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Old 09-08-2020, 07:40 PM   #29 (permalink)
JulianEdgar
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Here is the second part of the answer:



So what happens when there is a yaw (crosswind) component to the airflow? Not good things!

The CLf (yellow diamonds) doesn't change much - in fact, it actually improves (gets lower).

But the CLr (black diamonds) increases massively, going positive (into lift) at only about 4-5 degrees of yaw, and then reaching a stunning 0.53 at 15 degrees of yaw. That's the highest CLr I've ever seen.

As a result of that, the overall CL (red squares) goes to well over 0.6(!!) at 15 degrees yaw.

Frontal area of the car was 0.999 square metres and mass was 330kg - I'll let someone else do the maths for the effective weight of the car at 60 km/h - let alone at 15 degrees of yaw and 140 km/h (obviously, in those conditions the car would have been impossible to drive).

So, next time you read someone saying confidently that, well of course, streamlined cars have low lift, you can say: "You're dreaming!".
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