The First Time I Ever Saw A Super
Bird
Super Birds Don't Eat Worms: Where Spoilers Came
From
The first time I saw a
Plymouth Super Bird I became totally “smitten”. At the time, I was a Used
Car Manager at a Chevrolet Dealership. I learned that there were only 500 built.
Some to be NASCAR racers and some to be sold to the public.
The Plymouth dealer down
the street traded for a 1970 (the only year they were produced) in 1972. The
Plymouth dealer was not happy with his used car manager for trading for such a
monstrosity, so I was able to buy it at a good price. At least, I thought it was
a good price. Who knew? There were not any around to compare with.
My boss, the Chevrolet
dealer, got so mad at me, I thought we were going to have to call 911. He
ignored me for days, but when I sold the Super Bird for a huge profit, he
suddenly crowned me a hero. I was able to only find 2 more and subsequently sold
them for nice profits. Which brings us to the old adage, “There is an ass for
every seat”.
The car buying public had
not been introduced to what we now call “spoilers and wings”. And today, they
are bought more for styling than for racing.
I would like to take you
back to the beginning of “spoilers and wings”.
The
modern era of sports prototype racing began in 1953 with the implementation of
the World Sports Car Championship. The World Sports Car Championship was an
organized racing series and was overlooked by a governing body, the F.I.A. (Federation
Internationale de l’Automobile-- International Automobile Federation). The
F.I.A. organized the series of world-wide races, established rules that governed
the design and construction of the race cars, and awarded points relative to the
finishing position of a competitor, thereby establishing a competitive
environment that attracted the world's best drivers, sponsors, designers, engine
and chassis manufacturers, and tire companies.
Throughout the 1950s, the
typical sports prototype racing car was small, light weight, front-engined, and
was bodied in a slippery aerodynamic shell. Due to relatively inefficient
engines that lacked horsepower, race car designers subscribed to making the car
look as aerodynamic as possible by designing the body round and streamlined so
that it cheated the wind and made up for any horsepower deficits. What the
designers didn't realize was that by designing slippery looking shapes, they
were providing for the airflow to pack underneath the car at racing speeds and
produce dangerous lifting forces on the front axle. The car bodies were more
akin to positive lift producing airplane wings and had a tendency to want to
take off at high speeds. This made the cars unpredictable and potentially
dangerous at the limit.
But this period of race car
development was punctuated by one innovator who realized the potential of
designing a device that produced negative lift, thereby canceling the
positive lift forces that were common. In 1956, Michael May, an engineer,
thought that by constructing an airfoil, flipping it over so that it produced a
negative force towards the ground, and mounting it onto his Porsche Type 550, he
could utilize this negative force, or downforce, to improve the traction, grip,
and handling of his race car . But Michael May's innovation was perhaps too
successful. At the first race that he introduced his device, the race
organizers, under pressure from the Porsche factory team, refused him the
opportunity to race sighting that the wing, “restricted the view of the drivers
behind him”. Subsequent attempts to run the wing mounted Porsche were denied as
well. With that, wing development and conscious downforce generation fell by
the side and for the rest of the 1950s the concentration was still on low drag
and slick looking bodies.
1963 saw the first win at
the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans for a car with a mid-mounted engine. This
proved beyond a doubt that the mid-engine layout, where the engine is mounted in
front of the rear axle, offered substantial improvements in handling and
aerodynamics. The 1960s also saw the resurgence in the development of the
wing. In 1966 Jim Hall mounted a wing onto his 2E Can Am Chaparral and proved
the value of the concept by running competitively in the Can Am championship
that year. The next year Jim Hall brought the winged 2F Chaparral to Le Mans
and reintroduced the wing concept to the Europeans. By 1968 wings started to
show up on Formula One cars and a new era of conscious aerodynamic development
began to emerge.
