Martin,
You bring up some very good points. At the risk of sounding like Franklin
, I will attempt to describe things along the lines of what you are asking. DISCLAIMER: Although I am and aero engineer and in close contact with a TF team, I am in no way privy to any of the R & D that Garlits or Kloeber did. However, I believe if you do some research with Purdue Univ published papers, you might find a very interesting aero engineering paper on "enhancing the aerodynamic performance of a Top Fuel dragster". Here goes...
The monostrut is self stabilizing when it comes to a TF car getting crossed up. Since it is behind the CG of the car, the "lift" or sideforce generated would act in the direction to return the car back to straight (restoring force). This is the exact reason planes have tails. HOWEVER, where this becomes detrimental is in a crosswind. A 25 mph direct crosswind would give the monostrut an effective angle of attack of about 5 degrees when the car is going 300 mph. This would create a force that would want to turn the car AWAY from straight. In essence the car would "weather vane". This is the reason plane's tails have rudders AND auto pilots. A jetliner's rudder is constantly making corrections for the crosswinds the plane encounters. How can this be dealt with? I'm not certain but I am certain that any monostrut car in a large crosswind is putting more of a sideload on the sidewall of the slicks than a normal TF car. Add the fact that the cars are going 270 at half track and this becomes a very real concern. I hope this is part of what Prudhomme's team was testing for in the wind tunnel.
I don't know if it would pass tech, but if someone designed a monostrut that actually divided the wing into 2 dicreet sections (left and right), the carbon strut could be laced with kevlar and actually provide a shield to at least 1/2 of the wing. If the left tire blows, it takes out the left side of the wing but the right side is shielded and stays intact to help keep the downforce on the car. This might provide the driver with just enough time and stability to get the chutes out. Of course the strut would also have to be designed to withstand the bending stress of having only half a wing, but this CAN be designed for.
I think the best point you bring out is the location of the wing. Right now the wings provide the lever action that others have described which works well if ALL the pieces work together. Unfortunately if you lose the other half of the seesaw (the front wing) you have a VERY bad situation as Eddie Hill showed in Pomona many years ago. I haven't done a truly accurate study, but feel that the wings today could be relocated to directly above the rear-end and the given back some angle of attack (which NHRA took away after the DR incident) and provide the same downforce WITHOUT as much of a lever. I say not as much because you still have the drag of the wing trying to rotate the car back.
If you are still reading, I applaud you because this post is way too long. But I hope I've helped some.
BTW, Jacketing the wing struts of ANY TF car with an airfoil shape would help generate more downforce if done correctly but that's another long post.
