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A1GP Powered by Ferrari car completes wind tunnel testing |
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
Wind tunnel testing has been a key element in the development of the
A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Powered by Ferrari car for season four.
The car that had its first public running at the Mugello circuit was
the product of many hours spent by the A1GP technical team in wind
tunnels at the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering
Sciences.
John Travis, A1GP Technical Director: “To ensure we continue the A1GP
tradition of strong racing, coupled with lots of overtaking, the effort
of the design team has been to provide a chassis that has a good level
of down force, but without the normal penalties. This will make for
much closer racing particularly in the corners as cars will be able to
run together. We have spent in excess of 300 hours in the wind tunnel
and have tried hundreds of different aerodynamic variations to ensure
the close, exciting racing the series is famous for not only continues
but gets better.”
The University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences has a
variety of wind tunnels which have been used extensively by Formula
One, Indy Racing League and CART racing teams over the years. A 40 per
cent scale model of the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car was tested at the
facility and performed just as expected giving the development team a
good set of aerodynamic data to work with as they continue the on track
testing programme in Europe.
The testing has been continuing in France with Andrea Bertolini in the
car for three days at Paul Ricard near Marseille with 400-kilometres
covered on one day alone. Testing then moved to Magny-Cours, with
Patrick Friesacher at the wheel last week increasing the total distance
covered by the new A1GP car to 5,667 kilometres.
The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2008-09 season will officially get
underway later this year with A1GP Mugello, Italy, 19 – 21 September
2008.
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