This turning point is
exemplified by the development of the Porsche 917. In 1969 Porsche introduced
the 917 to international sports car racing. Porsche management was interested
in having a race car capable of vying for overall victories, not just the class
victories they had come accustomed to. The success they had achieved in the
lower classes came about by coupling Porsche's reliable, small capacity, low
horsepower engines with sleek, low drag, body work designed to achieve as much
straight-line speed as possible. This combination was highly successful, but,
as stated, over all victories were elusive. With the 917, Porsche decided to
design a new, pure-bread, high horsepower racing engine and clothe the chassis
in the low drag body work that Porsche had so much experience with. Porsche
hoped the 917 would be the world-beater.
But, from the outset, the
917 was plagued by an aerodynamic instability problem. This instability was due
to the relatively massive horsepower increase (from the production based
racing units Porsche was used to, to the 917’s 580 racing horsepower) in
combination with Porsche's low drag aerodynamic design philosophy . Porsche set
out to cure the 917’s diabolical handling nature (the drivers of the 917 had
nicknamed it “The Ulcer”). Through extensive wind tunnel and track testing,
Porsche ended up modifying and reprofiling the front and rear body work to
improve the cars aerodynamic stability. The results was a race car that
dominated the Sports Car World Championship in 1970 and 1971.
Between 1972 and 1979 sports
car racing fell into decline because of uncertain world-wide economics and
frequent changes in the rules by the F.I.A. The sports cars of this time were
typified by open cockpits and minimal downforce generating bodies and wings.
These cars were called Spyders. This time period lacked some of the excitement
and innovation of past eras, but, by the late 1970s, revolutionary advancements
in engines and aerodynamics were being made in Grand Prix (Formula One)
racing that would eventually find their way into sports car racing.
During the late 1970s the
French auto maker Renault introduced the turbocharged engine to Formula One
racing. Turbocharging was not a new idea nor was the application of
turbocharging new to racing, but Renault showed that turbocharged engines could
be fuel efficient, reliable, and produce tremendous amounts of horsepower from
very small engine capacities. By the early eighties, all competitors in Formula
One racing had switched from conventional engines to turbocharged engines. This
influenced the sports prototype designers especially since the F.I.A. had
introduced the Group C rules (C for Consumption) for sports prototypes
that put a fuel consumption limit of 60 liter's per 100 kilometers of racing.
The Group C rules did not set maximum engine capacity, and the majority of
engine manufacturers embraced the turbocharger as a way of producing large
amounts of reliable horsepower within the fuel limits.
Another innovation that
would fundamentally change the way sports prototypes were designed was
introduced in 1977 by the Lotus Formula One team. Peter Wright and the Lotus
design team introduced for the 1977 season the Lotus 78 “wing car”. The Lotus
78’s sidepods were shaped like upside down wings and made use of the well known
aerodynamic effect that the lift of a wing increases with decreasing ground
proximity (called the ground effect). This created massive amounts of
downforce underneath the car which boosted cornering speeds tremendously. The
best thing was that it was with very little drag penalty. A standard wing
produces more pounds of drag per pound of downforce (therefore a less
efficient lift to drag ratio, L/D) in comparison with a contoured underbody
(the underbody/underwing is sometimes also called a ground effect tunnel)
run in close proximity to the ground. Not to mention the fact that only a small
pressure drop per square inch would yield loads of downforce due to the large
area of the underbody that was available. Utilizing the underbody shape of the
race car to produce huge amounts of downforce was revolutionary and this idea
has been utilized throughout motor sports, especially in the sports prototype
racing series.
The 1980s sports prototype
racing car utilized all of the innovations race bred in Formula One racing in
the late 1970s. High horse power, small capacity, turbocharged engines were
status quo. Horse power figures of 750 or more were common, and qualifying
boosted horsepower numbers of over 1000 were not unheard of. The use of
composite materials, such as carbon fiber and Kevlar, introduced in the early
1980s by Ron Dennis and the McLaren Formula One team, in the construction of the
chassis, wings, and body work made the prototype cars lighter and stronger. All
these elements, coupled with the continued development of ground effects and
aerodynamics increased cornering speeds even further. The typical 1980s sports
prototype racing car had a turbocharged, mid-mounted engine, an aluminum
honeycomb chassis, carbon fiber and Kevlar body work, and highly developed, high
down force aerodynamics.
