No, it is the same thing. What is counter-intuitive is that the body of the car is going directly downwind. The thing is, the
sails of the car (the propeller) are
not going directly downwind, they have an angle of attack relative to the wind because they are angled relative to the car body. Ignore the car body and draw a propeller blade, the actual wind, and the apparent wind WRT the blade.
An iceboat is a better example than a sailboat. They go substantially faster than the wind. They can do this because their sails are very efficient in terms of being able to sail a very low angles of attack and because they have very low friction WRT their motion.
According to this article,
http://www.idniyra.org/articles/IceboatSailingPerformance.ht...
the iceboat in question could sail 8 degrees off the wind and achieve a speed 7 times the wind speed.
Picture the propeller of the vehicle being a sail at a very small degree angle of attack (e.g. 8 degrees) while it is "sailing" in circles. Rather than pushing the vehicle body directly like with an iceboat, the energy is coupled to the wheels to drive the body at an arbitrary (but fixed for the vehicle in question) angle relative to the "sail" angle of attack.
An iceboat is a better example than a sailboat. They go substantially faster than the wind. They can do this because their sails are very efficient in terms of being able to sail a very low angles of attack and because they have very low friction WRT their motion.
According to this article, http://www.idniyra.org/articles/IceboatSailingPerformance.ht... the iceboat in question could sail 8 degrees off the wind and achieve a speed 7 times the wind speed.
Picture the propeller of the vehicle being a sail at a very small degree angle of attack (e.g. 8 degrees) while it is "sailing" in circles. Rather than pushing the vehicle body directly like with an iceboat, the energy is coupled to the wheels to drive the body at an arbitrary (but fixed for the vehicle in question) angle relative to the "sail" angle of attack.