Aerodynamics

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A diffuser can be as simple as a plate in front of the front wheels and another in front of the rear wheels. You'll see that on many cars built these days. If you look at Mercedes, BMW's and Audi's they have almost no rear wing or spoiler. Depending on the model they are all capable of hitting 155 mph and the cars stay stable at those speeds due the aerodynamics under the car. What is nice about that set up there is no rear spoiler dragging when your going straight. I can't use the same set up they used because of the underside of my car but there are different methods. I intend to also put a front dam with side skirts made with a product that will flex if needed. That will keep the pressure under the car lower than what it is now so that will improve it. Although it is better to have a smooth surface underneath to lower the pressure is still beneficial in handling and fuel mileage. The rear of the car has almost the right angle for a rear deffuser to work. As far as not having enough speed to have any aerodynamic effect I'm sure you have noticed putting your hand out the window doing highway speeds the difference of having your hand flat into the wind compared to slicing your hand through the wind. Everything helps so I don't see it as a waste of time or money. I've removed the chrome trim around the front windsheild and raised the ledge the window sits on the make the window almost flush with the surrounding body. I used rubber around the window which sits flush on the window and body so I've reduced the wind noise and drag. That cost me almost nothing and not much time welding the pieces in.
 
I've thought about this as well, making some sort of front spoiler - I looked at old camaro/Firebird chin spoilers for ideas but I don't know how it'd look on my Buick - I've also looked at installing GN-style chin spoilers instead. What kind of driving/racing will you be doing? I think concentrating your efforts on making it more aerodynamic would be more beneficial rather worrying about downforce. To me, if you could make some sort of spoiler to diffuse the air to go around the car instead, you'll make more efficient use of wind resistence. Have you looked at Bonneville cars at all for ideas? I think that'd be a good place to check out. Just my .02, I'm interested to see what you come up with. I haven't thought about this in a while, but it's cool to see it being discussed, I think there could be some good ideas that could come out of this...
 
The idea is fantastic but I'm surprised performance is the focus when in times like these my first thought was how this could be used to improve gas mileage instead. I would think a computer controlled car could take advantage of a system like this to get tremendous mileage increases, esp w/ cruise control calculated in.
 
pontiacgp,
I'm curious as to what vehicle you're talking about here and what top speeds are you talking about? What type of driving (auto cross, road course, drag race, or street high performance?

Doug
 
I put a ground effects kit on my Regal, a deck spoiler, and fully function fender vents on it and I could tell the difference in "feel" of the car at higher speeds. Keeping as much air out from under the car and directing it as much as possible has a good effect.

As other have said biggest problem is getting the car low enough on the street to get efficiency to peak. My car is lowered and with the ground f/x I have to be careful near curbs, some entrance and exits and the obvious killer speed bumps.
 

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oldtinsmith said:
pontiacgp,
I'm curious as to what vehicle you're talking about here and what top speeds are you talking about? What type of driving (auto cross, road course, drag race, or street high performance?

Doug

I'm talking about my GP. As far as speeds it's mainly for street use so nothing too outrageous in speed. But I can take it on a circle track whenever we go testing the race car and there are road courses that have events to try it out. My son with his BMW and his friends who have BMW's and Audi's go to a local road course track and they are bugging me to take the GP out there to put my car up against their's. If I can improve the air flow under my car it will help at highway speeds with gas mileage and it will add to the performance capabilities of the car. I'm sure you have seen the skirts they have put on the trailers on transport trucks. They are looking at alot to cut back on drag on trucks and they don't go as quick as we do. A Cessna 150 only needs about 60 mph to take off. I think there is alot we can do with our cars to improve the way they go through the air.

http://www.part20.eu/en/applications/trailer/
 
I've bought books and have studied (as best I could being a newb at this!) fuel mileage and performance handling. All the forums I go to, people have different terminologies(Sp?) and explainations aerodynamics and its devices. To help me understand the "why", I found this site to be alot of help:
http://www.gmecca.com/byorc/dtipsaerodynamics.html
Doug
I know this site doesn't talk about "skirts" at all but, I feel the road race corvette style "skirts" are a starting point for domestic cars. The high pressure spilling over the sides from the windshield would be directed away from the low pressure under the car.
 
Thank you for the link. I know that it will be impossible to see what benefits.,if any, I get from this project. If I had a wind tunnel then I can see what is going on or if I tested it at the track without any diffuser and then add them to see what my lap times were. I could check my fuel mileage but I'm planning on aluminum heads this winter so I won't know what I'd be getting with the change of heads. It's going to be a fun project and any improvement with air management has to help. I'm going to be talking to my son tomorrow with his BMW cause he was saying he get's better fuel mileage with his winter tires that are on his stock rims. He had aftermarket rims with wider summer tires which sit further out than the stock rims and tires. He has the tires sitting outside the zone for his diffusers and I think that could be a cause of a decrease in fuel mileage. Only problem is he knows I don't like his aftermarket rims so he might think his old man is feeding him some bs... :mrgreen:
 
CWPottenger said:
I put a ground effects kit on my Regal, a deck spoiler, and fully function fender vents on it and I could tell the difference in "feel" of the car at higher speeds. Keeping as much air out from under the car and directing it as much as possible has a good effect.

As other have said biggest problem is getting the car low enough on the street to get efficiency to peak. My car is lowered and with the ground f/x I have to be careful near curbs, some entrance and exits and the obvious killer speed bumps.

I like the look of your car and it's good the hear that you found an improvement. I like it that your fender vents are functional. The engine compartment is always a high pressure area with the air flowing through the rad and those vents work to lower that pressure
 
Food for thought: Does the GP have an air intake box in front of the radiator (like the Monte SS)? Does the GP have the large factory chin spoiler (below the radiator core support?
CoreSupport-August262010006.jpg

CoreSupport-August262010003.jpg

Try sealing as many of the air holes in the core support as possible, so the majority of air (and the resulting high air under hood air pressure) entering the engine compartment is coming through the radiator (this will aide cooling too!). Close the area between the top of the core support and the grill header (facia) panel. Install engine compartment air vents (as mentioned before). That's all I can think of at the moment (my head hurts :rofl: !).

Doug
 
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