2nd Gen front side air intakes - what are the benifits
 

So I'm not fully versed on what's going with these front side air intakes. I'd really love someone who is well versed in this to add their thoughts.

I assume that its for break cooling, but how does it achieve that when it 'seems' to be just directly hitting the front tires.

In fact, as yet I haven't seen anyone sticking things into it to show if there is any piping to direct that air right into the break. Could it be actually for tire cooling?

I get that, at speed, the vents at the rear of the front tire will actually suck air away from the wheel area, and therefore cool the breaks, but is it a case of that it really needs that front side intake to be able to do that properly?

They were saying that it is basically for improving aerodynamic efficiency. Pretty useless for me on a street car under normal highway speed limits. Reminds me somehow the persistence to go with the big rear carbon wing in the BRZ tS. These solutions are just for the looks and adding to the wow effect (real vents!), but without much effect in reality. They can work only in race tracks like the Nürburgring Nordschleife where you can go top speed.

Brake cooling will be a small side effect of these vents, but without proper air ducts it won't be optimal at all.

I do hope we see some side by sides on say 10 lap track sessions between the stock 86 and stock GR86.

With a bit more cold air to the breaks, the car might be better for those extended break cycles or it might just be all for show, as you say.

From the Subaru press release:
"The aggressive design flows into bold front fenders with a large side vent. The functional side vent reduces drag by ducting air from under the hood and fenders. The released air is directed to a side sill spoiler that creates downforce at speed"

There will most certainly be at least a bit of cooling to the engine bay and possibly the brakes but their prime purpose (or at least explanation) is aero related not heat management.
I am still of the opinion, that when you consider they are moving air from the bay and have added an oil cooler they are addressing a heat issue with the 2.4. Side vents are an expensive way to give a small aero effect.

I guess they will probably reduce the high air pressure build-up in the front wheel well.

Reducing the high P inside the well could lead to more air being sucked into the "brake area" thus providing a cooling effect for the brake system.

Just a guesstimate :)

I guess they will probably reduce the high air pressure build-up in the front wheel well.

Reducing the high P inside the well could lead to more air being sucked into the "brake area" thus providing a cooling effect for the brake system.

Just a guesstimate :)

Fuel economy by drag reduction is my bet. I've seen these start to pop up on some boring cars too. In fact they were so boring I forget what I saw them on.

What's interesting is that so far we have only seen that the vents open into the fenders, not under the hood area. But I haven't seen anyone stick their fingers in the top of the vent yet.

The front side intakes aren't really explained.

The front intakes are part of the whole system. To efficiently pull the air out you need to push some in.
As Niki said earlier the aero effect will probably be totally valueless under most driving conditions. The cooling effect will be even less.

Actually on some cars the vents behind the front wheels reduce drag enough to bump it up 1mpg on the highway, BMW made a big deal about it on the F3X 4 series.

I can buy that.

Makes sense.

It's for bugs to not die on impact. Instead, they could fly thru the vents and back out alive, safely to their families.

The size of those intakes mean a few squirrels could be saved as well!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e2/40...08e45574ee.gif

And my chipmunk brethren too!

This will probably be noticeable on highway speeds, reducing the drag on the wheel well.

I don't know that "noticeable" would be the word but yes it would have the most effect. It will relive some drag but there is still a pile of wheel well left.

I think some Mustang also have that. For the mpg reduction, there are so many ticks being pulled, on commercial vehicles, you can see spats on the front (european vehicles), some cuts on the rear bumpers and so on...

Good thing is that this type of feature is easy to be validated. Block that and run on highway.

For brake temperature, i would not expect if not combined with a feature to direct the airflow to the center of the rotor

Just to make sure our discussion is based on the same facts, I took a few screenshots from this video.

1) Inside of the intake on the sides of the BRZ bumper (~8:21 in the video):
https://i.imgur.com/CbSrHEW.jpg?1

2) The holes in front of the wheel, BRZ (~3:41 in the video):
https://i.imgur.com/SIl67nA.jpg?1

3) The holes behind the wheel, GR 86 (~11:18 in the video):
https://i.imgur.com/zjdCzbQ.jpg?1

My take:

• I don't see any evidence of additional airflow behind/inside the wheel. I'm not ruling out a possibility that there are other holes inside the fender liner that we can't see yet. But based on what I've seen so far, I don't think it's going to help with brake temperatures at all.
• It might help a bit with drag, but probably not due to extra airflow (the holes are just too small) but rather maybe helping guide/re-shape the primary airflow that goes around them.
• These will surely help create nice splashes on the doors in the rain :D

Yeep! All that Borg implant like fender garish for very tiny vents. At least nobody can call the fake.
That ain't going to cool no brakes and your sure as hell not going to feel a difference even at highway speed.

It gives the salesperson something to talk about.

It validates the sports car image.


Potential shoppers will get all in a tizzy taking photos for social media and pointing out how cool and great their car is.

