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Old 25 Jun 2008, 21:44 (Ref:2237607)   #23
sssssssss
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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sssssssss should be qualifying in the top 10 on the gridsssssssss should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Quote:
Originally Posted by MulsanneMike
The cockpit is actually a source of lift. The benefits of a closed top car are somewhat esoteric. Best guess is that closed top cars have less drag than an open top car. As for downforce, might be a bit of a wash as the cockpit potentially blocks flow to the rear wing. I'm told closed top LMPs have a slightly better L/D in low downforce configurations. I would guess in high downforce configs they are about equal.
Hi Mike!
That sounds just right... The current Spa track requires a rather high downforce setup, and that is where Audi was at the top along with Peugeot in qualifying (both Audi and Peugeot in the 1:58s), while at the very high speed-oriented Le Mans track Peugeot were 5 seconds faster than Audi in 2008.
And also looking back at the (approximately recent) history of Le Mans, it's quite obvious that neither closed or open tops necessarily had overall lap advantage because they were open or closed, but the coupes did reach higher top speeds (for example, Bentley in 2001 and 2002 as opposed to Audi or Toyota, Mercedes and Audi coupe vs. BMW and Audi R8R in '99) and the open tops had more corner speed. I guess the best example is that of the 1999 Audis, when the R8R went 8 seconds faster than the R8C over a qualifying lap, but, attention, while doing 335 km/h on the Mulsanne as opposed to 349 km/h () by the coupe!

Last edited by sssssssss; 25 Jun 2008 at 21:48.
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