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Old 05-25-2008, 12:33 PM   #5 (permalink)
lunarhighway
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: belgium
Posts: 663

vectra a - '95 Opel Vectra GLS
90 day: 37.51 mpg (US)
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the diy design looks pretty good, so the price/looks balance is great, and if fact it sort of looks what my car has from the factory only mine is fully vertical and not angled. but it's also lower at the sides than the center, so the design is fairly sound, but it sort of coppies a factory design, wich are usually good but not perfect due to financial and technical reasons that overrule perfect aero. you might indeed be able to do better, even if you don't have a windtunnel to presisely test it.

looking at te underside of the car would be a good idea, get down on you knees and look straight underneath the edge of the bumper. see what projects form underneath and would desturb auiflow... obviously the wheels, maybe part of the suspention and perhaps the bottom of the engine and the transmission.

fairings directly in front of the wheels and the suspention links seem to work pretty well, especially as this could keep air from getting in the wheelwell.

the closer you get the the wheels the bigger the fairings you build can be without scrubbing to the curb etc... factory dams at the front of the bumper are to high aerodynamically for this reason.

perhaps a small undertray can be build with little or no extra effort of cost to the dams and have better results

a trend i've observed on the newest cars are much smoother underside's that really guide the air under the car and under the lowest parts of the engine .

these sometimes have lover "bulges" in front of the wheels wich for ground clearance resons are not perfect so they're usually argumented with straight small dams directly in front of the wheels.

if you can it's better to smoothly guide the air where you want it to go than to forecefully pervent it from going where you don't want it to go.

anyway, cheap aeromods can look very pro, but make sure you know why you screw something to your car and what you want it to do.
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aer·o·dy·nam·ics: the science of passing gass

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