Virgin's Virtual Failure....

[MSulka]

So... Virgin brags about designing their Formula 2010 Challenger VR-01 entirely using 'virtual' technology, yet when they try to show their car online... It fails due to 'technical difficulties'.

You can't make this stuff up.

[Paul Goldman]

Originally Posted by MSulka

So... yet when they try to show their car online... It fails due to 'technical difficulties'. You can't make this stuff up.

.

I'm already a fan of this team. I fly that airline frequently. They treat their customers really well. So what the heck, I'll give the race team my attention. Don't know which is more pathetic, though; them not launching the launch or me being up at 6am staring at my laptop waiting for it.

Either way, the car looks really nice. Nothing like those godawful fins on Sauber, Renault, etc. And the website is at least more visually engaging than anyone else's. So for whatever that's worth.

Speaking of fins, I notice there are two basic design camps, those with and those without fins. Is their purpose to settle the air before getting to the ever-so-small wing? Or just more space for advertising?

P

[Touchette]

They have a pretty livery. For some reason I couldn't get anything to load when I tried to watch the unveiling video, though it might be a problem on my end and not theirs...

[cptkablamo]

I wish there was a decent gallery somewhere...much prefer photos to video

[MSulka]

Originally Posted by cptkablamo

I wish there was a decent gallery somewhere...much prefer photos to video

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid= 127347

[skidmark]

Originally Posted by Paul Goldman

Speaking of fins, I notice there are two basic design camps, those with and those without fins. Is their purpose to settle the air before getting to the ever-so-small wing? Or just more space for advertising?
P

The story I get is they are there to stabilize the car under braking. It works like a sail so that if/when the car gets sideways (or swishy) the force of the wind against the fin will push the car back into a straight line.

Often wondered what would happen in a good crosswind ...

[Paul Goldman]

Originally Posted by skidmark

The story I get is they are there to stabilize the car under braking. It works like a sail so that if/when the car gets sideways (or swishy) the force of the wind against the fin will push the car back into a straight line.
Often wondered what would happen in a good crosswind ...

That makes sense.

The McLaren one is freaky as it appears to be attached to the rear wing. A minute of online research reveals from McLaren:

Q: The dorsal fin that attaches the top body to the rear wing is very striking - what does it do?
TG: The principal knock-on effect of the larger fuel tank was the repositioning of some of the car’s internals. One of the outcomes of that was a decision to move some of the car’s cooling to sit centrally at the rear of the car. The dorsal fin is partly to accommodate the additional cooling duct and partly a logical development of the high-downforce wing we ran last year at races like Monaco, which feeds air more efficiently to the rear wing upper element. They’re both quite simple solutions, but they’re actually very neat.

And then this:
ITV just spoke to Mike Gascoigne about what everyone in F1 calls 'The Skark Fin'.

Mike said that down the straghts it doesn't do anything but that through the corners, especially if the car starts to slide it helps straghten up airflow to the rear wing.

Basically when the car starts turning & especially when it starts to slide the airflow to the rear wing is disrupted & the rear wing starts to work less effectively, the fin keeps the airflow going over the rear wing as straght as possible which maximises rear wing efficiency & leads to a more constant level of downforce.