Hello from NYC!!! This is my first post. Little about me.
Uneducated gearhead. The most education ive received in aerodynamics was when I was 8 years old. My father took me to see Mad Max 2 in the theatre. I learned what a supercharger was and instantly fell in love with the internal combustion engine. Also, Lord Humgunous scared the crap out of me. Also around the same time, I was attempted to pour my cup of flat soda out the window from a moving car, resulting in soda all over the inside and outside of the car. I thought it was cool. My father, not so much.
Fast forward forty years, Im a metal fabricator by trade and a half ass designer/engineer/compliance manager. Accomplished R/C drag racer with 3 national championships and a record in the Nitro Pro Stock class. The class changed so much that technically my record still stands after 14 years. Ive also contributed a lot of RC drag innovations that is the benchmark for chassis and motor design today. I havent accomplished much else in life so thats all I got. Now onto the bread n butter of this post. I have some questions. If you cant contributed information on the subject, sarcasm is always appreciated
All my questions is based on safety rather than performance. Im planning on air flow testing a model and dont want to waste anymore time on designing something if I dont have to.
1. Hows that wheelbase look to you? I feel its the longest I can make it without the aft panels coming in too fast to the center of the car.
2a. Where do I get info on the parachute systems on these cars? From what I see, they are ballastic chutes? What powers them and what size would I need for 230mph @ 1600lbs?
2b. I have the chute centerline towards the top of the wheel in the drawing. Should it be closer to the axle centerline?
3. Im thinking hardtail with 1.5" of front suspension travel. ( 1" compression, 0.5" rebound) Is that safe?
4. With only a inch or two of tire sticking out of the body, in a closed wheelwell, do I need to run wheel covers or could I get away with typical drag style wheels?
5. At Bonneville, is finding peanut butter cups hard to find or should I bring a stash?
6. I think ultimately I would use a premade canopy and base the design on that. Not that Im lazy and cant make a vacuum mold for it. Ok, I lied, Im a bit lazy but too broke to have someone else do it lol. Where do I find canopies?
Thanks in advance.
