The Building Speed Blog

Engines

The Math of Fuel Mileage

2011-06-10 dr. diandra 6

I guess when you have people feeding you all the numbers you need through your earpiece, you think they’re easy to come by. That’s the only explanation I can figure out for the snarky comments by television commentators about crews not being “smart enough” to figure out how much gas to put in the car so that it doesn’t run out before the end of the race. There have been a lot of fuel mileage races the last few weeks. Pocono is traditionally also highly likely to be a fuel mileage race, so let’s clarify how easy (or hard) it is to not run out of fuel. […]

Aerodynamics

turning left, shifting right: why drivers move to the right to get air to the engine

2011-02-22 dr. diandra 5

Jack asks: “I’m curious as to why the rear cars are offsetting to the right, when offsetting to the left would let the rear driver see what is happening ahead of them and keep the radiator in cooler air, since the exhaust on these cars is on the right. I know that all those drivers and crew chiefs are smarter than I am, so I must be missing something.” […]

Cooling

Popping Off: Breaking the Two-Car Draft by Heating up the Engines

2011-02-16 dr. diandra 2

In a NASCAR car, the pop-off valves open and route the escaping steam and/or water through a tube that passes up near the right-hand side of the car’s windshield. When you see a car “pushing water”, the maximum pressure has been exceeded and the pop-off valve opened. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Why Two and Not Three Cars in a Draft?

2011-02-13 dr. diandra 13

Go get three oranges from the kitchen. Try to juggle two of them. Not super easy, but not impossible. Now juggle three. […]

Climate Change

Planting Trees to Offset Emissions

2011-01-12 dr. diandra 0

I have a post over on Cocktail Party Physics explaining why planting trees to offset carbon emissions requires many, many more trees than are currently being planted.  Didn’t want to double post it here, so […]

Engines

NASCAR and E15: The Scientific Facts

2010-10-17 dr. diandra 15

The United States faces two problems when it comes to transportation:  getting fuel and the by-products of burning it. The United States imports over 2/3 of the petroleum we use for transportation, primarily because most […]

Engines

How Mobil1 Goes in a ‘Quaker State’ Engine

2010-10-12 dr. diandra 1

Got a number of questions today about how a team that uses Hendrick engines – Hendrick having Quaker State as a sponsor – can have sponsorship from another oil company. The questions were along the lines of “Will Stewart-Haas have to drain the oil pans when they get them from Hendrick?” Here’s a quick answer, since I’m in the middle of a cross-country move and just about everything I own is in boxes: […]

Rules

Malarkey, indeed.

2010-10-04 dr. diandra 1

The whole RCR appeals process raised more questions than it answered. The RCR appeal is dead: Here’s the issue now. John Middlebrook, NASCAR’s chief appellate officer, will hear RCR’s (final) appeal tomorrow. He has a major advantage in that he can pretty much run the appeal however he wants. If I were in Mr. Middlebrook’s shoes, here’s what I’d do. […]

Inspection

Breaking News: A Scientific Interpretation of the Upholding of the 33-Car Penalities

2010-09-29 dr. diandra 21

Here’s the fast analysis of the statement from NASCAR upholding the penalties on the 33-car from New Hampshire. More will follow after proper digestion and reflection. This is an interpretation of the penalty upholding statement (as reported by Jeff Gluck) because that’s the first tweet I saw. The panel’s statements are in italics and my interpretation in non-italics. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Overpressured Shocks on the 5-Car: How Does that Create an Advantage?

2010-09-27 dr. diandra 5

The 5 car got sent to the back for the start of the race last Sunday at Dover after qualifying third when their shocks didn’t clear post-qualifying inspection. Shocks and springs work together to control the rate at which the body of the car moves. The ideal attitude is the hound dog position: nose down, tail up, as demonstrated in the photo at right by my capable assistant Darwin. That position prevents air from getting underneath the car and it sticks the spoiler up in the air as much as possible, which means that more air hits it and creates more downforce. […]