Good things come to those who wait:-n smikle wrote:We NEED TO HAVE an F1 CAR CFD test competition! Get all the User made cars together and test them using the same boundary conditions. All these cars have to be good for something!!
Khamsin Virtual Racecar Challenge
Its been way too long in coming, but finally someone (Hibou Scientific Software) has stepped forward to do the CFD testing of cars built by the likes of you guys, so that a Virtual F1 championship could be created!
This idea was proposed some time ago, but there was always the question of who would do the CFD side, and how all the models would be made comparable to eachother; things like radiator cross-sectional area, engine sizes, gearboxes etc... well, the guys at Khamsin have addressed that issue by supplying some model parts and mandating cross-sectional areas of other parts...
The cars need to be submitted in a Google Sketch-up format. They will be checked to make sure they comply with the rules, and then they'll be cfd tested to determine the drag and downforce coefficients and centre of pressure position. The aim of the challenge is to provide the sort of transparency that we can only wish F1 would have; all cars accepted for the championship will have their own page on which images will be shown and the results of the cfd testing will be presented for all to see, i.e. no secrets here -if you make a change to your model you'll see how that affects its aero characteristics (for better or worse), so its going to be a great F1/racecar aero design resource even if you're not taking part.
I can't hide I've been very skeptical of similar championships in the past, but when I heard of these guys' plans, and they asked me to help out, I jumped at the chance; I've supplied the championship organisers with a special version of my Virtual Stopwatch program which allows them to input the aero data to generate an aeromap for each car. As this is an aero design competition all other attributes of the car are kept constant. The program then outputs an optimum lap time based on the inputs; so you'll see whether you've hit the sweet-spot with regards to offsetting downforce to drag for each circuit.
So, what should you do first? Have a read of the rules is a good start....
Rules
The championship kicks off properly in 2013, but a test event is being held in November so that any issues can be resolved and things improved where necessary.
Test Race
If that sounds like something you'd like to get involved with go to the "Register my team" page on the website.
You can also follow the challenge on twitter:- @KVRChallenge
Personally I can't wait to see what designs you guys come up with, so get building!
, I tried this a few months ago, now i need it i can't use it! lol