Quote:
Originally Posted by gramicci101
Plucas, I'm also trying to understand the mysterious world of functional aero. In a hypothetical world where money rains from the sky, would it be better for a dd/weekend warrior to have a completely flat underbody similar to nascar, or one with Venturi tunnels similar to supercars and formula 1?
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First, Nascar does not have a flat underbody.
To answer your question, neither. If you completely seal the bottom with a flat underbody or with tunnels, you will have to make huge unpgrades in cooling like to your transmission and rear differential. It also makes it a pain to work on. Now if it was mainly a weekend warrior with some street driving, that would be different.
The big issue with underbody aerodynamics is that it is very sensitive to ride height and pitch. This is not as big of an issue on a car that has stiffer suspension since ride height and pitch doesn't change to as big of a degree. Take a look below to see what I mean....
Shows how much ride height can change around a track (race car)
Ride height sensitivity (x-axis: Rear Ride Height, y-axis: front ride height, z-axis: coefficient of lift total)
Now between flat bottom or tunnels... Tunnels are far superior for making downforce. I can get more into it if you'd like but I will cut it off there. I think for most people, a good splitter and diffuser will do the most good. Also on the FT86, you do not need a perfectly smooth underbody to see the benefits of a diffuser (like Driveway Labs). The underbody of the FT86 is pretty decent. You won't get all the efficiency out of the diffuser since it will see some dirty air, but it is better than nothing.