McLaren MP4-27 Mercedes (pre-launch speculation)

[astracrazy]

Mclaren does build the "other" car for a few years now and it seems they could build a race winner based on a Dacia Logan (wich has a Renault drive!)

i don't want them to build a race winning car, i want them to build a championship winning car

[shelly]

IIRC benetton in 1998-1999 had a wing shaped fairing for the lower crash structure, although tis shape was not aggressive.
A possible approch for next year could be shaping the crsh structure so as to act as a leading edge flap for the floor.

In the current rules the 50mm radius rule limits the intensity of the leading edge suction peak fo the floor; it becomes important to find a way to increase it.
The path chosen by renault for achieving this increase this year with fee will not be pursuable next year

[FrukostScones]

rumour has it that they will be radical next year no sidepods as such but the rad ducts on the side of the tub like a jump jet looking head on then wings covering the side impact structures

conni

I have no idea how this will work in terms of packaging. So they will have small and tall rad duct close to the tub and then a kind of empty side pods with crash structures as wings where the air just goes through right to the beam wing...?
Can someone come up with a drawing maybe?
I m speaking of empty side pod because I think that the crash structures have to be connected somehow and that would form a kind of empty side pod... or maybe not?
Or they will have a very low side pod with kers and stuff in it and a crash structure/wing above it connecting to the tall and slim rad ducts close to the cockipit?

[bajan snyper]

I would like them to keep the design they have now for next year and make it a championship winning car or if they do redesign I hope they make the mp-26 the base and only change the sidepods to the lambo ones. On the other hand I would like them to change the design to the lambo of some even more radical just to throw the other teams of because I do believe next year we will see some odd sidepod designs base on what Mclaren did this year.

[gridwalker]

IIRC benetton in 1998-1999 had a wing shaped fairing for the lower crash structure, although tis shape was not aggressive.

I assume what you mean by this is shown in the following pictures : it is coloured red in the airbourne picture and green in the pit-lane shots.

Edit : I find it interesting that Benetton are the predecessor to the team that came up with the FEE, so they have a history of interesting (if not very successful) developments around this area of the car.

It will be interesting to see how a similar idea can be applied using modern technology and tighter packaging. Modern cars are infinitely more tightly packaged than this old beast.

[tommylommykins]

Exhaust silencers on an F1???

[gridwalker]

This has probably been converted into a showcar by now : I don't have many high quality pics from 1998 y'know

Still, the rest of the bodywork looks authentic. I know those protrusions at the front are structural, as that packaging was a bit controversial at the time!

[Holm86]

Exhaust silencers on an F1???

My guess is its a different engine in that and not an f1 engine. Probably a Judd or something. I would guess its running on a track for trackdays where you can pay to drive it. And if the track has some sort of noise regulations that would explain the mufflers.

[Richard]

Rummaging through an old thread, I see marcush predicted the U pods. This could be the development path for the 27

viewtopic.php?p=214790#p214790

I think there is a possibility to dramatically reduce crossection in the sidepod design.
Why not mount the radiator longitudinally in the wake of the front tyre and position the duct opening vertically ?
this would open a BIG window in crossection as all you would have between tub and wheels would be the crash structure and the two fluid pipes feeding the rads(these could possibly doubleup as the crash structure?).Due to the lack of direct airflow maybe the radiator core would need to be a bit larger but i dont think todays the air hits the core in a very good angle either...in terms of CoG height this would be at least as good the drawback in terms of having the weight of the water far out remains a the one disadvantage ..question is how much water is in the rads ..two litres maybe ..so not really much.
The radiator outled would then be towards the outside in front of the rear wheels.creating a good seal to prevent air entering the underfloor from the sides as well..(Hot air exit)

Sort of like this I guess?



As I've drawn it (in Excel -please excuse the quality!) it wouldn't comply with the current rules:- bodywork width between the wheels... you might be able to close the pods in a bit though.....

[marcush.]

cudos to our badly missed forum member Manchild who had come up with a similar if not identical solution years before ....

Placement of inlet openings could be used to partially block /obstruct the cooling path entry ..maybe by putting the opening into parts of the wake of the front tyre startegically to reduce cooling mass flow on straight ahead driving ...and enhance cooling when having some steering lock ...so that could be used to reduce straightline drag perhaps?

[FrukostScones]

Driven by pure speculation I have drawn my McLaren MP4-27 "Jump Jet"

[beelsebob]

I'm really not sure why this is considered to be better than their current design – all it seems to do is move the radiator higher and the air channel further outward, meaning it's pointing less directly at the rear wing.

Surely the only sane way to optimise the current design is to reduce the volume of the side pods, and increase the size of the channel.

[wesley123]

The only way that design is even possible is by making the car ridiculously long, even longer then they are now. The U-sidepods are already an packaging nightmare, this will be even worse. If they extend to normal width around the center of the pod it might be possible. Overall I would say the U-pods are much better. For next year they should create an channel with low gearbox, which allows air to flow down the side of the car straight under the beam wing, would increase downforce and reduce drag.

[Javert]

Interesting idea

Would it work? Not sure, i believed side pods have also the function to prevent turbulent flow coming from the front tires going on the rear.
By this way, you can get more flow around the car, but the quality of the flow is not assured
you risk to have downforce in the wrong place (due to wings) while having poor diffuser/floor/beam wing rear downforce (same problem Allison found in R31)

PS: surely if this is true they have run simulation, and simulation was good, but simulation said their Silverstone '10 blown diffuser was efficient and that Octopus was 2 sec faster than on the pitch

[volarchico]

Fascinating sketches. All from a brief, cryptic post by one person who has sometimes brought us some inside info. Excited for next year already and this year isn't even over yet!