Upside Down

  • Thread starter Thread starter sar593
  • 28 comments
  • 1,339 views
sar593

sar593

Messages
603
Colombia
Bogotá
Messages
TeamRRC
Theoretically, a car with a lot of downforce, like a F1, McLaren GTR or a Saleen S7, can be driven upside down, but I don't know if that has been done. If anyone has seen pics or videos, please post them. If it's never been done, it would be nice that the Mythbusters try it, maybe with a scale model.
Sorry for my crappy english.
 
I'd really like to see that done, although you'd need a pretty long and interestingly shaped tunnel to do it. I'd be a little surprised if a street car could do it though, I'd think you would probably need something more along the lines of a Formula 1 car.
 
Dont forget Engine, trans and differential lubrication (all dependant of paticular vehicle layout and type) as well as fuel feed and other things would need to be sorted before this was to be attempted.
 
how about those american drag racers? those things would have the down force, and the speed to do it (of coarse i don't know i never did it, and never will)
 
Wasn't some Indy or F1 car driven sideways (in other words, on a wall) once?
 
Who's idea was this, Doug's? Someone wanted to do it on GTP a while ago, can't remember who though.
 
VIPERGTSR01
Dont forget Engine, trans and differential lubrication (all dependant of paticular vehicle layout and type) as well as fuel feed and other things would need to be sorted before this was to be attempted.
Click to expand...

I didn't think about that... you'd have to do quite a bit of modification to get fuel and lubrication to work upside down.
 
hehe, this idea always reminds me of Rollcage. :D (Did anyone ever play that? It was great fun in multiplayer, hitting the supports of a building with a missile and knocking it onto your friend...)

Anyway, er, back on topic, Mercedes and other companies have been making inverted-V aero engines since the 30's. I don't understand the limitations of an inverted-V engine running..inverted. Assuming you cannot run an inverted-V engine the wrong way up for a long amount of time, why not a dual engine design? One conventional-V engine, and one inverted-V. :dopey: :dunce:
 
An engine working upsidedown? Looks like you're going to want a Wankel! (:
 
VIPERGTSR01
Dont forget Engine, trans and differential lubrication (all dependant of paticular vehicle layout and type) as well as fuel feed and other things would need to be sorted before this was to be attempted.
Click to expand...
That's a good point, specially the fuel feed thing, but, if I'm not grong, the cars uses pumps for that.
For the engine I think that a boxter would work, but the best, as LoudMusic said, would be a Wankel.
For the scale model: Maybe a F1 RC car (maybe 1:10) running upside down on a transporting band (not sure about that name) with a lot of wind coming from the front.
 
sar593
That's a good point, specially the fuel feed thing, but, if I'm not grong, the cars uses pumps for that.
Click to expand...


I was more thinking about the fuel pickup from the tank, assuming the car has fuel injection the fuel system should be fine after the pickup.
 
A dry sump oil system would be used for engine lubrication. Rather then using a gas tank, a high pressure bottle could be used.
 
THE ED3
A dry sump oil system would be used for engine lubrication. Rather then using a gas tank, a high pressure bottle could be used.
Click to expand...

Dry sump may fix the supply of oil but what about the oil building up in head, under the pistons themselfs and other places, oil wouldnt return to the crankcase for collecting, it would be a mess.
 
A pump would be fitted to the top of the head to return oil to the tank. The pistons themselves would have to be special made. Probably they would have to be flat bottomed.
 
THE ED3
A pump would be fitted to the top of the head to return oil to the tank. The pistons themselves would have to be special made. Probably they would have to be flat bottomed.
Click to expand...

There would have to be scavenger pickups all over the place (but all depending on engine layout). heavly modified lubrication, custom pistons (that would add weight), very messy system to make it work but I guess it only has to serve its purpose for a short time.

What I was originally getting at is alot of people forget a F1 car or similar that may drive upside down in theory will have alot of problems if it were to be done in practice. If the test was done very briefly you may get away without much damage if you wernt to modify the car.
 
LoudMusic
An engine working upsidedown? Looks like you're going to want a Wankel! (:
Click to expand...

AMEN. Take one of the new Mazda Formula cars (the ones with the RX-8 engine) and add an extra upside down pickup in the fuel cell, and you're all set.
 
The engine would die. Electric motors would be the best for this application. Piston motors were not meant to go upside down.
 
It'd be interesting to see if you could get an electric car to do it... getting a good power to weight ratio with a bunch of batteries might be tricky.
 
Getting the RC car to go very fast isn't the problem. You could have a freshly cut 4-turn motor running a pan-car (super lightweight). Getting it to keep straight at 60+ mph is the hard part.
 
Haven´t you guys seen the documentary on BMW 6 series? They test the engines so they work in awkward situations, upside down too. Don´t know how it works, I´ve just seen it done.
 
Enema
Just take a radial engine out of a plane. ;)
Click to expand...

Or a boxer engine out of a Porsche, Subaru, early SAAB or a Ferrari.
 
Raghavan
The engine would die. Electric motors would be the best for this application. Piston motors were not meant to go upside down.
Click to expand...

The Formula Mazdas are Rotary, not Piston.

A radial engine would be cool, but would present too many packaging problems.

A dry-sumped boxer might work, but you'd still have the sump on the wrong side... in this case, the bottom of the engine would starve for oil.

Gas turbine, anyone?
 
An electric motor probably would be the way to go, it'd be a big one to get the power needed, but you can get a lot of power from electric motors, theres a weird car called the Kio or something that has electric motors and produces 500bhp, so it is possible.
 
Use a two stroke engine, no sump and total loss lubrication, and no cylinder heads to pool oil anyway. Carbs work in any direction, all you need is air passing through, provided by piston suction.


Kurtis.
 
I didn't knew that about the 6 series engine. The radial engine idea is nice, but are just a bit big, what about a little turbine :indiff: ?
 
I'd say, that THIS would be the best engine for the test. (ehem, still in testing)
 
Hmm, I was under the impression that the V6 in my parents' old Pontiac Grand Prix was mounted sideways*...not to mention that in the accident that flipped and totalled it, the engine was still running fine upside-down... :odd:

(* in other words, if the front of the car were on the left, the "V" of the engine would look like this: > )
 
Back