Quote:
Originally Posted by JulianEdgar
We must be seeing a different forum then. When I did my book, I asked people for examples of modifications that had been well-tested, so I could feature them. Lots of people contacted me but unfortunately I had to reject most of them because either:
- testing hadn't actually been carried out
- testing was done with poor methodologies (eg coastdown)
- their results were internally contradictory (eg claimed decrease in Cd didn't match actual increase in top speed)
As for Aerohead's wind tunnel testing, it was done in a such a tiny wind tunnel (with therefore such a huge blockage factor), I'd place zero credence on the results.
I can't see anything there about throttle-stop testing, lift/downforce testing or surface panel pressure testing. Or eroding clay testing or even tufting!
Who has said testing should replace theory? Not me, anyway. The actual argument is this: if test results do not match theory, then the theory (or mostly in Aerohead's case) the application of it, is wrong.
That may be your belief; it is not mine. I agree that there is controversy about them in appeal and practicality as road cars, but I also have strong doubts about they way they are applied in developing modifications to existing cars - after all, what basically 99 per cent of people here are doing. |
Interesting that the curved-wall,curved-ceiling,A2 wind tunnel data went uncontested, but somehow,the curved-wall,curved-ceiling,DARKO data, a wind tunnel of which shares its design from the same Gary Eaker of the A2, is immediately called into question.
Do you also slam Pininfarina? It has a remarkably small test section cross-section and 'blockage-ratio' , yet return some of the best numbers in inter-tunnel calibration model testing.
Have you read Alan Pope's book on low-speed wind tunnel testing?
And perhaps it didn't register, that Hucho commented, that it didn't matter what tunnel one used for vehicle-specific testing,as long as you stuck with the same tunnel.
And perhaps you're unaware that people like us weren't allowed into, or couldn't compensate for all the race teams which had 'big tunnels' pre-paid for all the tunnel time spoken for,for years into the future.
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You haven't proved any theory wrong so far.