Dealers can add decals, stickers, or plastic inserts into the area that cost $5 but they will be charged to customers for $700... Like this:

https://s.aolcdn.com/dims-global/dim...dergarnish.jpg

The benefit is that dealer and marketing people won.

Serious question: Are they "tiny" for a mass produced consumer car?

They do appear small, but are the vents on a WRX any bigger?

Do other mass produced consumer cars have bigger wheel vents?

I am not suggesting these vents accomplish great things... rather I am curious if they are atypically small compared to other mass produced consumer cars.

EDIT: I am of the opinion these are to reduce turbulence/improve gas milage... but I have NOTHING to back that opinion up with other than intuition.

They sure are bigger than those on A90 Supras :)

What I can see from here is that there are only vent holes inside the wheel fender for the lower half, so potentially the top half does come in from under the hood.

Aerodynamic effects at speed are pretty interesting, and the tire well is a particularly poor part of a cars aerodynamics. I'm a little more positive about the potential to add efficiency and cooling effect with that airflow, even with holes that size.

I'll note that the front intake exit into the wheel arch is not _that_ much much smaller than the hole the NSX uses to add break cooling, they both start with a bigger opening and have the air sped up into a smaller exit into the wheel arch.

The NSX also uses a thinner more elongated approach to apparently direct some of the air as a sheet to the outside of the wheel to reduce turbulent wheel arch from effecting the the air coming from the side of the car.

Its zoomed in pretty heavy here, but you can see its not a huge opening.
https://i.imgur.com/rxZQf2U.jpg

Who are they trying to kid? Aero benefits? Better engine and brake cooling? Better MPG? Pfffft! They are obviously in cahoots with manufacturers of car cleaning products, car wash operators and even clothing manufacturers.

Those side vents will route slush, road salt, street grime and mud out behind the fenders and right along that nice aero(?) ridge they have grafted onto the body below the doors. It will collect all the grime and grit so it will look terrible and will ruin your slacks, dress clothes and the ladies dresses when they try to get in or out of the car.

It is brilliant! They can make some money on car sales and even more on side deals with the manufacturers who are going to benefit from cleaning products and replacement apparel.

^ No doubt you'll be able to get aftermarket solid grommets to plug those vent holes a few weeks after the cars hit dealers.

Jokes aside, I personally think this is more for aftermarket installations. You wanna put a turbo intercooler? Sure, just open up this vent! Need an oil cooler? Here's the other side vent!

On a side note, slight aero adjustments to front fascia can save 1-2 mpg at most, maybe enough for EPA bragging rights. But these vents don't seem to be that, given how much turbulence can be generated. Sure they'll reduce the stagnation points, but the wake can cause just as much drag.

On a curious note, I've never owned or learned much information on a vehicle with functional side vents. Does it really spray that much dirt up through the small holes? I feel that though I may have simply never noticed, I have never seen dirt splashes or anything of that sort on sides of vehicles (and I've seen plenty of functional side vent cars in my life). I have wheels that just barely squeak out past the bottom of my fenders, which creates a little dirt splashing, but even that has little build up over time.

I remember reading about a guy on the internet (reach for that grain of salt) who burned up his GTR at the Tail of the Dragon, because dried leaves went in through the brake ducts and caught on the (hot) brakes.

https://jalopnik.com/leaves-may-have...smo-1820230607

Lol.

Hopefully it does not happen to the extent that I imply in my tongue in cheek post. What actually worried me a bit more is that the holes in the fender liners may allow salt and other corrosives to get behind the fenders where they cannot be easily removed and where they can slowly eat away at the metal. It remains to be seen how the vents are engineered on the inside to prevent this.

Duct tape will do. It's even in the name :)

A couple things here. First of all, there doesn't seem to have been any conclusive evidence that the leaves went through the brake ducts before catching fire at the brakes. The fire was in the right rear corner of the trunk. But more importantly, aren't brake ducts very different than what my question was in reference to?

This story is very interesting, but possibly aside from this specific one, nothing like this has ever occurred due to brake ducts or side vents.

Pretty certain this is a feature sparked by the Fast and the Furious movies. Those electrical things they shoot into Brian's door to short circuit the car is really tough to deal with- these vents are meant to aid in their removal by ducting air under them to force them out when moving at high speed.

Only on the BRZ. The GR86 is more inclined to save chipmunks.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d1/d7...b88f664141.gif

Gotta be JDM YO

https://www.preservationequipment.co...e_1000x858.jpg

For a while. Regular duct tape will soon surrender to grit, salt, etc. thrown up from the road.

I'm going to guess that they're for reducing drag and front-end lift. @ZDan might be able to shed some light on the effects of those vents.

The ones in the front bumper are to create an air curtain of sort to keep air moving over the car from interacting with the rotating tire. Same as those little flaps that hang down in front of the wheel. Most new cars these days have these features to improve gas mileage.

https://media.ford.com/content/fordm...amic-drag.html