Resident Sicko

I was all set to either buy a pair of RUF A-piller aero parts or construct my own that fit a bit tighter and then it dawned on me-



Would Porsche continue to use the rain gutter flange on the outside of the A-piller as a sort of canard, producing just a tad of downforce?

It seems strange ot me that Porsche of all brands would continue with this "old style" rain gutter on a $100+ car when the flip out wing wondows went away and when everyone else did away with them a decade or two before. Sure, there is something to be said about shared parts between generations but why keep it so long until the complete redesign for the 996?

Any thoughts, theories or advice if the RUF style Aero add-ons do anything?

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Ruf copied the factory 935 parts: Porsche made them for those race cars when used at high-speed tracks where drag reduction counted.

They were worth 5-7 MPH at Daytona on our RSR & 935.

Resident Sicko

Thanks for the info, Steve! Interesting conclusions!

Tim

A few years ago "Racecar Engineering" in the Aero series of articles, did some wind tunnel testing on some various oddball ways to get aero improvements...

I think the test subject was an old Mini.... feathering and smoothing the a-pillars did make a difference in Cd....

Cant find the old issue... but the finding stuck with me enough to remember