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The front suspension is classic unequal length A-arm, push rod activated. Like the rear suspension it also has a third shock so bump and roll can be adjusted independently. The high mounted steering rack is positioned perfectly for minimal bump steer. I wish more high performance street cars would have straightforward suspension designs like this instead of dumb multi links with all sorts of passive correction curves for God knows what and tons of anti. |
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The shocks are Penske's revolutionary inerter driven units. An inerter is a mass damper built into the shock. Inerter shocks have taken over F1 and are trickling down to other forms of racing. Don't get too excited yet. The shocks and supporting tuning parts and tools for the Dyson car cost about $250,000! |
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A lot of the car's development has been in the aero department. The front of the car is dominated by the splitter with side canards and vortex generators. The splitter works by trapping high pressure stagnation over the front of the car. As moving air hits the blunt front of the car it loses velocity and the energy gets converted to an increase of pressure. The splitter traps the high pressure over the front of the car turning it into downforce. The canards provide Newtonian downforce by forcing air over the tops of them while also generating large side vortices that effectively seal off the bottom of the car making the underbody venturis more effective. |
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The kick up in the center of the splitter reduces pitch sensitivity. When the nose of the car pitches downward, the leading edge of the splitter can cut off airflow to the underbody venturis causing them to stall and lose rear downforce. This can be pretty nasty if it happens in the middle of a high speed turn. The kick up is so that some underbody airflow will always be maintained no matter how much the car pitches or if the pavement has undulations. The car also has a formula car like high nose. The high nose gives more room for a bigger splitter and also gives more stagnation area over the splitter for more front downforce. |
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The wood piece is the FIA mandated plank or skid block. The plank must not get rubbed on during a race per the rules. The plank is made of Jabroc which is some sort of super expensive German superwood that costs as much as carbon fiber. I don't know what sort of wood this is but it is expensive! I tried to buy a piece of this stuff once to make a splitter and oh never mind! |
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The tail section of the car contains the rear diffuser, the rear part of the venturis and the wing mount. It must support hundreds or even thousands of pounds of downforce so it is a very stout piece. It is amazingly light considering. Look at the beefy support pins holding it to the transaxle. The tail is make of carbon and probably a Nomex honeycomb. |
