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Originally Posted by aardvarcus
Alright I dreamed up another crazy idea. I have been studying the radiators section of Hucho’s book and several of the drawings posted on this site. In Hucho’s book, a radiator inlet low on the front of the car and exhaust up on the hood was stated as most efficient, but only practical for race cars. Most of the other opinions I have read are to dump cooling air out in the wheel wells or under the car at the rear of the engine bay.
Well I did some measuring, and this is what I came up with. My radiator is 14” tall and 25” wide mounted at an angle with the base about 10” from where the grill opening is. What if I did a duct at the front bottom that was actually under the current front of the car. It would be at the lowest point on the front bottom, but it would be out of view. A 2” opening 25” wide would get me close to the 1/6 ratio, and my duct would be 10”, or 71% of the 14” height. A picture is worth 1,000 words, to it is attached.
My way of thinking, this idea wouldn’t be that different than doing a 2” air dam and mounting the 2” opening just above the air splitter. The inlet side of the radiator would be sealed, and the outlet side would be semi sealed by belly pan/hood/etcetera and would dump the air out in the back of the engine bay, or maybe by the wheels.
Will this work? Do I need to radius the bottom lip of my inlet opening? Thoughts or ideas are welcome.
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If my memory worked,I think Korff was recommending 1/6th 'height' at full width for the actual inlet.If so,you'd want to add a smidgeon more opening for the worst-case-scenario day.
As to a radius for the bottom lip,yes,I think it would prevent any vena-contracta funny-business as the air attempts to enter.
You're creating a 'bottom-breather' which GM has used on Corvettes and Trans Am Firebirds and they relied on a lip spoiler below the inlet to create a stagnation zone right there.If you can locate one of these,you'll notice a modest radius atop the chin spoiler/airdam.
Just watch your 16-degree approach clearance so as not to rip that puppy off on a driveway ramp.
The actual drag data for the Trans Am is above at the mods data thread.I think it shaved 0.011 off the Cd.You'd want to verify that number.