Swiss cheese motors and F1 bodies

The holes drilled in the F1 bodies would have to be away from any of the flow streams over the car body as it would seriously upset the aerodynamics of the car. Good idea though.

You may be right, but remember these holes are only 6 microns in diameter. NASA had an exhibit at the Experimental Aircraft show where the leading edge of a jet aircraft had millions of tiny holes drilled in it, and it flew fine. It may even improve drag co-efficient. But assuming you're right, certainly there are many non-structural, non-aerodynamic parts on the car that could be Swiss-cheesed to reduce weight. If nothing else, it probably wouldn't hurt that much to drill a few 6 micron holes in the drivers, would it? :-) Seriously, though, the buckets of money that are spent by F1 engineers to reduce weight is staggering. The real question is this: Does anybody know any possible way to make money with this idea?

Swiss Cheese Catalina

Lightweight Spongy Bone

Retard-O-Bot - Swiss Cheese :-(

How much are you willing to spend on a slot car?

But it is a great concept, technically circles when cut properly do not upset the structural integrity (the metal would have to be retemperd). What would the eddy currents do to the magnetic flux with a swiss cheese magnet?

Take this to your F1 engineers and asked them the same questions. I'll bet you can get a least three days of entertaining argument, and maybe one good old fashion brawl. You could also tie up one clinical psychologist just to analyzes the rat race.

Any weight you save on an F1 car will have to be made up for by additional weights. Formula 1 rules say that your car has to weigh a certain weight. If it's lighter than that, you need to add weight (ballast, is it called?).

I don't know if there are any similar rules for slot cars though. Not a very popular sport in the Philippines though the few enthusiasts here are real fanatics.

regards,

Vulcan

But the new weight can be lead or Tungsten placed underneath the car, dropping the center of gravity and improving handling.

I would imagine the possibility of reducing weight in F1 cars by drilling out unnecessary areas has been thoroughly investigated.

They say the ideal F1 car is one which fails just after it crosses the finish line. If it survives the lap of honor it was too heavy!

the new weight can be lead or Tungsten placed underneath the car, dropping the center of gravity and improving handling

Are you speaking of something that you know about? The type of ballast and where it is placed is strictly regulated and is designed so that it does not give undue advantage or disadvantage to the car or driver. If it were otherwise, the different teams would protest.

They say the ideal F1 car is one which fails just after it crosses the finish line

That is a function of the weight of the fuel. Since the cars (with drivers) weigh almost the same, the only weight-inducing difference is the amount of fuel it has in its tanks. The less fuel you have, the faster you can go.

Of course, this tactic can backfire. Ferrari lost a possible fourth place in the recent Spanish Grand Prix because they unintentionally fueled Felipe Massa's car with so little fuel that they were afraid that he'd run out of gas before reaching the finish line. They told him to run slower to conserve fuel. What happened was a sixth place finish instead of fourth place. As it happened, Felipe ran out of fuel soon after crossing the finish line.

regards,

Vulcan

There is a good market for custom slot car chassis (blue printing) and several websites... I create custom bodies (1/64 scale) and sell most on eBay. I also have a portable slot car track business and do car shows, fairs, etc. I also sell bodies and custom track layouts.[p/]

What scale cars are you working on?

Catz -

1/24 scale now, but my brother's been in slot cars for over 30 years, so he's done a little bit of everything. As I said in an earlier post, my brother is disabled and can't walk, and he is trying very hard to find something he can do to make money to support himself. He would be perfect for the type of things you're doing, because he has always done everything himself including blueprinting motors and chasses. He worked for over 20 years before his accident designing and repairing plastic injection molds, which require very exacting specifications and a certain type of skills. We sold 119 open class motors on ebay that my brother blueprinted himself, and never had a single negative feedback. He received many compliments on his workmanship and quality. If you know of anything that we could do to make some money for both of us, please let us know. Travel is no problem. Thanks for the input!

Why resort to exotic laser drilling for body parts. Use hollow glass spheres in the carbon fiber/epoxy matrix like glider manufacturers have been doing for decades. They even use real thin skins in a sandwich configuration, with skins separated by hollow glass sphere rich foam filling. Tremendously improved strength to weight and rigidity to weight characteristics. One pound of hollow glass spheres can replace 100 pounds of epoxy while actually increasing compression strength with no reduction in tensile strength.

Keith -

Very interesting comments. I've used glass spheres, but to be honest I really didn't know what I was doing. I just mixed them in with T-88 epoxy and used them on my model airplanes. It's surprising how much you can mix in and still end up with a very strong adhesive, and how much weight can be saved. But, I had no idea of just how incredible this stuff is. Do you know whether F1 is using glass balls in their bodies? As far as my crazy idea of drilling micro-holes in slot car motors or F1 cars, I still think it's a way to reduce weight that has never been tried, and the money they spend in F1 to reduce weight is staggering. By the way, you seem to be very knowledgable in aviation - would you mind if I emailed some photos of my airplane design? It's a very good, original design and I would very much like to get your overall impression of the design, and any advice about aerodynamic stability and structural analysis. I would like to post it on this forum, but I'm reluctant because someone might just steal my design and make millions of dollars off of it. Seriously, though, it's a good design, and I'm pretty close to building a full sized airplane and risking my life flying it to fulfill my dream. I'm selling my BMW 750IL (12 cylinders, 186mph top speed) to get money to build this thing, so any help would be greatly appreciated...

I have raced slot cars for several years in my youth, the cheapest way to get them to handle better at high speed is to replace the plastic body with one made out of molded alumium foil.The plastic body can be used as a mold or any toy car that has the same wheelbase. When painted they are hard to tell that they are foil, and they crumple up just like a real car when they crash. A strong incentive to keep them on the track. Demolition derbys are lots of fun with this type of car!

Cool idea! I have been vacuum forming bodies to keep the weight down. What thickness of alumium foil are you using?

I used Reynalds heavy duty foil with a coat of nail polish to add rigidity to the body. Forming bodies of certain car shapes such as VW beetles is alot harder than some of the boxy cars like Fairmonts and minivans due to the foil tearing. My favorite was a 1966 Ford stock car, the profile lines on the sides of the body added extra stiffness to the body. This one could survive several wrecks before the body crumpled up and hit the wheels or the track contact rails. The key is to experiment with alot of toy car bodies to find the best design. Majorette makes the best.

Aluminum foil and nail Polish?!?

GM is going to be all over that concept when the get back on their feet!

Well knowing their engineers they will go with Reynolds wrap plastic and cheap nail polish though.