DDrift

Chapter 02 of 5

The Era of Suction

Side skirts, Venturi tunnels, and the outlawed Brabham Fan Car.

  1. The Blueprint

    Upside-Down Flight

    Engineers realized that by shaping the car's underside like a wing, they could create a low-pressure vacuum. This literally sucked the car onto the asphalt.

  2. Mechanism

    The Venturi Effect

    By narrowing the air's path under the car (the throat), flow speeds up and pressure drops. It is the same physics that allows a plane to lift, but inverted.

  3. Innovation

    Sealing the Deal

    Venturi tunnels only work if air doesn't leak out the sides. Teams added flexible 'side skirts' that scraped the track to create a perfect airtight seal.

17 more cards in this chapter

Could you answer this?

Why was the Brabham BT46B 'Fan Car' banned after its very first race?

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🏎️ Ground Effect (The Aerodynamic Arms Race)

  1. 01The Wings of LotusHow Colin Chapman flipped aviation physics to glue cars to the track.
  2. 02The Era of SuctionSide skirts, Venturi tunnels, and the outlawed Brabham Fan Car.
  3. 03Wind Tunnel Cold WarThe multi-million pound race to master aerodynamics via scale models.
  4. 04The CFD RevolutionUsing supercomputers to simulate invisible air molecules at light speed.
  5. 05Modern Dark ArtsFlexible wings, blown diffusers, and outsmarting the technical regs.