Articulated Wings for $100 Alex

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Ted E. Bayer

Articulated Wings for $100 Alex

Post by Ted E. Bayer »

I was able to see Jim Hall run his marvelous Chapparels at the old VIR track and at Watkins Glen when I was 7 or 8. I have loved his designs for many years and still collect a lot of his books and pictures. I was particularly fascinated with those marvelous wings and the R&D testing he did.

When I purchased the Bandit, Jerry Kieft told me he had tried an articulated wing and some about his experiments with it. I had almost forgotten that, busy with getting all the other areas of the car running and stable. My son and I are working on an design for some improvements to wing and underside aero using CFD software from CD ADAPCO (not the best but we can work with it and pull in drawings from CATIA or Solidworks. It's been really fun working on this project with him and we learned a lot about the air flow we didn't know.) When we got to the idea of articulated wings, I remembered the conversation with Jerry and called him. He sent me his rig that he experimented with ... an air cylinder with a gauge to set the air pressure and a schrader valve. This rig mounted on the middle vane of the rear wing and attached to the middle of the top wing where the most significant drag occurs on straights. The amount of top speed I am losing there is significant and I can feel the drag from it holding me back. We removed the top two corner bolts that held the wing to the side boards and used nylon washers under the bolts on the lower two. This allowed the wing to lay down pushing against the air cylinder at whatever pounds pressure we placed in it.

We tried it out at Carolina Motorsports Parkway Time Trial three weeks ago... mounted a Hero Go Pro camera on the wing to watch the action. The first two tries, we had the air pressure set too high. The the third.. well, see for yourself. Pay close attention about 1 minute and 15 seconds in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjobS1oj ... ture=email

It actually worked! At about 85 mph, it rolled back and I felt like a mini-turbo kicked in. Steady with little flutter... I took it up to about 105 there in the video. The vibration from the rotary jarred the batteries loose long enough to break contact or the film would have been a bit longer. :P I think the keys to success are smooth transitions from upright and firm to down and back up. We still have more testing and CFD work to do to prove it's true value and we are considering doing the same to the top vane of the front wing as well. Does it actually make a difference on a hillclimb? On a car with a high power to weight ratio like the BBR Shark...probably not. On ours...maybe. Either way, it is fun to be working with my son on the project and playing in Jim Hall's sandbox. :lol:

In the words of Michelangelo at 80, Incoro Amparo... "Yet, I am still learning."

We'll keep you posted.
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Ted Klaus
Hall of Fame Member
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:54 pm
PHA Permanent Number: 6
Current Racecar: '78Wheeler FSV, '70CaldwellD10 FSV
Location: Pipersville,Pa.

Re: Articulated Wings for $100 Alex

Post by Ted Klaus »

To Ted Bayer--Suggest you checkout the HEIGHTS on both your front and rear roll hoops-they DO NOT MEET THE GCR!!!--- rear hoop must be a min. 2" higher than your helmet AND a line from the rear bar to the front bar MUST clear the helmet. Judgeing from your pictures they don't meet. Before the tech people tell you at your next event-- it's also SAFER!!

Happy[and safe] Racing, Ted K.
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