Reverse engineering of Wipeout

[Mobius]

The vel^3 (cube power of the velocity) comes from the aerodynamic drag equation:

all those variables have a meaning you can see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_%2...#Types_of_drag I just made them all "2.0" for now.

I know it says v^2 in that equation, I used v^3 because I want to take into account the sign of the velocity (if it's negative or positive), so the force points opposite to the movement of the ship. I can use the v^2 just like that equation, but then I have to multiply by v/abs(v) to get the sign of the force (v/abs(v) can be -1 or 1), but again, to save processor time and avoid divide-by-0 problems I just used the v^3.

Surely velocity cubed would make the drag parameter unphysical/unrealistic? Would it not be better to define a Heaviside function using logic to ascertain the direction of the drag e.g....?

if (v < 0) {
sign = -1;
} else {
sign = 1;
}

and therefore have your velocity squared again.