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Old 09-04-2008, 04:19 PM   #15 (permalink)
Sayyad
Aero Addict
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Posts: 30

TDI Jetta - '99 Volkswagen Jetta TDI
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If you want to reduce the aerodynamic losses from the front wheel wells, from what I gather you have two ways, which may work best when combined.
1. Minimize air getting into the wheel well in the first place. Flat hubcaps, bumpers that guide air around as much of the front profile of the wheel as is practical, flexible material to smooth the underside of the suspension into the belly pan and wheel skirts covering as much of the open wheel well as possible.
2. Some kind of venting system in an attempt to equalize the pressure (positive or negative) within the wheel well. This could be those above-fender louvers or a vent that lets air out along the side of the car behind the wheel well. Side vents can be as complicated as little chrome grilles connected to the fender liner with ducts or as simple as the Insight's front fender's inward-curving rear edge.

Consider combining a skirt that covers only the front and top of the front wheel for wheel clearance and a vent cut out behind the wheel well through the fender. That should result in less pressure loss or pressure build-up in the wheel well since much of the air flowing towards the tire is redirected along the sides of the vehicle and the rest of the air in the wheel well has an easy way to escape.
Even using just a smooth wheel shape and an inwards-curving rear edge in the wheel well seems to work well for the Insight.

I figure that the best possible airflow would be to use a wheel pant around the wheel itself, like small airplanes and the Aptera, but also to enclose this shape in a flexible skirted wheel well like the Probe V. This way the wheel would get very nearly no airflow (except for what is vented through to the brakes... please don't forget to vent the brakes), the wheel well itself would let nearly no air into the suspension area, and the outer skirt over the wheel well would bend with the wheel when turning without having to scrub against the tire.
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