Thread: Bristol Crash.............

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Drag car wreck at Bristol takes out fortunately unattended camera | From the Marbles - Yahoo! Sports

Dang that's scary... then you see her picture below! WOW, what a cutie!

Yup, she whacked the wall a good one. She had a strong run going and got over into the marbles on the right, you can see her right front tire dip as the car start to come around. From then on she was just an interested spectator, luckily she is ok.
I likely would have been there with Proctor but he broke an axle last week and crashed at Dinwiddy.

Yeah I just noticed the car in the other lane getting out of shape too.

A crash like this one got me thinking if drag racers shouldn't adapt the same roof flaps as NASCAR has to prevent Pro Stock type cars from flying like that.Any thoughts guys??.

they don't work sideways.

I saw that in the race footage! :-o

These sorts of things always remind me of a time in the sixties. Our local newspaper never carried any coverage of the NHRA U.S. Nationals, only 90 miles away!!! }:-(

That changed one year, when they printed a picture taken a split-second before a "tossed" supercharger hit a cameraman, killing him. I was sooooo mad that they would not cover the race at all unles it was "ugly"!

Today's media is even worse, when they report news in a way to twist the story to favor their political alignment. {:-(

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

I saw that in the race footage! :-o

These sorts of things always remind me of a time in the sixties. Our local newspaper never carried any coverage of the NHRA U.S. Nationals, only 90 miles away!!! }:-(

That changed one year, when they printed a picture taken a split-second before a "tossed" supercharger hit a cameraman, killing him. I was sooooo mad that they would not cover the race at all unles it was "ugly"!

Today's media is even worse, when they report news in a way to twist the story to favor their political alignment. {:-(

Man-I don't know that news coverage of a crash has much to do with politics over sensationalizing the crash it's self that at times is all apart of racing.My logic in posting this thread was to see what you guys had to say and a curiosity if roof flaps would have prevented it and was show it wouldn't.Heck the news all the time show NASCAR crashes which is apart of that kind of racing all the time.Politics??.Naaaa.

In NASCAR, they don't use side windows, and this is how the roof flaps "get their trigger" to operate. As the car begins to turn sideways it fills with air and causes the flaps to rise. The flap gets caught in the air racing over the body and breaks up the lift action of the air.

In NHRA, everyone uses side windows....

Actually in Nascar, they use side windows (on the right side only) on any track over a mile long (or maybe it is 1 1/2 mile tracks).

The problem with drag race cars (at least the ones with wings) is that once the car turns the air gets under the wings and lifts the car off the ground. That is why Nascar went back to the spoilers after trying the wings for a couple of years.

Roof flaps might actually work in drag racing. I don't really know if they will or not but no one will no unless they test it.

A big difference between the nascar stuff and drag stuff is the variences in body styles - nascar has a template that the bodies conform to and all cars have the same track attitude. Engineers can develop a safety device that will predictable work for that template at that attitude. Drag race is entirely different, all the cars are unique and that is the nature and character of drag raceing. The other problem is the time, nascar cars have huge tracks and when something happens they have enough time for wings etc to popup and take effect. Drag cars go from happy to hospital to a millisecond.

Maybe for drag cars wings that as long as the down force was facing forward,but as soon as the air gets under the wing it folds flat to the back of the car might help.

I modified a NASCAR roof flap for the Studebaker we ran at Bonneville. It is spring loaded and opens when you pull the chute. Although the car has partially spun at 250 mph or so, and the roof flap opened, I can not say for sure that it helped. hooley-Main Index An explanation of how I did it is with the construction photos hooley-2006 Changes - page 1

Competition Coupes are the most dangerous class of car that run for land speed records. In an instant they become airborne at very high speeds and they break apart.

John

That's some cool stuff, like the development of the design and the thinking behind the process.