{"id":494559,"date":"2015-07-01T00:17:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T07:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=11617"},"modified":"2024-01-10T08:58:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T08:58:54","slug":"wrong-place-for-flying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wrong-place-for-flying\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrong Place for Flying"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Racing cars and airplanes have shared an inter-connection dating all the way back to the dawn of the 20th Century. The development of more efficient and lighter weight internal combustion engines benefitted aircraft development, while rapid advances in aeronautical engineering and aerodynamics have played profound roles in auto racing. Even the \u201cpilots\u201d of these machines have cross-pollinated with names like Rickenbacker, Flockhart, Constantini and Lauda having made contributions both on land and in the air. However, while aircraft do spend some amount of time at high speed on the ground, for the most part, racing cars are not supposed to venture into the airplane\u2019s milieu. The one possible exception to this rule in the racing world is a very special place at the N\u00fcrburgring, known as the Flugplatz, or \u201cflying place.\u201d As the name implies, racecars are expected to take flight here and for decades this spot has provided some of the most dramatic photos\u2014and dramatic crashes\u2014in all of racing. In 1968 Chris Irwin\u2019s racing career was essentially ended when his Ford 3L GT took flight there and the car blew over backward in a spectacular crash. Manfred Winkelhock experienced a similar flip, or \u201cblow over\u201d in 1980, when his March F2 took flight and the aerodynamics went horribly wrong. While the Flugplatz has seen its share of airborne crashes over the year, none of these have really come as a surprise because, as the name implies, it is the place for flying. Much more shocking has been the unexpected at the \u201cwrong\u201d places for flying.<\/p>\n

I write this column at the beginning of Memorial Day weekend in the United States, which, of course, is synonymous with the Indianapolis 500. This is most certainly the wrong place for flying, as evidenced by an unprecedented string of cars taking flight this year. Our resident Indy authority, John Zimmermann, suggests the root of these Indiana airspace incursions may lie in the new \u201caero\u201d packages designed by many of the manufacturers for this year\u2019s Indycar season. In particular, Zimmermann posits that \u201cthe \u2018box kite\u2019 on the tail and the big, flat \u2018sail area\u2019 underneath make the current cars particularly vulnerable to flying.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n