 |
 |
Thus, the radical looking first version of the 935/78 was built. The car was indeed lower which made it look somewhat wider. All new bodywork was developed to take advantage of this lower profile with the tail extended much farther beyond the rear wheels. Other new features included Singer's 'additional rear aerodynamic aid' - a continuous fairing that ran the length of the car so that it was as wide across the doors as across the bonnet and tail. This 'double-door' allowed an uninterrupted flow of air to the rear part of the body permitting the inclusion of a slippery low-mounted and full- width rear aerofoil. Other mechanical modifications included larger brakes and an "upside down" transmission. The upside down transmission was used to reduce the severe angle of the rear drive axles created by lowering the car as much as they had with the larger diameter 19 inch wheels and tyres.
|
 |
The first version of Moby Dick with full door fairing and low-mounted rear wing |
On first sight, Porsche bosses were concerned at the look of the car. Singer remembers, "There was a little bit of concern for them because they see that we spend a lot of money and then if we come to the races and they say it's illegal. Of course, this is quite a big fear that they had. But I was quite sure this was legal because I was at the meeting and I knew what they mean and I knew what they wrote. So their meaning might have been for making a hole for exhaust pipe for front engined cars like the BMW but what they (the FIA) put on paper was quite a lot of other things which we did." The FIA were also suprised. "This was the amazing thing, he (Paul Frere) came to Weissach with President Schild from the FIA commission to make a pre-examination of the car. And I explained to him what it was, I explained to him what was the letter of the meeting. And at the end he said, yes okay, you are right. But what concerns him much more was the double door, this normal production door with add on piece which makes the door much wider. So we showed him you can take off the outer skin and then you had the original door. And then I got the passport which was signed by Paul Frere with the FIA stamp on it and they left. "Then the FIA working crew came together and they found, this is not legal�so that's why in Silverstone the door was cut in the first half so you could see from the outside the original door. And the front part of the door was the most important aerodynamic part - the rear part was not so important. That's why they raced in Silverstone and Le Mans with the front extension which covers the front part of the door." What had happened was that following the raising of concerns about the door fairing, Singer tested alternative configurations in the wind tunnel at Weissach. It was found that only the horizontal section - the continuous bridge running between front and rear - affected the drag co-efficient. This was, however, no more legal than the full double door. The solution was to cut the original fairing vertically so that only the front part of the door was faired-in over a length of 470mm. More testing showed that this solution was only slightly worse than the complete fairing and, more importantly, was perfectly legal. The new shape was combined with a higher and slightly narrower rear wing with deep side fences. This new feature resulted from the fact that the original full-width wing would not work with the more turbulent air flow from the door modifications. The classic "Moby Dick" shape was born.
|
 |