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[bigpat]

What's burning.....

The diffuser does NOT create a negative pressure. A diffusers purpose is to control the rate at which the air coming from under the car slows down, and trying to keep it relatively free of turbulence (turbulent air by nature is high speed hence low pressure), by having an expanding volume. Under the flat section of the floor is where a (relative) negative pressure is created....

As the air flows rearwards in the expanding diffuser, it slows, it increases in pressure, towards what the atmospheric pressure is behind the car at that point.

Nature itself hates a vacuum, and at low speed, the air would try to move forward to fill it. But as the car increases in speed moving forwards, all that happens is that the air is sucked through in order to fill the expanding volume of air in the diffuser, hence you get a relatively decreasing pressure beneath the car, and hence downforce.

The fact that the volume of the diffusers have been reduced, and we need to rely increasing on more turbulence sensitive devices ( wings etc) is whey I think passing is so hard in F1.....

[What's Burning?]

What's burning.....

The diffuser does NOT create a negative pressure. A diffusers purpose is to control the rate at which the air coming from under the car slows down, and trying to keep it relatively free of turbulence (turbulent air by nature is high speed hence low pressure), by having an expanding volume. Under the flat section of the floor is where a (relative) negative pressure is created....

I kind of understand, (I know just enough to be dangerous, and often wrong) but I think this is just a case of you and I describing it with synonyms. I don't see how what you said is dramatically different than what I said. Negative pressure is a type of vacuum yes?

As the air flows rearwards in the expanding diffuser, it slows, it increases in pressure, towards what the atmospheric pressure is behind the car at that point.

Ok, I follow you here, but in this case it would seem that the diffuser is sort of like a valve or a gate to "bridge" as smoothly as possible the low pressure air under the car into a space (the diffuser) that would then release in as smoothly a fashion to the rear (atmosphere). Which really helps me to understand the whole process and more than anything else clears it up for me!

Nature itself hates a vacuum, and at low speed, the air would try to move forward to fill it. But as the car increases in speed moving forwards, all that happens is that the air is sucked through in order to fill the expanding volume of air in the diffuser, hence you get a relatively decreasing pressure beneath the car, and hence downforce.

Ok, so we're using the same word now, and we're on the same page.

The fact that the volume of the diffusers have been reduced, and we need to rely increasing on more turbulence sensitive devices ( wings etc) is whey I think passing is so hard in F1.....

I agree, which is why McLaren seems to have done the whole side pod redesign just to get better air flow to the lower section of the rear wing, which they probably feel give them a better downforce bang for their engineering buck than the hocus-pocus Renault route. In any case, I'm glad to see engineering solutions a plenty this year. Which is why I love F1.

On a side note, does anyone know what type of material is used for the drive shaft... it's got that copperish color that everyone uses but I know it can't be copper, I'd have thought some type of titanium but that's not the color of titanium.

[bud]

Id say it would be titanium coated in gold. When i had the tour of the MTC they pointed out they used a lot of gold on some of the suspension and shafts.

[texasmr2]

Id say it would be titanium coated in gold. When i had the tour of the MTC they pointed out they used a lot of gold on some of the suspension and shafts.

My thoughts aswell but I figured I'd just wait for a more knowlegable opinion and input.

[F1er]

Id say it would be titanium coated in gold. When i had the tour of the MTC they pointed out they used a lot of gold on some of the suspension and shafts.

dont forget pimped out in diamonds

[Robert12010]

Id say it would be titanium coated in gold. When i had the tour of the MTC they pointed out they used a lot of gold on some of the suspension and shafts.

you had a tour of mtc? you lucky.....

[bigpat]

I believe that the shafts may be titanium nowadays. They used to be EN 36, same as gear steel, which F1 still uses today to the best of my knowledge.

The reddish coating is an anodized finish that is added. I doubt very much it's gold, wrong colour. The gold you see used for heat reflection, is simply a gold leaf tape (dear as poison too..) applied to the wishbones, and shields.
I understand that a few teams in pitlane use Pankl driveshaft and tripod joint assemblies. Ricardo FFD is also a big player in this field, also supplying a lot of LeMans teams.....

[geetface9]

When the green light goes out at the first race, then thats when I start to pay attention.

Good for you; now buzz off and let us have our fun

[Hammer278]

LOL post of the thread.

[Robert12010]

LOL post of the thread.