that was outside

o the regulations in a place where

the inspectors could easily nd it.’

Another colourul character was

Smokey Yunick, whose antics could

ll a book, and did – his memoir

Best Damn Garage in Town is

required reading.

His notorious 68 Chevelle,

reputed to be a 7/8-scale version

o the homologated car, led

NASCAR to create the inamous

templates they use on all cars

today. Legend has it that when it

picked up its 16th violation during

tech, he got in the car and drove

it back to his garage in Daytona

with the uel tank still sitting

in the inspection area, with the

parting shot o ‘make it 17’.

As Karen Van Allen once wrote:

‘Cheating has been around since

the inception o stockcar racing.

1966 produced two o the most

notorious violations o rules quitepossibly witnessed in the sport o

NASCAR – and both cars passed

inspection prior to the Dixie 500

at Atlanta. Junior Johnson’s ‘Yellow

Banana’ Ford Galaxy and Henry

‘Smokey’ Yunick’s “little” #13

1967 Chevy Chevelle, complete

with an oset chassis, raised foor,

roo spoiler, balloon in gas tank

and a host o other “brilliant” rules

book interpretations. NASCAR

nally disqualied Yunick’s

creation in 1968 when it was

ound to be some 200 pounds

underweight.’ The use o water-

lled tyres to be tted ater the

qualiying run beore tech could

have something to do with it.

Ater the templates closed

the stable-door, Smokey is

deemed to have pulled another

one. Templates were cut to

the production drawings o the

manuacturer. When Smokey’s

new car didn’t t the templates

at tech, he loudly protested his

innocence, maintaining they

‘musta’ve got templates wrong’,

challenging them to check on any

car o the model they could nd.

Upon going to the track’s

parking lot, those templates

wouldn’t t any o the ew cars

they ound, just like they wouldn’t

t Smokey’s. As the new racing

car was one o the rst rom

the assembly line, Smokey had

municently provided several

examples, coincidentally modied

as the racecar, and scattered them

around. Game, set and match.

Again, an environment-

generated mindset, where the

antecedents o the bootlegging

good old boys racing led to the

ideal o not getting caught by

the law. The concept o unair

advantage is quintessentially

American, even i the word

‘unair’ is the vestigial appendix

o sporting ethos rom the

playing elds o Eton.

Eton also came up with

‘gamesmanship’, detailed in

Stephen Potter’s The Theory and

Practice of Gamesmanship, or the

Art of Winning Games without

Actually Cheating , which describes

‘the use o dubious methods to

win or gain a serious advantage

in a game or sport.’ Or ‘pushing

the rules to the limit without

getting caught, using whatever

dubious methods possible to

achieve the desired end.’

‘It may be inerred,’ Potter

writes, ‘that the term derives

rom the idea o playing or the

game (ie to win at any cost) as

opposed to sportsmanship, which

derives rom the idea o playing

or sport.’ Or bagpipes again.

In the rst case, legality is a

binary condition, like pregnancy.

You either are or are not

pregnant, but in other regards

you are NOT either legal or illegal.

There is a spectrum o legality,

and where you reside relies on

the intention, denition and the

policing o these rules.

Racing is littered with

examples o tricky interpretations

o the rules. At Le Mans there

was a rule that tyres could not

be heated in the garages, but

it didn’t mention about tyres

heated ‘behind the garages’.

And when cars were supposed

to be road useable, there was a

rule speciying the size o the

compartment where baggage

could be carried, but no denition

o what the baggage was.

Making up new rules is every

bit as tricky as interpreting them,

but nowhere near as un.

NASCAR has seen some of motorsport’s most ingenious regulation dodges

“Yunick’s ’68 Chevelle was 200lbs underweight.

Possibly due to it having water-flled tyres”



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