Push it off a cliff and film it on the way down?

 

I read the same thing.

It's one thing to relieve pressure. It's another to chop the body panel. From what I hear you can vent the pressure without resorting to drastic cutting as shown (which I've seen in a lot of places... which everyone seems to have based on some Porsche test stuff).

TonyG

 

Plus I wonder how much turbulence you add to the airflow by having large abrupt panel cutouts and overexposed wheel wells.

 

lol

It's not just P test stuff. Plenty of others have done actual wind tunnel testing as well as CFD.

Fair point but I can't see a bunch of these people doing it for kicks.

It's academic to a degree as this car is going to be stupidly fast.

 

Where?

 

can't wait for even more pics!

 

IIRC one of the Flying Lizards cars lost some of it's rear fascia during a shunt at Sebring and had better laps times afterwards.

 

But...but...but... I have been reading about this car on the internet forums....you mean its not real? Is the whole thing just a 1/18 scale diorama?

 

Hmmmm, just the fact that Porsche (or any race team) says it doesn't work and yet it remains on the car lends more credence to that fact that it works and probably works well!

Deceit in motorsports? what's the world coming to?

 

Not sure. Depends on the exact day.

But it will either be Willow Springs, AutoClub Speedway, or Buttonwillow (in that order) depending on where we can get on.

I'll know more next week.

TonyG

 

What? I believe everything I read in Racecar Engineering magazine…

Actually I think the reference was more about the dive planes located behind the rear wheels which Hartmut Kristen suggested that there was nothing to them other than they looked good. I remember reading they gained overall efficiency with the new aero but still had problems with turbulence behind the rear wheels because the engine location compromised the diffuser design. So I am sure it works and letting pressure out of the wells is proven, but I am sure it's not perfect.


And, of course, big manufacturers never get aero wrong…….

 

Of all the things I muck around with, by far aero is the one I struggle with the most... not conceptually, but in design and testing. So tough.

 

I predict in the not too distant future top teams will be able to do testing at the track with a series of 3d printed parts that they can just click on and off the bodywork to test their respective merits. You heard it here first...

Looking forward to Tony testing this car soon. You'd have to anticipate quite a lot of testing to be done with a very different car than before.

 

I know 3d printed parts aren't quite up to the strength required for high speed (M0.6+) scale airplane wind tunnel testing. And that's with the fanciest/most expensive printers on the market; even ones that impregnate metal into the plastic. But that could be different at more reasonable speeds that a car would see
For the overall body I'd say it would work fine, but for thin aero like wings you'd definitely still need metal.

 

There are 3D printers making metal parts now. At this stage the metal is more porous than could be used for certain motor parts but you'd have to assume that it won't be long until they come up with some material that can stand up to the pressure levels that we're talking about.