Carl Fausett

Here is sneak-preview of a part I was trying to have ready for Sharktoberfest but the stars did not line up right to get it done in time.

I have been developing canards for the early and late body styles.

They perform 3 functions (most people only know of two).
1) they add a little downforce in the front to combat understeer
2) they function as a vortex generator at the front of the front tire, causing the air trapped in the fenderwell to be pulled out through the wheel, adding low pressure beneath the car and cooling the brakes
3) they look cool as all get out.

It is function #2 that most gear-heads miss.

Anyway - the one in the picture is just polyester-glass prototype. Please imagine these in carbon-fiber which is what the final product will be manufactured in.

I will be running around Sharktoberfest holding these prototypes up to as many cars as I can to confirm that we have the fender arc right on all the cars.

What do you think?

Ragnar Joensen

Impressive !

Did You, and if so, calculate the effect in those 3 respects academically ?

1. Downforce effect
2. Vortex effect
3. Wauuuww effect

... or was it a best guess with an open mind for improvements ?


Ragnar

bronto

You forget the 4th function:

4) slicing arteries in the legs of passing pedestrians.

dprantl

Yes, I was about to say, ouch!

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

RyanPerrella

well, since you asked

Those look absolutely ABSURD!

youve outdone yourself this time, i say stick with the mechanicals, leave the design elements to Porsche. I SEE NO AERO ADVANTAGE WITH THIS!

I did notice you had Mitsubishi Evo "vortex generators" on the back roof section of your race car. I guess if it worked for Mitsu, it had got to work for you was your thinking?

Usually when one does such modifications they do it because a wind tunnel has told them that it cleans up air at a specific point. And i know you don't own a wind tunnel, (I am pretty sure your probably 500 plus miles away from one actually) so i can say with near certainty that this is just some tacked on JUNK.

Hope you sell a million of them

RyanPerrella

1) is completely wrong. A canard or airfoil is used to clean up airflow to other LARGER wings which are what produce downforce. F1 cars are littered with these typs of aero foils and i can tell you they do nothing for downforce, they do however clean up airflow to and From the main aero elements. Downforce on F1 cars comes from 3 things 1) the LARGE FRONT WING, THE LARGE REAR WING, AND THE UNDERBODY GROUND EFFECTS (Which are actually outlawed in F1 so they run basically a flat bottomed car. The rear diffuser helps clean up that airflow though but thats only aft of the front part of the transaxle.

So NO you are not generating any downforce, and combat understeer? yeah ok, do you also have a bridge in brooklyn you can sell me?

"Canard" in French can be interpreted as HOAX funny enough. Sounds very fitting here.

2) yeah Vortex generator, see my post above. That seems to work when there are multiples not just a single plane

How do you think they clean up airflow around the tire? They are in front of the tire and are not in the same air stream as the airflow around the tire. They are outside of the body! If you did something like this in the wheel well then you could make these crazy claims.

3) well thats a matter of opinion.........

mark kibort

I think I was the first to do this, as i incorporated some CF that i had from a ALMS wreck, into these "Dive planes" hardly canards, integrated into the splitter. The are not canards. canards are small wings that are designed to change the attitude of an airplane so that the larger wings can have their angle of attack changed.

The splitter is FAR more effective in routing air to the sides of the car, keeping the air from spilling under the car . As far as downforce, it is pretty easy to calculate and test. not much there. In fact, at 80mph, you could have .2psi to play with. (at 160mph more like .4psi ) now, take the square footage of those wings and see what their max potential is. if its a couple of lbs, you would be doing good!

wow factor? without a splitter, it just look like a dangerous nose knife. as far as a vortex generator, there would be some turbulent flow that now would be passing by the wheel, but if it could add any more flow out of the wheel, that would be interesting to see.

mk

RyanPerrella

if you want to clean up airflow, why dont you turn to the underbody of the car. Start by making it completely flat.

Once youve done that, extend it into the lower rear bumper because the back side of the rear bumper acts as a parachute and if you can close that off to airflow under the car you are saving yourself allot of drag. You could also then do some diffuser sculpting to also generate downforce and clean up drag issues. so 2 for one there.

Instead you propose to sell this XXXX on the basis that it will help handling?

mark kibort

I added this splitter when the 250lbs of rear downforce caused a very nasty push that was obviously seen in my 06 video race at laguna. this splitter, cut in the hood and small dive planes, and then an extension of the splitter, allowed the car to be MUCH more balanced. However, not a huge difference from when it had a little wing in the rear and no front splitter, it did make the car more manageable in the medium to fast turns. (ie 75mph to 100mph).
I now can tune with the rear wing based on the track and how the car is handling.

I think a better product might be to make a bolt on splitter that integrates into a dive plane like what i have, but nicer

Here is one of the fastest sports cars on the planet. rumored to be near 650hp, but most of its advantage is in the aero. not surprising, it incorporates all that we know about solid aero add ons that work with the least amount of drag.
This car would put some SERIOUS hurt on Andersons car, beating it by near 5-6 seconds a lap as it destroyed the Sofranas , GT WINNING GT3 WC porsche time at Buttonwillow by near 5 seconds for a lap.

mk

928autobahndreamer

No, really people, tell us how you really feel. Don't hold back

mark kibort

another reason they do work on the cars Ive shown above, is that they are incorporated into the splitter area. the air spills off the nose, rolls to the side and when it hits the sides the air that is hiting it directly, plus all the air that has rolled off the nose and was captured by the splitter, is diverted upward slightly for added downforce. Alone, based on imparting a negative pressure on the air hitting it directly, will not result in any measurable downforce. in concert with other frontal aero devices, it can be very effective, however at a greater cost in drag than a splitter alone.

Not trying to bash the idea. Just trying to help with a functional bolt on aero product.

Hood vents work well too, but you need to cut the hood

mk

RyanPerrella

that looks pretty good Mark

docmirror

Well, although I'm not as passionate as Ryan, I do think you're grasping with 1 and 2. You have no idea what aero effect they have unless you've done some wind tunnel test, and tuft tests as a minimum. Perhaps you've done some tuft testing? Good example here: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/174975...esting_300_zx/

As for 3 - meh, I can do without. You might also be into a strange liability issue with these as well. The first time you cut someone with one(and it WILL happen), the driver and possibly the mfg will be facing liability.

Let us know if you've done some tuft testing and what results were. Also, what would really be valuable is a very accurate fuel totalizer to check the difference in power required to push the car with, and without the Canard.

BTW, generally in aero terms, VGs and dowforce are somewhat mutually exclusive functions. One is designed to break up laminar flow, and the other is designed to use the airflow over an airfoil to promote a force, in this case downforce.

Mako 928

Mount it a bit lower and it could also be used as a curb feeler.
Seriously my first thought is that it will cut the crap out of someones leg just walking/brushing past it. It ruins the lines/look of a stock car, race car maybe but as mentioned it has to go W/ other aero mods.
I can not see this on a street car,sorry.

ubercooper

would look great in CF if they were lower down, not so hot looking on the s4/gt though

I'd put my name down for a pair if you made them for the OBs

as for cutting peds legs off; if your getting within 3 inches of a person fast enough to slice em, then your already in a pretty bad spot