xxChrisxx wrote:I'm currently doing a workthrough of traction from first principles, for posting in a seperate thread.
Could you elaborate a bit on that point.
What do you mean by snotty? When the track loses grip?
Did the wheel stop rotating and remain sliding or just break traction?
Was this under braking, thottle, lift off/overrun at high revs/low revs etc.
Was it on a straight or a corner?
Was it a specific wheel, ie the loaded or unloaded, or was it both?
Snotty was the result of watering the clay track a bit too much. After watering, the cars would pack the track at modest speed. If too damp it had poor grip.
Both rear wheels (locked diffential) would stop to the extent that the lug nuts could be seen. At the point of lockup, both braking and overrun were occurring.
This would be at max revs towards the end of the straight. The driver would feel the rear getting away, get off the brakes, and turn into the banking. This would scrub off speed and usually get the engine running again. Sometime just getting off the brakes would work. Probably getting into the banking would load the tires and help.
Run-what-you-brung (Fendered Formula Libre) was the standard so it hard to generalize about the equipment other than we used American V-8s.
Problem was that three of the engines four cycles consumed energy while only one produced energy. With a light flywheel, the energy needed to come from the car’s kinetic energy turning the rear wheels. With poor traction, the wheels slid and the engine stopped. With the throttle closed, the intake stroke has high pumping needs against the cylinder vacuum, though the compression stroke, while still needing energy, is less demanding.