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RE: Radiator or Tank

To: "'Keith Turk'" <kturk@ala.net>, <land-speed@autox.team.net>,
Subject: RE: Radiator or Tank
From: "Arne Hulstein" <Arne.Hulstein@digitaldreamers.info>
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 17:36:20 -0700
Hi Keith,

Thanks for the welcome.

I guess there really is a big difference in what I am used to in
autosport and land speed racing. I guess I would have suspected you
could use the air to water radiator in your aero package. As is the case
with most supersports cars and fomula cars. Builders like McLaren,
Ferrari, but I expect Penske and the Indy guys are quite similar, spend
lots of time trying to get as little drag as possible and sometimes even
get some extra downforce from it.

Putting it in a tank would solve your airflow problem, but do you
consider the shape of the tank? I guess if you would put it in a full
bodied car that wouldn't be a problem, but when you mount it outside (as
I have seen moon tanks mounted to the front of Ford '32's) but that
would only give the car more drag. Right? (To be honest, besides the
story on the Camaro I don't know what you race.)

I suppose it is a good system if you can stuff it somewhere where
airflow isn't a problem. In fact, it does make sense then. Something you
could consider would even be to take a smaller tank (less weight and
space) and devise a system with an electrical pump that you can attach
to it when the run finishes to circulate your 'external' cooling fluid.
Designing it wouldn't be all that hard either, but is dependant on the
car. You could pump cooler water up into the tank and hotter water out
to help the cooling down and leave the engine pump running as well to
cool the water in the engine. Would be especially useful if needing to
make a return run inside a particular timeframe as your engine would be
nice and cool when starting without having the longer wait that water in
a tank needs to cool down. And the weight and space of course...

Mayf; I wouldn't want to run my car up to boiling. My Alfa Romeo has a
aluminium block, but if I were to cook that... Around 85 celcius is the
optimum temperature and that gives it the best performance potential as
well, so I would recon that cooling sufficient to keep your engine in
that temperature zone would be beneficial to your performance as well...

Arne

P.S. Keith, it isn't available, but Niagara Falls would probably be
cooling your engine a bit too much... It sure is beautiful though, talk
about force... Been there twice now, both times in absolute awe.





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