Air Tabs

[luv2spd]

Jakobnev, I thought about the sharper separation too now that the Airtabs are installed, I wish we could have somebody test this in a wind tunnel, maybe the MythBusters will test these one day

[ConnClark]

The inventor of air tabs did. It was on a hatch back and he reduced drag by over 4%.

One thing you need to remeber is that these were designed to go on semis which will have a thicker boundry layer. Because of this they are taller than they need to be for most applications of a car. This means that they will generate more drag and can easily offset any gains

[ksa8907]

What if you just put some ordinary round magnets on your car instead?

[sid]

What if you just put some ordinary round magnets on your car instead?

I don't know. Try it. It sounds simple and cheap enough. My gut feeling though is that it will hurt the aerodynamics. But, who knows?

I get a lot of those flat flexible magnets with advertising on them free. I think they are intended as refrigerator magnets. They are simple to cut with scissors. They might be worth trying. You could try almost any shape you want, if you can cut it.

[ecomodded]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

What if you just put some ordinary round magnets on your car instead?

Put them on your dashboard and you will SEE a gain
(a small weight gain)

I personally like the shark fin style air tab which is what they use on aircraft. The aerodynamic drag of these will be minimal, having a very narrow profile they are designed for high speeds.
Like the 747-400 has a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (567mph). It's maximum speed is Mach 0.92 (614mph).
I hope not to give a wrong impression of the effectiveness of these at lower speeds, in practice the airplane wing air tabs allow a plane to take off sooner as well as using less hp which= fuel. the 747 takes off at 120 mph. Smaller planes with lower take off speed also use air tabs, the 747 was just an example.

[wagonef8]

Lancer Evolution

[redorchestra]

I fabbed small aerotabs to fit on magnetic sheets. I was a bit afraid that they would fly off but so far so good! good to 110 km/h

I dont know if they have any effect on MPGs, but I did notice one thing.
I drive a hatchback, and when it rains I usually have to run the rear wiper. Today with the airtabs my rear window stayed completely dry.

I personally doubted the airtabs would do anything, but now i am wondering. It definately changes the wind patterns at the rear.

I would love to tuft test it, but I dont like to drive just to test.

this is just my observation

[ecomodded]

Here is tuft test video of Vortex generators at work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXwVyxorvno

At 8 min the wing has full vortex generators at which point the stall speed changes drastically from 58 kt to 38 kt.
Those are the style of VG's I want to paint and stick to my car. They look good, in my eyes, but more important they are proven to work.

[skyking]

flight does not equal or represent flow on a car on the ground. Just keep that in mind when looking at that vid. The air passing under the wing has a lot to do with how that looks, and you also are not in the business of generating lift with your car. Lift = drag.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

Here is tuft test video of Vortex generators at work

I only had time to watch half the video, but found it to be very interesting.