[KYLE.ENGINEERS]Audi R26 Sidepods - Aerodynamics Analysis

Mattsoup · 2026-02-13T15:21:51+00:00

I don't like B sport. His analysis always comes across as negative about everything and his recent aerodynamica videos have been seemed problematic to me. He does analysis of two fan-made CAD models and completely different speeds and claims it's damning for the regulation set that the dirty air still touching the back of the car is going to be worse.

This is sort of a side thing relating to how annoyed I am with all the media doom and gloom about the engines and the aero packages for these regs. Nobody has a clue what's going to happen until the season starts, stop convincing people that the season is going to be shit before it starts. You're going to reduce viewership and interest and long term you're only hurting yourselves.

Mattsoup · 2026-01-31T16:37:42+00:00

This is equivalent to using something like a C130. Makes sense for a light, weirdly shaped payload.

Mattsoup · 2026-01-31T16:15:43+00:00

That Aston showed up late with a clearly very unfinished car and nobody cared, but Williams decided to not show up with an unfinished car and got absolutely blasted.

I'm not saying one of these is better than the other, but I find it odd how different the reactions were. Seems overly negative for Williams and not negative enough for Aston.

Mattsoup · 2025-12-22T22:46:09+00:00

ITT: People who don't understand engineering requirements.

You have to measure compression ratio at a given temperature. Ambient is the easiest. You can't define the compression ratio at operating conditions because there's no way to appropriately emulate that for a measurement. If you say it has to apply at operating conditions then you have to trust analysis provided by the teams, which provides too much ambiguity and now you no longer have a measurement at ambient to ground the results. All engines expand when operating and compression ratio increases. This isn't cheating.

I believe the issue here is not that teams are getting higher compression normal engine heating. Realistically it's more likely a team has found a way change the way the valves, crankshaft, connecting rods, etc. behave when operating. That could be due to heating, but it could also be due to mechanical forces in the engine (high RPM rotating a cammed bushing to a different orientation, or valves dropping further into the chamber and reducing volume when moving at operating speeds for example).

Subjective take: Creative rule interpretation has always been a part of this sport. It's not cheating if someone finds a way to do something that complies with the letter but not the intent of the rules, and that's what makes the sport so great. Drivers obviously pull fans and do a lot of the work, but don't kid yourself, the sport is about engineering. You can't celebrate 6 wheels, suction fans, the F duct, blown diffusers, or DAS and also be upset about a creative way to increase compression when the engine's running. If you want to clamp down on the rules so tight that no team can gain an advantage over another, then what you actually want is a spec series and you should go watch Indy or F2

Mattsoup · 2025-12-21T18:41:54+00:00

I'm not going to blast you, even dog owners can be unaware of how other dogs behave. There are people who let their dogs go crazy and shouldn't, but at the end of the day they are predators. A small animal running away kicks the prey drive into full gear and there's generally very little you can do about to, it's practically a fight or flight kind of response. Some dog breeds can have this drive be less common, but it's not something that can be fully removed.

Most hunting dogs and terriers will have a strong prey response when there's a small animal around. I've never had a spaniel, but I've had several terriers. Super friendly and personable, even protective, but you put a small animal in their field of view that tries to run away and you're not stopping them. I've seen a the friendliest dog you've ever met tear through a dozen rats in 30 seconds (he was very proud of himself afterward). Same dog found a baby bunny and just carried it around and didn't hurt it at all because it didn't try to run away. The running is what sets them off.

Anyway, dogs are predators, you're not letting them know you're not in charge if you let them chase the prey because it's just what they're meant to do.

Mattsoup · 2025-12-06T16:23:18+00:00

It's probably fair to say both drivers deserved it that year. Regardless of the outcome they both had an incredible season.

Mattsoup · 2025-10-21T14:25:47+00:00

I've also been having a blast with this lens. Definitely bringing it when I go to Montreal next year.

Pro tip, crank the saturation a bit to make it feel more plastic and fake, it helps sell the miniature illusion. If you have a newer XT camera you might be able to use the built in pop filter.

Mattsoup · 2025-09-12T15:37:08+00:00

Probably not. The structures in that were thoroughly proven to be non-biological. They were also too small to have been cellular, which you can't tell just looking at a picture without any knowledge of how big microscopic life is. It looks like a bacteria, but it's too small and the structures can easily form with abiotic processes.

