GP4: 1996 Sauber C15 walkaround part 3

Following on from Part 1 and Part 2 of my GP4 walkaround of my 1996 Sauber C15, here is the final installment looking at the rear of the car.

In the last section, I started talking a bit about the sidepods, maximising the surface area on the top of the sidepod, and having an elongated rear wing endplate to stop the wake from the rear wheels. You can see the winglets are not flat wings but have a slight curve to them.

There are a few small intakes and bumps on there too (which is easily missed without the wireframe), whilst the whole element is curved rather than flat. Presumably this is a compromised between housing the internal parts at the centre of the car whilst the edges of the engine cover are as low as possible to try and interact with the diffuser - a concept that Williams began on their 1994 FW16 which saw lower rear suspension and that distinctive anhedral lower rear wing.

Taking the rear wing endplates and winglets away, and you can see that they have an additional lower rear wing above the rear suspension. This, as mentioned previously, was a similar solution to the 1995 Benetton B195. You can see how smoothly the rear of the engine cover goes into this wing and then into the lower rear wing itself. It's quite a neat solution.

Minardi and Forti had some very basic diffusers, but the Sauber is where it starts to get interesting. In 1994, the new rules stated that the majority of the diffuser can only go as far back as the rear axle, which is usually where the driveshaft is, the centre of the rear wheel. Then in the middle, you are allowed to have this small area where the diffuser can extend to the rear of the car. The Sauber solution features quite a curve on the underside of this central section. As you squeeze the air into a smaller outlet, you encourage the air to go faster out that section, creating a difference in pressure between the lower part and the upper part of that diffuser tunnel.

With the rear wing taken out of the way, you can see how the suspension parts and the gearbox are housed, and the smooth engine cover.

You can see the sculpted rear jack supports, which is something I always enjoy modelling.

Here are a few shots of the car in GP4. Most the time you see this car screaming past in a blur and you don't really have time to see some of the detail that goes in. So I hope you enjoy some of the blurb and screenshots of my modelling experience. I find it all fun to model and for me it just makes playing it in game a little bit sweeter. I also enjoy trying to find some interesting onboard angles just to see some of the more complex areas of the car.

For more of my GP4 car walkarounds from 1996, you can read about them here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/1996-gp4-cars-walkarounds.html