Toby Silverton interview in Octane

[lansdownplace]

Well said Philippa. For those who didn't get to the lecture, the Heritage trust can supply a DVD for a modest fee. All arguments will be blown out of water.

As an aside I spent a couple of hours with Toby looking at a Fighter whilst he explained, amongst other aerodynamic issues, exactly how the airflow management through the engine bay facilitated cooling but then fed back out through the side vents, was drag neutral and reattached the turbulent airflow generated by the front wheels to the sides of the car in a laminar flow for greater high speed stability and lower drag. Where did that idea come from? The Mustang P51. In fact laminar airflow application was a big first for that plane and was the reason it was such a success. I am pretty sure Toby didn't build or design the P51, but that doesn't prevent him from knowing or applying the techniques used.

There are a number of other examples that you can point to. On the Blenheim there is a splitter bar in the radiator intake, whilst it looks like a styling piece but it is there as an aerodynamic foil to progressively disrupt airfow as speed increases (no effect below 60/70mph) to reduce the amount of air being drawn into the engine bay with all the issues that can create. Bristol achieve this with a simple static part, and that is what true engineering is all about.

Paul