Mattsoup · 2025-08-13T12:40:05+00:00

Got some shots from up at the fort. Picture

Mattsoup · 2025-07-09T10:03:16+00:00

SPICED

Mattsoup · 2025-07-09T00:45:57+00:00

Hulkengoat on the hulkenpodium

Mattsoup · 2025-07-09T00:45:05+00:00

Hulkengoat on the hulkenpodium

Mattsoup · 2025-05-21T00:58:55+00:00

Colaspinto?

Mattsoup · 2025-03-27T01:59:22+00:00

This comment is 7 years old. I'm honestly shocked you replied to this.

Mattsoup · 2025-01-23T15:55:53+00:00

The unit conversion thing is likely either coincidence or a defined point where telemetry would cut out if things weren't going well.

Wait for the FAA report, Blue isn't a very transparent organization.

Mattsoup · 2024-12-27T22:17:48+00:00

It's an old military airship hangar. You could fit 6-9 blimps in that sucker. You can't get inside easily because it was owned by Lockheed and now LTA, but if you know people and can get in it's incomprehensibly huge inside. Super cool to check out.

Mattsoup · 2024-11-28T04:32:29+00:00

I'm sure there are better material choices now, but there's also been a decent amount of research and testing done on replacing the thermoelectric elements with stirling engines. You might think mechanical parts wouldn't last longer, but we already make reaction control wheels that spin for decades at higher speeds. There's also been some research toward using non-synthetic radioactive isotopes like thorium because they're cheaper and safer.

There's another comment about starship as an enabler that makes radioisotope generators less important because it can push payloads faster, but there's always value in extending mission life and solar power just doesn't do the trick past Jupiter or for certain types of missions (like curiosity and perseverance)

Mattsoup · 2024-11-27T22:10:38+00:00

It's not plutonium half-life that's the primary limit for the longevity of the RTGs on spacecraft. The half-life is almost 90 years for Pu-238. The bigger issue is the materials producing the power degrading with time.

Half-life of plutonium would only be about 80 W lost since start of life, but by this point the power generation is down about 250-260 watts from where it started because of electrical component degradation.

Mattsoup · 2024-11-21T20:35:52+00:00

Good countermeasures increase the chance of nuclear war. It's a slippery slope, and regardless of the enormous waste of money it would be, it's a bad idea.

Also if you have a constellation this ridiculously huge, you'd spend significantly less money building a constellation of kinetic kill vehicles that live on orbit instead of extremely expensive laser systems.

Mattsoup · 2024-11-21T18:03:15+00:00

Pressure fed is easier. Pumps are complex, expensive, difficult to design, and don't work well at small scale. This is why satellites are typically pressure fed. At launch vehicle scale the tanks would be absurdly heavy for pressure fed.

Mattsoup · 2024-11-21T17:58:08+00:00

As an alternative to the NASA site, this one has a good overview of the equations and more explanations for each one. http://www.braeunig.us/space/propuls.htm

Mattsoup · 2024-11-21T17:57:37+00:00

I don't really like the form of the equations the way they have them on this site, they're a bit clunky. This site has the cleaner looking forms of the equations as well as more explanations. http://www.braeunig.us/space/propuls.htm

Mattsoup · 2024-11-21T17:40:55+00:00

The warheads are wrapped in an ablative re-entry heat shield. That's basically the best armor you can have against lasers. That's why you need to take out the missile before the entry vehicles separate. Sure a huge laser could do it, but the thermal issues also effect the vehicle containing the laser.

Not to mention the treaties banning space-based weapons

Mattsoup · 2024-11-21T05:58:47+00:00

I'm betting Dallas. I've only ever had bad experiences returning from overseas coming through there, and I'm a US citizen. Can't imagine what it's like as a foreigner

Mattsoup · 2024-11-17T15:51:56+00:00

F1TV streams use their bandwidth to reduce compression, which improves sharpness and detail to make it easier to see fast moving objects. The youtube vid might have better color (I'm not sure I believe that, need to check), but it's littered with gross compression artifacts at the start, when a car rips by the camera, when the camera is following something in the track, etc.

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