Aerodynamics
So.... as long as you keep it up, round and round we will go.
(That's why I asked you how many pages you wanted to run with this.
)
Go ahead.... and respond again and insist you are right. I know you will.
I know I'm the one that brought all this up, but you have to be careful talking about 4th gen f-bodies in a windtunnel backwards. That lower tail sits so high up that a lot of air gets pulled under the car. You actually would need to angle the flow down 2-3* to have lower drag. But the point is not specifically windtunnel testing, it's more about the shape itself. The Camaro is very close to an ideal teardrop in reverse. Take the mirrors off and it's very very slippery. Think of a Cd of 0.29 or less under the conditions I described.
But hey, who tests cars in a windtunnel backwards? (Er, besides NASCAR!) OK, maybe some grad students late on a Friday night with nothing else to do, he he...
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
1. Convert to a front breather with a mildly vented hood,
2. Lower the car about 2 inches,
3. Extend the air dam and side skirts to the ground,
4. Use "baby moon" style wheel covers,
5. Put a wickerbill on the rear edge of the hood,
6. Add a diffuser under the rear of the car that extends forward of the rear axle,
7. Add vortex generators to the back edge of the roof across the top,
8. Lose the mirrors,
9. Brace the hood so it doesn't distort.
10. Extend the rear spoiler about a foot behind the car horizontally.
11. Add pins to the side windows and rear hatch so they don't try to open up over 150mph.
12. Duct tape every seam.
13. Add HP as needed...
Btw, I see where you were going with that... Lower the rear end of the car... and the reverse theory makes a little more sense... at least that would get rid of some of the air running under the car.
Of course, losing the mirrors helps.... in either direction.
I remember a few years ago, they were playing around with small cameras to replace the mirrors. They were much smaller than the mirrors to help with Cd.
They cameras would be connected to a video display in the car. I can only guess that the cost made the system impratical from a production stand point and $$$$ it would add to the final system.
Several years ago when Car and Driver was doing their Super Trans Am feature build. One problem they ran into was as the car approched the 200MPH barrier... the side windows started to lift from their sealing surfaces... solution.... DUCT TAPE!!!!!!!
Last edited by wabmorgan; Mar 25, 2006 at 08:18 AM.
The reason airfoils are shaped like they are, and symmetrical airfoils are possible, is because of the top side. This is also why aircraft sling engines and ordnance on the underside of the wing, it causes almost no interference with lift.
The catch is that another 9% of the population believe the Bernoulli princple. That the shape of the aerofoil speeds are up over the top and since faster air is lower pressure, this causes the underside to press upward.
The boundry layer on top does indeed move faster, and is indeed lower pressure, but that is not sufficient to cause the amount of lift we see aerofoils produce. An aerofoil designed purely on the Bernoulli principle would be ridiculous, basically flat on the bottom and mountain shaped on top, and bloody *huge*. In reality, it would have a hard time moving, let alone producing lift.
The Coanda effect is the major contributor to lift. Newton is the second, and Bernoulli is there, but barely plays a role.
Lift is created almost exclusively on the top side. The shape of the wing pulls air down - as it hits the aerofoil, it sticks to it and follows it's contour and ends up lower than where it started. This in turn pulls more air from above it, down and back. Here's where Newton's 3rd has the biggest role - the equal and opposite reaction is to pull the aerofoil up. The increased pressure of the air hitting the underside contributes, but *very* little.
This could take us into discussion of nürflugels and bell shaped lift distributions and the effects of control reversal (or lack of it), but that gets way outside the scope of this thread.
This is the point behind deffusers. Since a teardrop is symmetrical, the are is pulled the same amount in all directions and has neutral lift. A car (like these) is basically a teardrop shaved in half. This creates an aerofoil aspect that *does* create lift. By adding a diffuser, you pull are up at the back of the car to allow it to better meet the air being pulled down by the rear window, and help to cancel out some of the lift. This is also why you actually *want* air under the car. You just have to work with it properly.
It's kind of funny how it took so long for these concepts, known since the late 1940's, to make it to cars. Oh well, better late than never.
But cars aren't planes right? They aren't travelling at near the speed either. I suspect that when coming from the grand coach built era of the 20s and 30s (god I love those cars), aerodynamics aren't even a consideration, and all the people with that skill set are in aircraft design. (just a guess)
But, just as it was slow to creep into automotive design, so too has it been slow to creep into general public knowledge (as you can see).
The cool thing about cars is that the Cd is relatively static due to the low speeds. It gets more interesting at NASCAR and Bonneville speeds.
High-Lift Systems for Racing Cars
http://aerodyn.org/Annexes/Racing/hlifts.html
now the reason pople dnt adjust the diffuser is because adjustment would be much harder than that of a wing!
thnaks Chris.
PS. NO wing in motorsport is there to look good!