The end of the 1980s
witnessed the banning of the turbocharged racing engine by the F.I.A., replaced
instead by small capacity, high revving, highly efficient, normally aspirated
Formula One type racing engines. This measure was sighted at reducing costs,
reducing power outputs, and increasing safety through reduced speeds. The
sports prototypes racing cars of the early 1990s were called “two seat Grand
Prix cars” because of their Formula One derived engines and astonishing
cornering capabilities. The aerodynamic developments of the past were refined
even further, and the 1990s sport prototypes, which had less horsepower than a
turbocharged 1980s prototype, were even faster.
In comparison of pole
qualifying lap times between 1990 and 1992 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: In 1990,
it took the pole qualifying Nissan R90CK turbo car 3 minutes and 27.00 seconds
to travel the 8.45 mile circuit at an average speed of 146 miles per hour. In
1992 the pole sitting Peugeot 905B non-turbo car qualified in 3 minutes and
21.21 seconds at an average speed of 151 mile per hour. The Peugeot 905B was
quicker over the lap, but the Nissan R90C had a higher top speed at the fastest
point on the track, 236 miles per hour versus 220 miles per hour. In analysis,
the Nissan R90CK was supposedly developing more than 1000 horsepower in
qualifying trim while the Peugeot's engine was good for about 715 . An
additional difference was that the Peugeot weighed nearly 300
The
modern era of sports prototype racing began in 1953 with the implementation of
the World Sports Car Championship. The World Sports Car Championship was an
organized racing series and was overlooked by a governing body, the F.I.A. (Federation
Internationale de l’Automobile-- International Automobile Federation). The
F.I.A. organized the series of world-wide races, established rules that governed
the design and construction of the race cars, and awarded points relative to the
finishing position of a competitor, thereby establishing a competitive
environment that attracted the world's best drivers, sponsors, designers, engine
and chassis manufacturers, and tire companies.
Throughout the 1950s, the
typical sports prototype racing car was small, light weight, front-engined, and
was bodied in a slippery aerodynamic shell. Due to relatively inefficient
engines that lacked horsepower, race car designers subscribed to making the car
look as aerodynamic as possible by designing the body round and streamlined so
that it cheated the wind and made up for any horsepower deficits. What the
designers didn't realize was that by designing slippery looking shapes, they
were providing for the airflow to pack underneath the car at racing speeds and
produce dangerous lifting forces on the front axle. The car bodies were more
akin to positive lift producing airplane wings and had a tendency to want to
take off at high speeds. This made the cars unpredictable and potentially
dangerous at the limit.
But this period of race car
development was punctuated by one innovator who realized the potential of
designing a device that produced negative lift, thereby canceling the
positive lift forces that were common. In 1956, Michael May, an engineer,
thought that by constructing an airfoil, flipping it over so that it produced a
negative force towards the ground, and mounting it onto his Porsche Type 550, he
could utilize this negative force, or downforce, to improve the traction, grip,
and handling of his race car . But Michael May's innovation was perhaps too
successful. At the first race that he introduced his device, the race
organizers, under pressure from the Porsche factory team, refused him the
opportunity to race sighting that the wing, “restricted the view of the drivers
behind him”. Subsequent attempts to run the wing mounted Porsche were denied as
well. With that, wing development and conscious downforce generation fell by
the side and for the rest of the 1950s the concentration was still on low drag
and slick looking bodies.
1963 saw the first win at
the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans for a car with a mid-mounted engine. This
proved beyond a doubt that the mid-engine layout, where the engine is mounted in
front of the rear axle, offered substantial improvements in handling and
aerodynamics. The 1960s also saw the resurgence in the development of the
wing. In 1966 Jim Hall mounted a wing onto his 2E Can Am Chaparral and proved
the value of the concept by running competitively in the Can Am championship
that year. The next year Jim Hall brought the winged 2F Chaparral to Le Mans
and reintroduced the wing concept to the Europeans. By 1968 wings started to
show up on Formula One cars and a new era of conscious aerodynamic development
began to emerge.
