As wind moves over the car in the tunnel, computers are used to calculate the drag coefficient (Cd). Wind tunnels are really nothing new. They've been around since the late 1800s to measure airflow over many early aircraft attempts. Even the Wright Brothers had one. After World War II,...
All traditional car manufacturers are currently focused on making the switch to electric vehicles, and the same is happening in the world’s biggest engineering competition — the Formula Student. In this ever-growing international design competition, teams of university students build a single-seated ...
To make this possible, an Active Ride car uses accelerometers at the wheels, and an inertial-measurement unit to monitor pitch, roll, yaw, left-to-right, forward-and-back, and up-and-down body motions. The car’s computers also calculate tire slip angles. Essentially, there’s a ...
While those speeds are relatively safe for a car with an extreme amount of downforce such as a Grand-Am sports car or an Indy car, stock cars have a tendency to lift off the ground when they reverse direction at high speeds, as in the case of a spin. Because of the instability at ...