nascar overheated drivers compartments..

[wayne petty]

yea.. not really a rodding subject.. but over the last few years i noticed that the in car temps were getting higher and higher...

then i see a bell helmet... with scoops on the front and vents on the back

would not on hot days... be a good idea to stick a few layers cut into a small section of 200 mile an hour tape under the center of one of the roof flaps to allow a siphon effect of the hot air from inside the drivers compartment  without ruining the aerodynamic effects of the car...


perhaps... even getting stant or one of the thermostat companies to create some lower temp thermostat devices... that push a vent open when the interior temps raise above 115 or 120F.... this could be used on other applications also...  

this is just an idea.. but since there most of the nascar racing takes place elsewhere.. i never make it to the circle track events..

i figure that at least some of you know a racer...  where the idea could be passed along...

even though i share a last name with the king.. its probably just a name.. i found that my branch of petty's arrived around 1640 to what was to become richmond county va.

[unklian]

There were running Naca ducts on the quarter windows, to suck
air out of the interior. Don't know if they still do this.

One problem, is they are required to run a window
on the right side now for faster tracks.

[jaybee]

One of the problems is that they've worked really hard to keep air from coming in through the windows...or window on tracks where they run a right side window.  That's to help the aerodynamics, obviously.

I think it was Ricky Rudd's last win where they interviewed him laying on the ground with ice bags and wet cloths all over him.  He was so overheated he actually had to be helped out of the car.

[kb426]

Around 20 years ago they were using a freon coil that was wrapped around the torso. I suppose the freon police stopped that.

[wayne petty]

well then...  perhaps i am not far off...

at 150+ MPH.. it would NOT take a huge amount of opening to exchange the air in the car interior every minute or so.... this should keep the in car temps down...

perhaps the thermostat manufacturers could create a low temp wax in a conventional bulb...   but instead of opening the thermostat.. it lifts a trap door to cool the car interior when it gets hot..

perhaps a bimetallic spring..  but pushing even a tiny flap up a few thousands of an inch at that speed would take some strength..

perhaps a calibrated opening..  so each car has it..

there is also the option of the double firewall... double floor pan...  with air flow between layers..

the heat is probably coming off the exhaust headers and exhaust pipes and the infrared transferring to the firewall and floor pans..



it might be interesting to  stick a thermal camera in the car and take it for a few hot laps..  see where the in car heat is actually coming from...

my cousin got his boss to buy one.. it was not cheep... but he fixes truck mounted and mobile professional carpet cleaning machines..   he can see the various temp control valves cycle with it.. saving hours of diagnostic time..

i think fox had big thermal cameras as i recall a few shots where they showed the thermal image of the car...  but this was from outside the car from a camera position in the stands...

even production cars have heat shields over/above the exhaust to prevent infrared heating of the interior of the car...

i seem to recall heat shields on firewalls of some cars to prevent infrared from the exhaust manifolds radiating to the interior of the car...

how tough could it be ....

[jaybee]

Wayne, you're right on target with the comment about headers.  Exhaust pipes as well.  On last weekend's telecast they said the floors run about 220 even with thin sheets of insulation on the back side.  The drivers have to run an insulated heel pad to keep from burning their feet.  Then of course there are those big, oval exhaust pipes that run right against the floor.

[truck]

the only problem i see is that in heavy traffic the ambient air temp woul dbe pretty high as well, therefore making it pretty pointless to have it enter the car. Saying that i got no real idea about those nascar things, our V8 supercars can turn both ways, and need to slow for sharp corners.