Open Wheel vs Closed Wheel

Hey guys this is a newbish question, but it's one I've kind of danced around for a long time without knowing the meaning, and was too embarrassed to ask. I've never really had to know the meaning. I kind of have a vague grasp, but I want to know for sure before I end up in a situation where I'm humiliated for not knowing the difference:

What's the difference between open wheel and closed wheel racing?

Simple
Open wheel has no fenders
"Closed wheel" has fenders

Examples for open wheel
Formula 1
IRL

Examples for "closed wheel"
NASCAR
ALMS

There are many others of each. When two open wheel cars touch tire to tire contact usually one car ends up in the air.

Ok awesome - that's kind of what I was thinking. That makes complete sense. Thanks.

:cheers:

I know some one who goes to Kettering

LoL hell yeh - who's that?

His name is Greg but I can't remember the last name right now.

Does he go A or B section?
Do you know what year?
Is he in a fraternity?

Does he go A or B section?
Do you know what year?
Is he in a fraternity?
Don't know
Don't know
Yes, not sure which

I do know he drives a Subaru SVX. Him & his family are good customers of ours.

That's cool - hmm.... i'll have to keep my eyes peeled. I know a guy with an imprezza, but not a SVX.

hrrrrmmm you wouldnt happen to know what GPA you need to transfer in?


Also do they compete in FSAE?

I don't remember the GPA. It's probably somewhere on the site. I think it was an average of 2.9 throughout all of highschool, not sure. ACT is a lot bigger. Not sure what that is. But if you get a shitty GPA and a high ACT, you'll get in. (I got avg 3.1 GPA for highschool, but got a 29 on ACT, so I got in no problem).

And hell yeh we compete in Forumla SAE. We have the largest SAE chapter in tha nation. I'm on the formula team. It's a great program - kicks ass. You can work on stuff as much as you want to get involved - there's always awesome projects that need to be tackled. We meet every wednesday night, and the more hardcore / dedicated guys work on it on the weekends sometimes. We've got a mini-baja team, formula team, clean-snowmobile team, and clean truck team - all comprises our SAE chapter. We've got a brand new hugeass garage too for SAE, with areas / cells for each section, with shitloads of machinery/tools. It's awesome.

That's just our SAE chapter. There is seriously a ton of awesome stuff about our school. I won't even go into it; but just let me know and I could write you a 50 page book on why it's the best school / the best choice I've made in my life. Seriously, if you're ever up here and you want a tour or anything, just let me know. I'd be more then happy. Kettering is the finest, most practical/down-to-earth engineering institute on the face of the planet :cheers:

one thing about open and close wheel racing is that closed wheel cars have better aerodynamic qualities. the reason for this is that the tires create some wind resistance because they come into contact with the air and are moving the opposite direction of airflow so is creates turbulance and all that nasty stuff.
if you're working on a formula sae team, look up queens university and do the opposite of what they did. it was kinda funny, they used a 400cc engine when the max is 600, they turbocharged it and that was fine, but at the end of the day they only had 55hp. if you are at all in charge of aerodynamics or you have any kind of involvement with them, you should make some kind of spoiler to push air away from the tires, you'll get better performance and better fuel economy, which is part of the competition. another thing, turbocharging is key, it will give you more power than raising the compression. also you can run boost on an engine with 12.5:1 compression because you're running on 100 octane and you have a restrictor plate in there so you need more boost to get the same cylender pressure as with a non restricted intake. hope this helps, let me know how your school does.