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Old 05-12-2010, 05:17 AM   #7 (permalink)
lunarhighway
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: belgium
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vectra a - '95 Opel Vectra GLS
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if the paths do illustrate the air molecules than i assume the colors are the speed, with red being fast, and blue slow. looking at the first two images the biggest image i see is illustration 2 has faster moving air underneath the front of the car. the bigest improvement that can be made to most underbody is installing a front undertray and often this is combined with the deletion or reduction of the central airdam on production cars (i've seen this mentioned with the calibra for the first time)and ie most low drag mercs all have this too. this site (in german) has quite some interesting data on the developement along with the image that shows the wake of the front tires

so making air move faster under the car appears to be a good thing based on my interpretation of this data.

Quote:
I'm looking at this image and asking myself where the tire deflectors should go. This particular (probably fictious) car has net outward flow behind its front wheels, so a boattail behind each wheel should be angled accordingly.

Do you mean a boattail that would support this flow direction? if so you're assuming this ourward flow is a good thing, however is causes the air to slow down... what would happen if two partial "side skirts" (or boattails) where placed behind and on the inside of the front wheels crating a duct and preventing the air from moving out. if the air can't move out it can only move backwards so it's speed will remain relatively high and the pressure low. this would stabilise the car in the first place, but also as the low pressure behind the wheels isn't "fed" with air from underneath the car, it might pull in air from the side of the car, thus decreasing the wake. dams in front of the rear wheels designed to guide air under the car might further help decrease the wake.
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