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Old 09-26-2009, 02:38 PM   #27 (permalink)
aerohead
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long shot

Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ View Post
aerohead -

I wonder if having the intake there helped any with keeping attached flow in the back? I can't really imagine the engine takes in that much air, but there might be something to the design with having the intake's vacuum only a small area above the exhaust's pressure to create a sort of bubble around the lower portion of the rear of the car that aids the flow by making a sort of "imaginary" boat tail extension?

It's a long shot, but I have to imagine that it's having some effect with such a low Cd on a high-downforce design.
Christ,the intake may have behaved as a low performance suction slot,helping to vacuum the boundary layer onto the roof.Hard to verify without the car.Porsche does have their own windtunnel and while 3rd-party modifications have crashed,Porsche's designs have faired well in competition and I bet they really sweated the details on the 917.
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