This turning point is
exemplified by the development of the Porsche 917. In 1969 Porsche introduced
the 917 to international sports car racing. Porsche management was interested
in having a race car capable of vying for overall victories, not just the class
victories they had come accustomed to. The success they had achieved in the
lower classes came about by coupling Porsche's reliable, small capacity, low
horsepower engines with sleek, low drag, body work designed to achieve as much
straight-line speed as possible. This combination was highly successful, but,
as stated, over all victories were elusive. With the 917, Porsche decided to
design a new, pure-bread, high horsepower racing engine and clothe the chassis
in the low drag body work that Porsche had so much experience with. Porsche
hoped the 917 would be the world-beater.
But, from the outset, the
917 was plagued by an aerodynamic instability problem. This instability was due
to the relatively massive horsepower increase (from the production based
racing units Porsche was used to, to the 917’s 580 racing horsepower) in
combination with Porsche's low drag aerodynamic design philosophy . Porsche set
out to cure the 917’s diabolical handling nature (the drivers of the 917 had
nicknamed it “The Ulcer”). Through extensive wind tunnel and track testing,
Porsche ended up modifying and reprofiling the front and rear body work to
improve the cars aerodynamic stability. The results was a race car that
dominated the Sports Car World Championship in 1970 and 1971.
Between 1972 and 1979 sports
car racing fell into decline because of uncertain world-wide economics and
frequent changes in the rules by the F.I.A. The sports cars of this time were
typified by open cockpits and minimal downforce generating bodies and wings.
These cars were called Spyders. This time period lacked some of the excitement
and innovation of past eras, but, by the late 1970s, revolutionary advancements
in engines and aerodynamics were being made in Grand Prix (Formula One)
racing that would eventually find their way into sports car racing.
During the late 1970s the
French auto maker Renault introduced the turbocharged engine to Formula One
racing. Turbocharging was not a new idea nor was the application of
turbocharging new to racing, but Renault showed that turbocharged engines could
be fuel efficient, reliable, and produce tremendous amounts of horsepower from
very small engine capacities. By the early eighties, all competitors in Formula
One racing had switched from conventional engines to turbocharged engines. This
influenced the sports prototype designers especially since the F.I.A. had
introduced the Group C rules (C for Consumption) for sports prototypes
that put a fuel consumption limit of 60 liter's per 100 kilometers of racing.
The Group C rules did not set maximum engine capacity, and the majority of
engine manufacturers embraced the turbocharger as a way of producing large
amounts of reliable horsepower within the fuel limits.
Another innovation that
would fundamentally change the way sports prototypes were designed was
introduced in 1977 by the Lotus Formula One team. Peter Wright and the Lotus
design team introduced for the 1977 season the Lotus 78 “wing car”. The Lotus
78’s sidepods were shaped like upside down wings and made use of the well known
aerodynamic effect that the lift of a wing increases with decreasing ground
proximity (called the ground effect). This created massive amounts of
downforce underneath the car which boosted cornering speeds tremendously. The
best thing was that it was with very little drag penalty. A standard wing
produces more pounds of drag per pound of downforce (therefore a less
efficient lift to drag ratio, L/D) in comparison with a contoured underbody
(the underbody/underwing is sometimes also called a ground effect tunnel)
run in close proximity to the ground. Not to mention the fact that only a small
pressure drop per square inch would yield loads of downforce due to the large
area of the underbody that was available. Utilizing the underbody shape of the
race car to produce huge amounts of downforce was revolutionary and this idea
has been utilized throughout motor sports, especially in the sports prototype
racing series.
