Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T10:54:03.413Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The 33rd Lanchester Lecture. Automobile aerodynamics — the effects of airflow on road, racing and record breaking cars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

J. L. Stollery*
Affiliation:
College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University

Extract

Lanchester was undoubtedly a great British engineer. He died just 47 years ago, at which time the name Lanchester could be seen on the front of some motor cars, but many knew little about the great contributions that Frederick William Lanchester had made to both mechanical and aeronautical engineering.

Whether Lanchester was interested in automobile aerodynamics or not, the subject combines two of his great loves. He designed and built petrol-engined cars, and his 1898 machine won the RAC’s Gold Medal (Fig. 1). As might have been expected, the drag coefficient of this vehicle is not recorded.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1993 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Ackroyd, J.A.D. The 31st Lanchester Lecture. Lanchester — The Man, Aeronaut J, April 1992, 96, (954), pp 119140.Google Scholar
2. Norris, K.W. Bluebird CN7 Design, Norris Brothers Report No. 61/18D/R.6. October 1961.Google Scholar
3. Stollery, J.L. and Burns, W.K. Forces on bodies in the presence of the ground, Paper 1 Proceedings of the First Symposium on Road Vehicle Aerodynamics, City University, London, November 1969.Google Scholar
4. Carr, G.W. The Aerodynamics of Basic Shapes for Road Vehicles, Part 1, Simple Rectangular Shapes, MIRA report No. 1968/2.Google Scholar
5. George, A.R. Aerodynamics of simple bluff bodies including effects of body shape, ground proximity and pitch. Joint ASME/CSME Conference Aerodynamics of Transportation, p 83. ASME, New York, June 1979.Google Scholar
6. Roshko, A. and Koenig, K. Interaction effects on the drag of bluff bodies in tandem. Symposium Aerodynamic Drag Mechanisms of Bluff Bodies and Road Vehicles, Plenum Press, 1978.Google Scholar
7. Hucho, W-H. Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles. Butterworths 1987.Google Scholar
8. Fackrell, J.E. and Harvey, J.K. The Aerodynamics of an Isolated Road Wheel, Second AIAA Symposium on Aerodynamics of Sports and Competition Automobiles, AIAA, USA, May 1974.Google Scholar
9. Howard, G. Automobile Aerodynamics, Osprey Publishing, 1986 plus information from various copies of Autocar and Motor magazine, 1986-1993.Google Scholar
10. Emmelmann, H-J., Berneburg, H. and Schultze, J. The aerodynamic development of the Opel Calibra, SAE Paper 900317,1990.Google Scholar
11. Ackroyd, J. Just for the record, Thrust 2. CHW Roles and Associates, 1984.Google Scholar
12. Ackroyd, J. Thrust 2 — design of the world land speed record car. The James Clayton lecture, Proc Inst Mech Eng, 1985, 199 (D.4).Google Scholar
13. Morelli, A. Low drag bodies moving in proximity of the ground, p 241, Joint ASME/CSME Conference Aerodynamics of Transportation. ASME. New York, June 1979.Google Scholar