Fussells Radio Control F1 car

[wrcsti]

Very nice man, I have a tamiya F104W with the MP4/6 body. Ive messed a bit with aero and have actually noticed significant performance gains in high speed turns.



front diffuser V1




front diffuser V2

extended rear wing

skirted rear diffuser

I first only made the front diffuser as a sortoff joke to my rc buddies, and while driving on a very fast corner i eventually overcorrected and tapped a wall. Result was the right side of it came off and i had no glue, so i ripped the left side off. After that i could no longer take the turn flatout. I had no front grip whatsoever. I rebuilt it to V2 which was smoother and shallower, then added a rear lip to keep it a bit more stable. That worked well but after some testing with some homemade flowvis (the oily thing in pics) I noticed it was still too tall. So i made it shallower and flush to the wing. Now i had too much front grip. I then added the skirts to the rear. They helped but my tests showed the fins in the difuser were disturbing flow, I think slowing it down too much. So I cut them off. After that it had too much rear grip, I tightened the rear as much as i could and still it was too much. I added a 3cell lipo instead of the wimpy 7.2 nimh and thats when it became a rocket. So from experience yes aero does work, but theres plenty of trial and error as it doesnt scale down perfectly. Whenever i get it shipped to europe ill make sure to try more things on it.

[fussell]

Hi all,

Here's an image of the layout of the car, which dictated how narrow I could get the sidepods.




wrcsti - my previous car didn't have the Ferrari 'hole in the nose' originally but after adding it the car had a lot better front grip.

I would like to know how you tested the air flow, especially the hi-viz flo method, what 'patterns' should I look out for?

[wrcsti]

Hi all,

Here's an image of the layout of the car, which dictated how narrow I could get the sidepods.

[img]http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/7788 ... ut.jpg[img]
[img]http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/7813 ... ic.jpg[img]

wrcsti - my previous car didn't have the Ferrari 'hole in the nose' originally but after adding it the car had a lot better front grip.

I would like to know how you tested the air flow, especially the hi-viz flo method, what 'patterns' should I look out for?

hmm, the nose hole one is interesting. But mine being lownose its not a big issue. For the flowviz i mixed up some very light oil with just a tad of food coloring. What i was looking for was more than just the streaks of airflow but wether it actually managed make a suction effect. This is shown by having dust and other road debris which got stuck on the front wing ahead of the tires. Something which is logically impossible unless they were sucked off the road by the car travelling. Its hard to see in the pics but there are areas which had very deep clumping of this dirt. You can also see the oil has also flowed from the bottom of the front wing to cover the entire front suspension, which has points much higher than the front wing was. To me this shows how the air is expanding in an upward state. Your current front wing is likely not going to do much. Itll look great though. The diffuser on the other hand might do a lot more than you expect seeing how you sealed it up quite well.

Id say redo the front wing later on if possible. At this scale Id say a diffuser like wing will help more than what you have currently built. I can draw it out on paper if itll help you visualize it. Aother thing is that your side to side balance might be off. You can see in my car some lead weights added to the reciever (blue box) which greatly improved the way the car runs in left and right turns. You might want to look at this guys car. Even with a center mounted motor he still neded tons of ballast to balance the lipo battery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNLt0wUjurQ
He has other videos of it runing at about 100kmh in a track.
Heres mine before doing the mods.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DGWmnh4SDM
barely in control at any point, after mods I could run that small oval flat out

[fussell]

Progress update.

I've machined some new rear uprights for the car, instead of using the tamiya parts. These are now a 'drum' or cylinder shape so better aero. Unfortunately it means that I can't update the toe-in/out on the fly but camber is still adjustable.

More aero benefits from this is that the toe-in/out rods have been eliminated, so where I was going to anchor them to the car I have blanked off and opened that space up in the diffuser.




I've got the steering in, making sure the apertures in the tub were as small as possible and tried to hide them under the wishbones. The servo is in tight against the gearbox. Which forms a bit of a bulkhead and is also a stressed part of the car. The image shows just how tight it all is!!!