The 1980s sports prototype
racing car utilized all of the innovations race bred in Formula One racing in
the late 1970s. High horse power, small capacity, turbocharged engines were
status quo. Horse power figures of 750 or more were common, and qualifying
boosted horsepower numbers of over 1000 were not unheard of. The use of
composite materials, such as carbon fiber and Kevlar, introduced in the early
1980s by Ron Dennis and the McLaren Formula One team, in the construction of the
chassis, wings, and body work made the prototype cars lighter and stronger. All
these elements, coupled with the continued development of ground effects and
aerodynamics increased cornering speeds even further. The typical 1980s sports
prototype racing car had a turbocharged, mid-mounted engine, an aluminum
honeycomb chassis, carbon fiber and Kevlar body work, and highly developed, high
down force aerodynamics.
The end of the 1980s
witnessed the banning of the turbocharged racing engine by the F.I.A., replaced
instead by small capacity, high revving, highly efficient, normally aspirated
Formula One type racing engines. This measure was sighted at reducing costs,
reducing power outputs, and increasing safety through reduced speeds. The
sports prototypes racing cars of the early 1990s were called “two seat Grand
Prix cars” because of their Formula One derived engines and astonishing
cornering capabilities. The aerodynamic developments of the past were refined
even further, and the 1990s sport prototypes, which had less horsepower than a
turbocharged 1980s prototype, were even faster.
In comparison of pole
qualifying lap times between 1990 and 1992 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: In 1990,
it took the pole qualifying Nissan R90CK turbo car 3 minutes and 27.00 seconds
to travel the 8.45 mile circuit at an average speed of 146 miles per hour. In
1992 the pole sitting Peugeot 905B non-turbo car qualified in 3 minutes and
21.21 seconds at an average speed of 151 mile per hour. The Peugeot 905B was
quicker over the lap, but the Nissan R90C had a higher top speed at the fastest
point on the track, 236 miles per hour versus 220 miles per hour. In analysis,
the Nissan R90CK was supposedly developing more than 1000 horsepower in
qualifying trim while the Peugeot's engine was good for about 715 . An
additional difference was that the Peugeot weighed nearly 300 pounds less (1700
lbs. vs. 2000 lbs. for the Nissan) and therefore its braking distances were
shorter. But the essential difference was that of the Peugeot's overall
aerodynamic superiority over the Nissan and that allowed the 905 to lap faster
than the R90CK. The Peugeot did not go quicker over the lap by driving slowly
through the corners.
But, as the saying goes,
“All good things must come to an end”, and it was the cost of developing such
high performance vehicles coupled with the world-wide recession that saw sports
car racing fall into decline again in the early 90s. The World Sports Car
Championship was abandoned but sports car racing continued in the United States
under the International Motor Sports Association's (I.M.S.A.) banner and
at stand alone events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France and the 1000
Kilometers of Suzuka in Japan. Currently the concentration of I.M.S.A. and
organizations such as the Automobile Club de L’Ouest (A.C.O.- organizers of
the 24 Hours of Le Mans race) is to reduce the costs of racing and increase
the competition between the competitors. A lot of the technology introduced in
the 70s and 80s has been banned due to the prohibitive costs associated with
development and application. Ground effect tunnels and carbon brakes have been
disallowed and turbocharged engines have been replaced by production based
normally aspirated power plants. The new prototypes are called World Sports
Cars (W.S.C.) and are a throw back to the Spyders of the 70s with their
open cockpits, flat bottoms, and wings. The hope is that with the reduced costs
of racing the privateer teams, who once formed the backbone of sports car
racing, will come back to make the sport strong.
So, the future of sports
prototype racing is far from bleak. Manufacturers such as Ferrari, Ford, Mazda,
and Oldsmobile have taken a great deal of interest in the World Sports Car
concept. It is guaranteed that further development in the areas of
aerodynamics, engines, and materials will be undertaken in order to find optimal
performance on the track.
Mike Fuller
Copyright, Michael J. Fuller, 1996
www.mulsannescorner.com
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