Dimpled body work on racing cars?

Just seen an episode of Mythbusters and they proved an 11% increase in fuel economy on a car with dimples similar to a golf ball.
They first proved that dimpled golf balls travel 30% further than smooth golf balls then they covered a car in model clay and tested its fuel efficiency before the clay with smooth clay and then they cut the dimples into the clay but the removed weight back into the car and it was 11% more fuel economical.

Is there any regulation stopping F1 cars or any other motor sport having dimpled body work, especially as next season there is no refuelling?

Here is the episode

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbuster...y-vs-clean-car/

nobody interested in this?

I didn't see the thread... amazing effect, although they look more like craters than dimples, the problem is getting the automobile makers to produce a dimpled finish car that will sell... maybe it is something they are looking into but waiting until the market is ready to accept dimple cars

It would be hard to catch on for everyday cars that depend on looks as well all the other aspects we want in a car, but for racing cars and F1 cars that cannot stop for fuel, an 11% increase in fuel economy on such a raw test could transform to 20-30% fuel saving on a well funded proper testing of its potential.

Its so good to be true I bet Brawn would consider it

The link has about a dozen short vids. Which one are we talking about, or do we need to look at all of them?

all together they make up the whole... the middle section give a gist of the concept

This might be a better link http://www.megavideo.com/?v=PMB935S8

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/22/mythbus...e-dimpling-mpg/

This post has been edited by Steelstallions on Nov 2 2009, 11:23 PM

First, I must say that I really enjoyed the video. I have never watched mythbusters before, and Hunkydorri and I watched this and had a great time. Dorri is an analytical chemist and works in a lab and as such thinks scientifically. Most of you are aware of my technical background. Neither of us has any real problem with their approach, not scientifically rigorous, but fun and probably good enough to be reasonably valid.

The dimpled car got better gas mileage than the smooth car. That surprised me and it surprised the mythbusters. Let's look at the golfball effect.





The smooth one creates a much broader wake that is poorly defined. In CFD, as shown in the vid, a very irregular pattern is the result. This creates forces that stall the air behing the ball and produce a "suction" slowing it down.

The dimpled one creates a more narrow wake that reconverges behind the ball and has less "suction." So the ball moves away.

It worked on the road car because it is a very smooth surface with low drag characteristics. This is much like the spherical golf ball.

F1 cars, however, have a very high drag configuration. The air is not "laminar" like it is in road cars. It is "turbulent." This explains all of the chimneys, winglets, and other assorted aero oddities in F1 cars pre-2009 regulations. I suspect that they were trying to achieve the "dimple" effects on a "non-spherical" high downforce object.

I think it may work on road cars, but I think on F1 cars the effect is not present due to their "non-spherical" and "non-laminar" shape.

To repeat myself, I really enjoyed the vid. Thanks for that Steel, and thanks for prompting us to have a second look.

Excellent

I guess such an effect would suit endurance sports, maybe Audi or Peugeot will run a Dimpled car at Le Mans

Don't you watch Mythbusters? I figured that would be an automatic on the flood watch list.

I saw the episode and had the same though SS. Although I do wonder how much of the car could have dimples. I imaging there might be cooling issue w/ the engine cowling and radiator dusts. Maybe only putting dimples on the cockpit and nose might help w/ fuel, I really don't know.

I don't watch much TV. I am one of "those" people who read a couple hundred pages a day. The rest is music and playing my guitar (badly). I usually like most of what I watch, I just don't watch much.

It's an interesting subject and one which I would never have considered. Perhaps we will see some teams in some area of motorsport try this at some point in the future

The dimples on the test car where huge, but i did wonder what the effect would be if they had them golf ball size, would it make any difference. I really think its a cheap way of finding a solution to a complicated problem.
Body work with dimples the size you find on golf balls would be less noticeable and easier to incorporate on racing cars.

This post has been edited by Steelstallions on Nov 4 2009, 05:35 PM