Once I have made the prop shaft it'll be ready to run, then just bodywork details, nose and front wing. Wish me luck!

[mep]

Very nice work.
Where is the pivot point of the front uprights?
Keep up the good work

[davelikesf1]

i'm more excited by your cad design and renders. i've seen sketchup designs often on this site so its refreshing to see some nice glossy finishes. what techniques were you planning to use to apply the livery to the model?

and how original is the cad design?

i was about to mention rapid prototyping, but it has already been suggested, good tip! although given you've handcrafted the rest of the car it may not appeal to you. and the expense is concerning, or at least it is in melb, aus.

[wrcsti]

Good job man. Though im a bit worried by the suspension design. Doesnt look like it will handle any stress well. Id recommend runing similar adjustable links like on the steering as your linkages atleast on the top, then make an extension of the chasis undeneath and run something similar to the way F104 front springs are mounted.

[PlatinumZealot]

Fussel, how do you maintain symmetry when modelling the car?

[fussell]

Thanks for the interest!

Mep the front uprights pivot about themselves as they are attached to the car via 'ball headed bolts'.

Davelikesf1 I've only put 1 CAD image on this thread which is the front wing, the livery image is a photoshop of the HRT F111 image. Other CAD rendered images I uploaded a while ago can be found at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10677

I've only CAD the front wing of this F1 car, I did do a complete 2008 style F1 car a couple of years ago. I'll look for the files.

As for the graphics I'm planning to print them onto decal paper, apply them to the car, then spray a clear coat over them.

Wrcsti I've looked at the F104 uprights and I think they are pretty clever, being completely packaged within the wheel upright. It's something I'm considering as a future modification.

N Smikle The car isn't completely symmetical! I modelled the engine cover with styrofoam, and because of the shape I found it quite difficult to get it an exact mirror image. I lay the car on a graph paper to try and make sure everything is square.

[fussell]

Hi All,

Progress Update - fitted the nose on the car. I'm going with aesthetics on this one, I might make an 'hump nose' later. I hope you can see in the images it has small 'horns' either side of the tub. I'm copying PaulsF1 attachment method by having the 4 pins locating the nose to the tub. I've hollowed it out the ensure minimal weight. Inside the nose I've put a tube which can carry the air through the nose hole into the front of the tub - dunno how much air will actually go through tho



The cockpit openning has also been narrowed an lengthened.

[wrcsti]

Is the car fully made of wood? Hope youre as good a driver as a builder then

[ESPImperium]

Looking forward to seeing the Youtube video of the fire up!!!

What scale is it on? Id love to see what it would generate downforce wise in a simmilar scale wind tunnel.

[fussell]

Most of the car is polyurethane model board, because it's easy to model with. I'm not sure of the point of ignition! but another car I made didn't catch fire - it would look spectacular though.

The engine cover is fibreglass, undertray is a heat resistant laminate bonded to the fibreglass diffuser. The only parts made with wood are the uprights, these are dowel but covered in resin.

It'll probably melt if anything but as I said previous models I have made have been fine - until I've crashed them!

[wrcsti]

I didnt mean fire, those motors dont get nearly hot enough to flash a fire even if you spill nitromethane on them (ive seen people flash cool them in races by squirting alcohol at them). But it doesnt look like the car will handle much of a crash. Hell ive seen pics of carbon fibre chasis broken clean in half from bad crashes. Try and not pull a marussia on us.

I had beeen considering in the past building my own, and honestly if I could find a vacuum heat table to form a body id have done it.

[fussell]

Hi Guys! Update on the project. I've been adding the small details to the model now, cameras, mirrors etc. Also I've kinda cheated and had the front wing rapid prototyped! It's a lot stronger than if I had built myself and because of the level of detail I know it would take ages to make. Plus it's likely to be the first part that takes an impact!!





Hope you like the low nose!