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serialk11r · 01-20-2012, 06:39 PM

Dimman, remember the channel in the roof? I think it does what you are describing sorta. You are talking about "winglets" though right? On planes the vertical piece at the end of the tip reduces induced drag by cutting off most of the path from which the air from the bottom can flow to the air on top.

I don't know how much this does for a car though. Gotta think about it some more. I feel like it won't be very useful because 1. bottom of the car experiences ground effects, so it's actually a low pressure zone on an aerodynamic car 2. I think a good proportion of the air hitting the windshield (so to speak) is deflected to the side, so the pressure difference between the top and the sides of the car is not very big.

As far as aerodynamic add ons go, IMO the first thing to be done is to cover up suspension components on the bottom, and add a large diffuser, and side skirts. If flow separation is bad at the rear, I'm not sure what can be done, but vortex generators + correctly placed wing seems to be what they typically do.

Oh and form vs. function, an example would be the wheels. If wheels were enclosed in fairings with specially designed brake cooling, they would reduce drag by a large amount and reduce lift by some significant quantity as well. However people like seeing the big brakes :/

01-20-2012, 06:39 PM	#89
serialk11r Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Drives: '06 AM V8V Coupe Location: United States of America Posts: 5,279 Thanks: 285 Thanked 1,075 Times in 759 Posts Mentioned: 13 Post(s)	Dimman, remember the channel in the roof? I think it does what you are describing sorta. You are talking about "winglets" though right? On planes the vertical piece at the end of the tip reduces induced drag by cutting off most of the path from which the air from the bottom can flow to the air on top. I don't know how much this does for a car though. Gotta think about it some more. I feel like it won't be very useful because 1. bottom of the car experiences ground effects, so it's actually a low pressure zone on an aerodynamic car 2. I think a good proportion of the air hitting the windshield (so to speak) is deflected to the side, so the pressure difference between the top and the sides of the car is not very big. As far as aerodynamic add ons go, IMO the first thing to be done is to cover up suspension components on the bottom, and add a large diffuser, and side skirts. If flow separation is bad at the rear, I'm not sure what can be done, but vortex generators + correctly placed wing seems to be what they typically do. Oh and form vs. function, an example would be the wheels. If wheels were enclosed in fairings with specially designed brake cooling, they would reduce drag by a large amount and reduce lift by some significant quantity as well. However people like seeing the big brakes :/ Last edited by serialk11r; 01-20-2012 at 06:51 PM.