Tracking with a Windscreen?

[Pokey]

My Caterham and I have our first opportunity to spend some time on a track, and I'm wondering how important it is to swap the windscreen with an aeroscreen?  I'll trailer the car to the track, and have a full-face helmet and an aeroscreen, but for the occasional track use I'm wondering when/if it makes sense to do the swap given the vast majority of time the windscreen is needed for the street.

 

I'm assuming the primary reason to take the windscreen off is to protect it from destruction, and secondarily having a flat pane of glass at a right angle to the direction of movement might negatively effect what little bit of aerodynamics we have in a Seven?

[Vovchandr]

I'd contest the point that windscreen is needed for the street. Only time I consider putting mine back on is when it gets too cold out and I need doors and half hood. 

 

On the track the windshield acts like a sail and the buffering is distracting. It would cost you top speed if that's something that is a concern to you. 

 

All things considered it's not crucial and many 7s track with their windshields without an issue. 

[wxywb021254]

I would say depending on your experience and are you pushing the 10/10th. If not, that's something i won't worry too much.

[Kitcat]

We just had this topic here and someone posted a shot of their damaged windscreen that saved them during a deer strike.

 

I used Brooklands on the street, unless I was headed out on a long trip. Car ran much cooler in the cockpit and, as Vlad notes, there was much less buffeting. I always wore a full face helmet with the clear plastic shield in place.

 

The windshield (air brake?) is a giant barn door that knocked about 5-10 mph off top speed in my X-flow powered Cat. Getting to top speed was noticeably faster with the Brooklands in place as well. And marginally better gas mileage occured.

[Vovchandr]

An anecdote to put this into perspective.

 

McLaren and other super cars use their spoilers as air brakes. The stopping force an angled spoiler provides is great enough for them to engineer that into the car.

 

 

Our cars have this air brake as standard when we have windshields.

 

Counter argument is that this really works at triple digits speeds and our cars are rarely in that territory unlike super cars that can get up there and stay up there.