active aero project

[daddyov8]

hi trying to set up some trials with some active aero mods, anyone else gone down this route before.

active front and rear linked to throttle, brake and steering

[froggie]

a mitsy gto front has a small wiper type motor and rod the with of the spoiler to work it ,newer took the rear to bits
dont know any thing about speed sensing,grab an abs signal?or electronic speedo sender?

[PDV]

I met a chap a year or so ago at a car show who said he had developed an entire active aero system and tested it on his Subaru. He claim he was able to show massive improvements to the car and had been trying to licence it to F1 teams and various manufacturers. He wanted to offer me a kit to test but there's no scope for this sort of thing in my field of motorsport.

I can't remember his name but I've got a card somewhere....

[itsallyellow]

Especially as any moving aero parts are not permitid in the blue book.

Mike

[GreenV8S]

What are you trying to achieve? Aerodynamics are largely irrelevant until you get north of 100 mph and even then you won't achieve anything useful unless the aerodynamics as a whole have been properly sorted. So no benefit to be had on the roads, and moveable aerodynamic aids are specifically forbidden in just about every form of motorsport.

[froggie]

In the days of old a friend and i use to drive a porker with a aero boot spoiler that came up above the llegal speed limit 80 or 90 mph i think,
the two games played in a 30mph speed limit were:
1: see "where you can get it up"
2: see "how long you could keep it up"

Now i have an aero spoiler with a twist,still speed activated just it doubles as an automatic anti goverment ATM device. It is self powerd, not to mention airodinamic and fuell saving making it enviromentaly friendly too

The best active aero ever for mechanics/electronics has to be the citroen. wow how impresive, and i thaught our merk slk roof mech was good.

[daddyov8]

hi, sorry should have explained more.

i don't currently compete or have any interest in motorsport so there are no rules.

i am interested in the ultimate potential of cars and have as you've guessed have already looked at simple spoilers.

The new mods I'm planning tackle the whole car.

The comments about aerodynamics not being useful below 100mph are inaccurate.

As you near any cars ultimate potential and use more of its maximum power the largest gains made in speed/fuel consumption/braking/handeling will be by aerodynamics.

The other two significant aspects are fuel consumption and breaking potential.

Ultimate goal more speed, less fuel, better braking, better handeling all with no more power.

Thanks for the comments so far

[Holst]

I can see what your getting at.

It would help to know the vehicle your planning to use.

I cant see you making any significant gains on a road car with aero mods, be they active or static.

[GreenV8S]

daddyov8 said:

Ultimate goal more speed, less fuel, better braking, better handeling all with no more power.

What sort of conditions are you thinking about though? If you want a higher maximum speed you don't want any baggage at all stuck on the back of the car, you want to minimise the frontal area and clean up the front and sides, even a few pieces of tape in the right place to smooth over styling features and vents can make a difference. Similarly if you want less fuel consumption, but in the speed range that matters the impact of small aero changes is far less important. You definitely don't want any baggage over the boot though.

If you're after braking and handling improvements then minor aerodynamic tweaks like adding a wing or a splitter won't make enough difference to matter unless you are heading over 100 mph. Even when you're up to 150 or so the forces involved are very small compared to the weight and it's a matter of tweaking the balance of the car rather than making any noticeable difference to the total grip available.

Even in a very light car you have to do a lot of work to get the whole vehicle working before the forces involved start to become significant in performance terms. In a typical hefty road car with a few details being adjusted here and there you are going to struggle to measure the gains let alone justify the time and money spent to achieve them.

I suppose it's tempting to say that you can have a variable incidence wing that gives maximum downforce for cornering/braking and minimum lift induced drag for high speed, then have some sort of split system that counteracts weight transfer under hard cornering. The reality is though that when you look at the numbers involved the gains to be had under any conditions you'll see on the road are utterly negligible.

[daddyov8]

greenv8; thanks for your thoughts, i understand what your saying but i'm thinking more laterally than that. you can significantly reduce the frontal area via certain methods and you can smooth and modify airflow around and over the vehicle, all of which if activated at the appropriate time will aid the result. the gains will be more measurable than you think. debating which car to use at the minute and thinking of using my range rover, this is the most unfriendly aerodynamic design ever concieved so the gains should be greater and easier to measure. I'll keep you posted. My intial targets are a 20% reduction in fuel use at crusing speeds and a 20% reduction in acceleration times above 60 mph and a decrease of 10% in braking distance from 100mph. I'm leaving the handeling on this as its not a suitable test bed for that. Once I get the initial results i'll fine tune accordingly. I know all may sound strange but for a pratical example I previously modified a volvo estate with a more simplified set up and found 6mph on the top end and fuel consumption savings of 12% at 80 mph and this is a relatively clean design already.

[GreenV8S]

On the RR the biggest gains you're likely to see are from dropping it. Unless you're going to throw a parachute out the back I don't think you're going to change the stopping distance of two tons of vehicle. If you are trying to sort the handling then active roll control is probably the biggest single improvement, but they're not far off flipping at the best of times so trying to push the envelope here is liable to be risky.

[daddyov8]

lol your right about alot but then where there's a problem there's the potential for a solution, leaving the handeling for a min. measured up this weekend and looking to fabricate for next 2 weeks, post up some pics and set of before results once done.