Quote:
Originally Posted by fatoni
with a car this slow, it is almost a guarantee that the advantage in mechanical grip gained from tire is more advantageous than whatever you are trying to accomplish with aero. downforce is drag no matter how you slice it. the net result might not always show that but thats because nobody is talking about lift. once you realize that an f1 car has a cd of 1.5-2.5 and a prius has a cd of .25, it becomes a little more apparent where the priorities are in performance cars.
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To have a proper discussion about aero we need to clear up a few things.
First, we're dealing with lift. 'Downforce' is negative lift. So until all aero enhancements are working together to create negative lift, there is zero downforce. Downforce and lift are not independent forces. You have coefficient of lift. Once it goes negative you get 'downforce'.
Second, drag and lift have a complicated relationship. Sometimes one can be adjusted without the other being affected. Sometimes not. The drag to neg lift ratio is referred to aero efficiency. So while an F1 car has high drag, it also has ludicrous downforce. But that doesn't mean that we can't modify to get both a lift AND drag reduction.