I was thinking about this the other day. The glass windows have a fair amount of weight to them. Would it be beneficial to have them down, so that the weight sits lower on the car, or would loss of aerodynamics come in to play. Just something to think about.

 

most tracks require the front windows to be down for safety reasons anyway. but you also get a certain amount of drag, but not at the speeds you see on a track (avg 70mph or so.)

 

in rally they want you to have a window up for safety reason. I know from a fact.
I think on the track, they just dont want to deal with the shattered glass.... And they put the BS . up like safety. I mean if that would be for safety then no serious race would be driven by closed window... And most certainly all the serious races going down with closed window... Not to mention in the serious race cars they dont even have glass window. So the lexan is much stronger then a glass.

That is my opinion.

 

if you are asking about lapping, track days:


windows down is so you can give point by-s.


windows up would give you better aero, but if its summer you might have your heater on for cooling, (sounds wrong, right) so You would want your windows down.

The advantage of windows up is you don't have a big a chance of rolling over your flailing arm when you go off.

Some clubs do blinkers for passing but most want a point.

 

That window is gunna be broken right away if you go shiny side down... The 2 reasons they require windows down on the track is safety of being able to get you out of the car if you can't get out on your own and your car has auto locks, and, as Rob mentioned, to protect against broken glass if it breaks. Neither makes sense much but the former seems to be the bigger reason since the back windows are not laminated and would also spread glass everywhere if broken. The aero drag that is a result of front windows being down is small unless you're really pulling out some crazy speeds-- maybe put them up on a top speed run at Daytona or something.

 

Keep in mind stock cars have only a window net, the speed i'm sure won't be affected noticably. I can't speak to advantages of up vs down but I know our track requires windows fully up or fully down, nothing inbetween.

I prefer windows up personally, but 95% of the time it's just too hot in a full face helmet to get away with, so I go front windows down face shield down, as I tend to get pelted in rubber chunks otherwise.

And, as mentioned, the wave by. We don't require an open window here, but if you have racing buckets, it's damn near impossibly for the following car to see your hands unless you hang one out the window. Ditto for those running tint. Nothing frusterates me more than cars on track with dark tint waving their hands in the car like you can somehow see what they're doing.

 

Some clubs don't require point bys, and do require windows down even for racing (though nets are then required). I think it is probably a fear of liability thing, like how they require a closed shield on your helmet. You can waive liability, but the waiver is not worth **** if they are negligent in how they run the track day. So they decided that windows down is less likely to be considered negligent than windows up (at least most did) because they can argue the broken glass and the pulling you out of the car thing while windows up is not really a safety thing assuming there is not crap flying around to go in the windows at the track (which would be a liability in itself). In the US, everything is comes down to fear of liability

 

I don't know why some of you guys are saying that the drag penalty is small with the front windows down. I bet it costs you at least 3 mph on the long straights. That's substantial in my book.

But I agree with the safety reasons for windows down. Plus, on a hot day, it's nice to have that air flowing through the cockpit.

 

window down would be a safer alternative

 

You can have your windows down like I did, then have an epic spin throwing you off into the sand which will find a great way of exploding all over the enterior of your car. I still have sand permenantly in the back deck lid that my shop vac just will not get out of the carpeting. There was sand EVERYWHERE!

I tend to use the 1 touch to do my point bys. Tap the window down, point, roll back up... Our tracks up here only allow passing on the straights on track days, so it's pretty easy to pull off while mashing on the gas.

 

I only drag race, but they won't let me go down the track windows down. (I race at great lakes and byron) They will literally stand in front of me at GLD if my windows are not fully closed.

 

Honestly, I bet it's not a huge amount of drag unless you're REALLY flying. Once that void is filled up inside the car, there's probably not a whole lot slowing you down... I'm not an aero engineer, just going off what I've seen and what I assume.

 

Been there before

Dan

 

Comes down to what your event organizer requires. All HPDEs have been fronts down. I crack the rears and inch or so. Helps with buffeting noises. And at Grattan, you are hitting 125+ in the straight. Lots of noise there. But its for point-bys and getting out if **** goes south. Even if its 40F and raining - windows are down.

AXing - if its cold, I go windows up. But some places require down too.

 

Rally requires windows up and all cars need to have tints (well not necessarily tinted but a foil must be on the windows) so the glass doesn't break into small pieces... However that's rally cars with rally roll cages