Maintaining speed on a banked oval / track
Discussion
Hopefully there will be someone here who can point in the right direction on this little query!
So if you had a banked track like the proving ground at Millbrook say, I know there is a speed for each lane where essentially you shouldn't need to do anything. The centripetal force will balance the force trying to pull the car down the slope and you should be able to drive around without steering input.
Go faster, and you need to start steering to prevent climbing. Go slower and you need to start steering to prevent falling.
Lets assume you are assigned a lane and you can't move from it and you're driving some kind of "route" that has variable speed. So when you go above the neutral speed or below it, you need to start steering to maintain the lane position.
The question is do you actually also need additional power from the vehicle to achieve all this vs if you drove the same route on a flat road straight road?
I want to think that because you're turning the wheels, some element of the power is not helping you move forwards, so you need more. Is that right?
So if you had a banked track like the proving ground at Millbrook say, I know there is a speed for each lane where essentially you shouldn't need to do anything. The centripetal force will balance the force trying to pull the car down the slope and you should be able to drive around without steering input.
Go faster, and you need to start steering to prevent climbing. Go slower and you need to start steering to prevent falling.
Lets assume you are assigned a lane and you can't move from it and you're driving some kind of "route" that has variable speed. So when you go above the neutral speed or below it, you need to start steering to maintain the lane position.
The question is do you actually also need additional power from the vehicle to achieve all this vs if you drove the same route on a flat road straight road?
I want to think that because you're turning the wheels, some element of the power is not helping you move forwards, so you need more. Is that right?
Check out NASCAR on steeply banked circuits. Either a big circuit like Talladega (33 degrees) or a small one like Bristol (28 degrees). Both very steep if you try to walk up them. The drivers, all of whom have roughly the same power, only have to change their line a fraction to achieve significantly different speed from one moment to the next. You get the combination of "smooth and steady" at the bottom with "squaring the oval" at the top, but it's a longer journey. Tyre wear adjusts accordingly.
Yes in simple terms. It’s surprising how much difference tiny changes can make. I did a 24 hour speed record run at Millbrook many moons ago complete with independent observers. It was quite boring so after a few hours I experimented with lots of subtle changes to angle and position in the lane. I got quite good at it in the end 
my fastest laps were achieved by adopting a double oval type approach, making sure I was as high as possible in the lane where the wind was behind me and as low as possible when into the wind, there was a definite slingshot effect on the “downhill” bits. I squeezed an extra 5MPH on average speed out of it eventually over several hours. Which was rather splendid. I think I might still hold a load of records but I haven’t looked for years.
my fastest laps were achieved by adopting a double oval type approach, making sure I was as high as possible in the lane where the wind was behind me and as low as possible when into the wind, there was a definite slingshot effect on the “downhill” bits. I squeezed an extra 5MPH on average speed out of it eventually over several hours. Which was rather splendid. I think I might still hold a load of records but I haven’t looked for years.Gassing Station | Science! | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff