Re: The Draft Effect

["Tom Harais" <tjhemh@domain.elided>]

John:

>  Does John L. owe me great amounts of fuel
>  money for having disrupted the patterns of vortices at the rear of my
>  trailer?


If you've ever watched NASCAR Grand Nationals, then you know the answer to
this is a resounding "yes"!
The driver of the "drafting" car will nose right up to the tail end of the
"draft" vehicle and so disrupt the vortices flowing nicely off his rear
wing, that the lead car will literally loose downforce on the rear end and
go "squirrely" on the turns.

And, if that's not enough to completely debase the lead car's driver, the
draftee will just nose up a little further and "bump" the rear of the lead
car (at 190+ MPH) to "let him know I'm there". I am usually breaking out in
a cold sweat at that point and always wonder how those drivers stay so damn
calm. A lot can happen in a few hundreths of second at that speed.

Tom H.