It must be said that the Supercars Championship for 2023 is the worst in living memory for many people. Beyond Brodie Kostecki, Will Brown, Shane van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney, who have collectively won 18 of 22 races, the drivers who have picked up one each have been Cameron Waters, Jack Le Brocq, Mark Winterbottom, and Anton de Pasquale.
The bottom line is that the Chevy Camaro which is a 5.7L V8, despite attempts to equalise it to a the Ford Mustang which only has a 5.4L V8, is killing it everywhere in every department and this has translated to a 20-2 margin. This is even more of a thumping than the 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship when the Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R won 7-2 against the BMW M3 E30, but not as bad as the 1988 season when the Ford Sierra RS500 swept all 9 rounds.
Likewise, this year's Formula One season has thus far seen absolute dominance by Red Bull's RB19. I do not know how much of this clean sweep thus far has been caused by Honda finally outwitting Mercedes-Benz in terms of powertrain development, but what I do know is that this dominance is so far, exact.
On the other hand, if you get a series like NASCAR where all of the cars are so very very locked down in terms of what the teams can do within the rule book, then what you get is a series where advantage is practically non-existent and it comes down to how teams set up their car for that weekend. The downside to a NASCAR Cuppity-Cup Series Car is that they are wide and hefty chonks, which are just not that great at turning into corners.
I have a theory which I have no way for proving; which is the best kind of theory because I can slam it down on the table and say "That's a theory" and everyone else has to say "Well Done!". My theory, this theory, which belongs to me, is as follows...
The ideal ratio of Wheelbase to Width, is the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio is (1+√5)/2, which is about 1.618033.
There are reasons why this number is amazing but I shall not go into them here.
The reason why I suspect that the Golden Ratio is in fact the best Wheelbase to Width ratio, has to do with the fact that a motor car when turning, swings upon a nominal point of yaw. The three axes of pitch, roll and yaw all come into play when driving a car but only yaw is important when it comes to turning a vehicle through a corner. Pitch and roll will affect the ability of the wheels to attach themselves to the road surface but how well a car turns through a corner, is the subject of loads and loads of dark arts which apart from camber, castor, toe, rubber compound, et cetera, is mostly determined by that overriding aspect of a car's basic geometry.
I arrived at my theory by observation because very obviously, I have no way of performing the experiment and I will readily admit, I do not understand how to design the experiment to determine how you get better motor racing. For the purposes of this, everything will be in imperial measurements because inches are smaller numbers and aesthetically more pleasing.
Wheelbase / Width = WWR
The so-called Generation-2 Supercar, which was based upon the AU/BA/BF/FG/FGX Falcon platform as the standard had the following stats.
Generation-2 Supercar:
111.7' / 73.5' = 1.519
Compare this with the current Generation-3 Supercar:
108.8' / 77.0' = 1.412
Gen-3 Supercar is slightly shorter and slightly wider than Gen-2 Supercar was and when coupled with the engine disparity, I think has contributed to worse racing.
Meanwhile a NASCAR Cup Car which has had the base dimensions baked in ever since the 1981 season has the following dimensions.
NASCAR Cup Car:
110.0' / 78.6' = 1.399
What this means is that the NASCAR Cup Car while being slightly shorter than a Supercar, is way way wider. It is also heavier; which is necessitated by needing a very very strong rollcage in case it all goes horribly wrong on a superspeedway at 200mph. A NASCAR Cup Car is a hefty chonky boi, which doesn't turn particularly well; which is expressed in the fact that they aren't exactly the fastest thing around road courses and street circuits.
For reference, a 5.8L V8 NASCAR Cup Car at Bathurst in 1998, went around in 2m15.56s as opposed to a 5.0L V8 Supercars' time of 2m09.89s. A 2L Volvo went around 2m14.92s.
So what about in the other direction? This year's Red Bull RB19 has thus far smashed all and sundry to the weeds and while Formula One regulations do not actually specify wheelbase or width, the cars are limited to fitting within a bounding box in the regulations and that bounding box is massive.
2023 Red Bull RB19:
148.0' / 78.0' = 1.897
This is a long long thing.
If you compare this with the 2013 season, the first half of the 2013 season saw five different winners from four different teams until Red Bull arrived with mid-season updates and then smashed all and sundry.
2013 Red Bull RB9:
122.0' / 71.0' = 1.718
My suspicion is that the 2013 Red Bull turned into corners and back out them better that the 2023 Red Bull can. If we then compare this with the standard dimensions for a Formula Ford which existed from 1967-2012 we find this:
Formula Ford:
96.0' / 60.0' = 1.600
I have driven a Formula Ford (Van Diemen RF03) and in my opinion, it is the funnest car that I have ever driven. Everything about that car, even on turn in while going through Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch felt like the car was practically perfect in every way. I have driven and owned far more powerful cars than a Formula Ford but nothing as fun. My Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 which had enough power to quietly get to 130mph without trying, or my XB Falcon Coupe which created enough bluster and shock and awe to wake the dead, were nowhere near as fun.
Actually when it comes to fun, both my Ford Ka Mk1 and my current Mazda 2 DJ were more fun than the Mercedes S-Klasse or the Falcon. Their Wheelbase to Width ratios are:
Ford Ka Mk1:
96.5' / 64.2' = 1.503
Mazda 2 DJ:
101.2' / 66.7' = 1.517
The Mazda while being practically identical to the Falcon in terms of Wheelbase to Width ratios, is more fun because it comes in smaller packaging. This brings me round to two other stars of Touring Car racing, the Ford Sierra RS500 and the Nissan GTR R32. They have Wheelbase to Width ratios as follows:
Ford Sierra RS500:
102.0' / 68.0' = 1.500
Nissan GTR R32:
103.0' / 66.0' = 1.560
As the Nissan GTR R32 was a scratch built car for the express purpose of winning Touring Car races, that likely squared up at the Ford Sierra RS500, I suspect that the Nissan engineers more than likely already knew that my theory could be true and planned their base geometry accordingly.
Which is why I do not understand why given that the Generation-3 Supercar as a bespoke bit of kit; which actually only have a silhouette resemblance to the Chevrolet Camaro-6 and the Ford Mustang S650, willingly chose from the outset to produce a shorter and wider pair of chonky bois which don't turn in as well. Why didn't they just bake in the previous dimensions, since they would have had Generation-3 compatible with Generation-2 (and 1) or pick something approaching the Golden Ratio:
Golden Ratio Car:
110.0' / 67.98' = 1.618
No comments:
Post a Comment