Interesting episode of Mythbusters last night

[msd3075]

I have asked an engineer buddy of mine why formula one and other racing leagues don't do this. I can see why ford wouldn't want to dimple a car (can you imagine what a PITA it would be to wax a dimpled car) but in racing they don't really care how the thing looks, just performance. The answer is in order to dimple the car's surface they would have to make the body panels thicker, which would increase the weight to the point it would not create any significant gain.

That isn't the answer at all as to why Formula 1. I'm a huge Formula 1 fan and recently visited the McLaren Technology Centre where this exact subject came up with the person giving us our tour. In F1, aerodynamic research/development is almost completely devoted to increasing downforce, not in decreasing drag. The gains that an F1 car sees by increasing downforce versus drag is much more important to how the car performs on track. I could go on and type a 5 page explanation on why this is true, but it's Saturday morning and the college football games are starting....