Toyota's Dirty Little Secret

The following article is a hard hitting, in depth exposé of the Toyota TS040, it's illegality, the shocking treachery of those sneaky Japanese, and why do Wurz and Davidson seem to be holding hands or hugging in almost every photo taken of them. Literally, tens of minutes of manpower and possibly up to a megabyte of bandwidth have gone into bringing this shocking report to you, our loyal racer readers. 
After this reporter had finished with his article, it was found to have been already reported on in a much more comprehensible and legible fashion by other people with a much better grasp of the English language, and the ability to do cool things like insert pictures and videos, so links will be provided to those. 
What follows may be shocking, and is certainly plagiarism. It also contains images and text of a frank and explicit nature. So, if there are small children in the room, please, don't let them disturb you. 

Here is a picture of the offending element. 

An interesting feature of the TS040 seen after some runs in qualifying is scuffing on the inner face of the rear wing endplate.

And a cool video showing it in action. 


Here is the link to the text below. I encourage you to go view it. There are many cool pictures and videos. 
www.mulsannescorner.com/RCELeMans2014.html

6.12.14

>>A few days ahead of the Le Mans Test the FIA issued a Technical Bulletin concerning flexible bodywork (specifically flexing of the skid) and a reiteration of the rear wing load testing. Initially it appeared as normal FIA house keeping. But there might have been something else going on behind the scenes.

Race Car Engineering was first to bring attention to the Porsche 919's flexible engine cover. Porsche had designed an engine cover that allowed the trailing edge to deflect at speed, reducing drag. It's my understanding that since the Test Porsche has "fixed" the issue and the engine cover no longer deflects.

But the FIA's technical bulletin might have been issued in response to another competitor and a controversial, if not downright completely illegal, rear wing.

Confidential sources indicate an LMP1 competitor has designed a rear wing assembly that rotates at speed, reducing angle of attack, and therefore drag. It is described as such:

The rear wing mainplane is attached to the central swan neck rear wing mount through a single mounting point. The secondary flap attaches to the mainplane via conventional slot gap separator brackets. Outboard, the mainplane has a single attachment point at the endplate and the secondary flap also has a single attachment point for angle changes, as one would expect.

However, all is but conventional. Under load the central portion of the rear wing rotates about that single rotation/attachment point (1) and deflects while the outboard sections remain rigid; a clever laminate schedule facilitates the wing rotation with the center section being stiff (up to 50% chord width, in order to insure passing of the deflection test--more about that in a second) with the outer sections being "soft." The wing rotates freely until it hits a physical stop (2). Moving the rotation point (1) through a variety of wing mounts allows for varying degrees of wing rotation (track dependent?).

The big question is how does it pass the deflection test? This is actually rather straight forward. In this case, the load test is carried out with the endplates disconnected from the bodywork and thus the wing assembly is allowed to rotate to its stop (2) before the load test apparatus is attached. So only normal deflection will ever be seen. One has to wonder what the scrutineers make of all that as clearly the way the wing assembly is tested isn't the way the car runs on the track... Turns out the regulations actually mandate that the wing assembly is tested with the endplates detached (Art 3.6.2 c/). The point being that the FIA doesn't want the car designers to rely at all on the endplates handling the rear wing loads in case of an accident. So sound thinking in that regards. However, the car would still be presented at scrutineering with a wing that was clearly out of its operating angle of attack given the extreme nose up.

So in essence, the wing is pre-loaded into its legal position and then is allowed to rotate to a different position when moving on the track.

Of course the relevant regulation is Article 3.4. Here's a reminder of what it says:

Movable bodywork parts/elements are forbidden when the car is in motion. Any system operated automatically and/or controlled by the driver to modify any airflow when the car is in motion is forbidden.

And analyzing the device as described here; clearly we have moving bodywork with the intent to reduce drag (modify any airflow) all designed to work while the car is in motion. This seems to completely trump any ability to pass the deflection test. And the reason we have regulations as such is to insure competitors aren't presenting a full and legal car in scrutineering and then allowing the car to intentionally become illegal while on the race track. And frankly, any such device shows malicious intent; an intent to cheat. This isn't a clever work around, it's my opinion that it is cheating pure and simple.

My drawing shows only 8 degrees of deflection though much more could be occuring on track. The point is, it will be visually obvious with the trailing edge of the flap dropping below the leading edge of the mainplane, a very nose up angle to the entire mainplane assembly. So have a look and tell me what car you think is doing this. If you have a big lens and know how to use it, and are able to access the higher speed portions of the track please (this deflection will only occur at high speed), shoot away!
6.14-15.14

>>The (now) open secret. This is still an active process. I think we're 80% there as to how the mechanism works (note, there is no doubt at all about what they are doing, it's the how I'm working on), but there are a few details to be sussed out. It'll require more data, video, photos, etc.

So if you haven't figured out which LMP1 team is using a rotating rear wing assembly mechanism to reduce aerodynamic drag, it's Toyota (see 6.12.14 entry below for more details). Apparently Toyota are admitting to their device. Go ask them about it.

While I still haven't found an image showing the device in action on the track to my satisfaction, here's a nice tell tale of the amount of wing movement out at the endplate. Yes, the leading edge rises that much when the drag reduction device passivly engages.

Why this system is on the car begs the question. The FIA are clearly aware and we've witnessed Porsche correcting their car to legal status either under direct pressure or concerns of post-race ambushing. This is a much bigger deal than the flexing engine cover given the larger performance gain. And it's a more flagrant skirting of the regulations. As I understand it: the FIA are aware of the system, the car has passed scutineering, and the competitors are screaming bloody murder.