I grew up around open wheel racing..I raced cars myself up until the age of 20 until it became to expensive. One of my very good friends is an Indy Car driver(Actaully qualifying for the INDY 500 now) I was speaking with him about an idea i had....Now dont ask me how to pursue this, thats whats the mythbuster guys are for. The myth is that an Indy car with its front and rear wings producing over 2000 pounds of downforce at 200 MPH could drive upside down in a complete tunnel..Since a indy car wieghs much less than that..it could be possible.....

SEEMS LIKE IT SHOULD BE POSSIBLE

someone please let me know if they have heard of this

Who is your friend? I used to race too. Maybe we raced against one another? Anyways, I've heard this for years too. It seems to me it could be done in a wind tunnel with scale model of an actual F1 or Indy car.

Are you talking about for the entire duration of the run, or just for a short while? In theory yes, I think it would be possible, with some tweaks, I don't think it could outright just do it ... I think some aerodynamics would need a little tweaking, and of course the fuel cell would need to be mounted on a gyro or something to make sure it can continue to feed the pump regardless of angle (since I'd imagine the car would have to start on the ground, get up to speed, and work it's way op on a screw-ramp to get to the ceiling).

Yes.. Starting out right side up, then driving up the wall to upside down. Considering teams run much smaller wings at Indy and huge wings on road courses, with a larger surface wing it should be accomplished at much slower speeds..

His name is Ryan Hunter Reay

quote:

Originally posted by Ruf76:
someone please let me know if they have heard of this

If nowhere else, we've all heard of it in the hundreds of previous posts here asking the same question.

And, yes, it's possible, but the car would have to be modified for the engine to run upside down. The dry sump pickups would have to be relocated or the engine will quickly destroy the bearings.

Regarding MR. Hypothesis,..obviosly the sump would have to be arranged....as well as a fuel supply which you've forgotten.. BUT again the question is NOT if the engine will run..but if the car will drive upside down.... and yes it might have been said a 1,000,000 times, can someonme prove it....didnt think so..

Any takers

I would think putting a car in a wind tunnel, and rotating the tunnel would be somewhat pheasable

I saw a show it was on dicovery channel hosted by jay leno talking the each company and there reason behind building the car like porsches,corvettes,and ferrari.he said that if you turn the road upside down,that the ferrari had enough down force to stick to the road.also if your a first time buyer and try to buy a a new ferrari in there country and you never own a ferrari they will turn you down.you have to buy a used one and own it for at least one year prior befor you can buy one at the dealership.corect me if I'm wrong its the same if you but it in The USA.also at there ferriari plant they take there time to build there cars and they don't work on weekend they don't believe in it.it takes them a mth.to fully build a car.

quote:

Originally posted by Ruf76:
His name is Ryan Hunter Reay

If you really do know 2008 Watkins Glen winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, would you please ask him the following for me?

I'd like to know how he feels about the fact that his car nearly flipped after his practice crash while moving at a speed at which NO OTHER OPEN WHEEL CAR WOULD EVEN HAVE COME CLOSE TO FLIPPING.

The biggest thing that's always bugged about the IRL is that I've never seen racecars get airborne as easily as those deathtraps do. And the Mercedes-Benz CLR does NOT count because that car was withdrawn from all competition the moment they realized just how serious an issue they had on their hands. The Porsche 911 GT1-98 doesn't count, either, because it was an isolated incident caused by undetermined factors, not an aerodynamic flaw. The current-spec IndyCars continue to be used despite the obvious danger, which has been apparent since the IRL's earliest days.

Even Mario Andretti thinks those things get airborne way too easily. And he knows from experience(Indianapolis tire test, 2003).

I think the difficulty in doing this during a race is how to get the car up to the tunnel wall because the road isn't curved. Maybe if it was a tube, or you rotate the tube while the car is driving.

You might get away with a car in a wind "tube".
Then the myth would be twisted and the car would not really be driving.

A car could move upside down. I saw a movie "rabbi jacob" and the car flipped over with a boat on the roof resulting in a boat driving away in the water with a car on the top.

To Mr Formula fox,. Not only is the Glen winner for 2008, hes also won races in Cart and Champ car,Milwakee mile and Sufers paradise(the only driver to ever do that) But Ryan like me, were bread into forlmula racing, so those are the chances you take. As for cars flipping upside down backwards...how quickly one forgets NASCARs(Before the roof flaps) getting airborne. One more thing, Ever seen an INDYcar loose a wing at top speed going forward.......Check out Sam Hornish during Indy qualifying a few years back(loosing his wing at 220)......Thats called excitment!!!

MR FORMULA FOX. As a racer I do agree with you, Before the "IRL" when and before Tony George ran the show(which is who ryan races for now). There used to be much more grand prix racing, which i believe the indy cars were built for. But to gain fan base the series went to mostly ovals =....so fans can see the whole track;....Which obviously turned extremely dangerous.. But yes..these semi super speedways should be cut out of the series. Not only does Ryan Hunter Reay Agree with me, most all drivers agree,.....the danger is just to high...

I know about Ryan Hunter-Reay's history, as well as the history of the IRL and CART. You don't need to educate me on it.

In any case, crashes are not exciting. I want to see RACING, not CRASHING.

I've been upside-down in a formula car before(I'm an ex-vintage formula racer, soon to be running in sports racers), and I get there's a level of danger to be expected. But these IRL cars expose the drivers to an almost unacceptable level of danger.

Ahhhhh..SCCA racer I see..... Try running in the Pro Series and winning the Runoffs, then came talk to me...By the way the last series i raced in was the Infinti Pro series....before that atlantics.. And also please dont refer vintage cars as actual racing..you and i know both its not....oh and another thing when I was 18 I was running Pro D sports......I KNOW WHAT FANS WANT. Unfortunalty, sometimes its carashes

As far as I'm concerned, TRUE race fans don't want crashes.

And I'm not joining the SCCA - the car I have would be a C-Sports car(Chiron LMP3) under them, and in my region the competition in that class is, shall we say, lacking. If I made it to the Runoffs I wouldn't feel like I deserved to be there. I'm instead joining the NASA, where my car will be in, if I've read their rules right, the Super Unlimited class. Which is considerably more competitive in my area.

As for the vintage formula cars, as far as I'm concerned if you're competing for a victory and prize money, it's a race. That's what I did. Six races with a 1993 Lola CART car(which got written off in a wet race because half the field had no idea how to drive in the wet - though they were all better than me in the dry), and four in a 1999 Swift. The Swift brought me my only actual victory, in the last race I ran.

When i was a youngster my father had, i believe was a 80's lola he ran.. BOY!! i wanted to drive it soooooooo bad, unfortunatly i coulnt reach the pedels! But im used to giving vintage drivers crap!! My Dad did that late in his driving career and i still pick on him today for that!! But all B.S. aside, I seriously agree with you, the formula cars especially the IRL cars need to slow down...U said deathtraps...thats exactly what they are.