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Old 04-23-2009, 01:16 AM   #25 (permalink)
theunchosen
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Join Date: Nov 2008
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RK, are you sticking with the slightly sloped up rear section for a boat-tail effect?

If so there are two possible options for the radiator that would increase the effectiveness of both. If the bottom of the car expands up away from the road it will create a slightly low pressure zone and if you have a kammback/boat-tail top that will be low pressure as well.

Depending on which has a greater low pressure mount the radiator along that slope. The heat dumped into the flow will do 2 things on a very small level.

1.) It should decrease density of the flow because its expanding(slightly).
2.) It should decrease(or rather increase pressure) the low pressure by adding a little Q back into the flow to cause the cooling expansion to become simply expansion.

The cooling densification process is what causes the drag on the rear of your car. If you can take that heat and dump it there usefully it will decrease your drag(how much I can't tell you). Any sloped low pressure area will have that effect with the radiator but obviously the best place is the one with the lowest pressure.

It would also be beneficial for the radiator because instead of facing regular air temps it will face cooler temps(slightly).

The other thing is as speed increases the radiator will cool better but the drag "scavenging" will decrease because your car isn't really producing a linear(to match the ramping heat exchange) amount of heat.

Something to consider if you aren't already doing this.

My older friend with the Turino did this on his Thunderbird(mounted to the trunk along with his pre-cooler for a turbo, built in flush) and he said it was somewhat noticeable. IT might have been a firebird. He has/had alot of cars. I've seen a couple of instances where this is done in racing applications like the Bentley Speed 7&8 and a few others with the pre-coolers and radiators mounted in low pressure spots to "soften" them.
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