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V8 Supercars aero scrutinised
Falcon and Commodore to be re-tested soonThe controversial V8 Supercars 'coast-down' aerodynamic parity testing procedure is itself being tested.
V8 Supercars Commission Chairman Steve Horne has confirmed the category's Car of the Future prototype Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore will soon be re-tested to establish whether there are issues with the process and the results it comes up with.
If that is found to be the case, all five cars currently in the V8 Supercars field, which also includes the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, Nissan Altima and Volvo S60, could be re-tested.
"If by some relatively remote chance we find there may have been some error in our datum then everyone will be given the opportunity [to re-test]," Horne told the v8supercars.com.au official website in a Q&A interview published this afternoon.
"We won't force them to, but if they want to come back and say 'we would like to be checked again' [they can]."
V8 Supercars' aerodynamic testing procedure has been under scrutiny since it became clear last year the Nissan had a high-speed drag issue. The arrival of the Volvo in 2014 and its stunning speed out of the box has also prompted debate.
Horne said the commission had set up a seven-member aero committee to conduct a "medical check" of the aero process earlier this year.
That committee, led by Tekno Autosports boss and former F1 engineer Steve Hallam, has handed back its report "with some suggestions", which has prompted the plan to re-test the category-owned prototypes, most likely in May.
"I felt we needed to recheck our tools, we needed to make sure the ruler was still 12 inches long and we are going through that process now with aero," Horne explained.
"If we look at our medical check up and say it's not as accurate as we want it to be, maybe we should give people an opportunity – if they wanted to – to recheck their cars against the ruler. We are not at that stage at all; we are still measuring the tools."
V8 Supercars establishes aero parity via back-to-back 'coast-down' testing on a runway. The cars accelerate to the cut-out in fifth gear and then literally coast. The downforce and drag generated is monitored. The resulting figures prompt reshaping of body parts and aero where appropriate to make the cars as equal as possible.
However, the test does not take into account the higher speeds (where the Nissans encountered issues in 2013), rises and falls and corners.
"Our current aero program takes a one-time snapshot really at one speed," conceded Horne. "It doesn't build an aero map, it doesn't check the cars in different angles, or yaw, or anything like that."
The testing conducted off-season to homologate the Volvo's aero and re-homologate the Nissan also took place in significantly different weather conditions to 2013.
There have been calls for aero testing to be conducted in a rolling road wind tunnel, but there are none suitable in Australia. However, V8 Supercars has confirmed Computational Fluid Dynamics software is under consideration for incorporation into the process.
"Will we get to CFD? Probably, but it's not an over-riding magic bullet that is going to change anything really," said Horne.
Picture courtesy of Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons
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Written byBruce Newton
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