Bad Aero advice discussed

[j-c-c]

Granted this is racing DF oriented, but it's a discussion often touched on here and has merit IMO, and it's from someone in the proverbial aero trenches with pedigree:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...eid=0198c5f0de

[freebeard]

Bad Info: Spoilers and Vortex Generators Reduce Drag and Good Aero Logic both use essentially the same illustration, just flipped and marked up.

A front splitter is just a bellypan with an underbite.

[j-c-c]

"Bad Info: Spoilers and Vortex Generators Reduce Drag
Every time I hear this, I gnash my teeth. While there are a very few instances where this works, it is much more likely that spoilers and vortex generators increase drag. Forcing the air around stuff–like a spoiler–takes energy and therefore creates drag. This is a guarantee locally, but it may reduce drag effects elsewhere, providing a net drag reduction on the car. Remember, the entire car operates as a system."

[Piwoslaw]

This list can be expanded beyond just aero - Revving your engine, "louder must be better" exhaust, etc...

I have a few neighbours who need to read that article, but I have my doubts whether they can read...

[j-c-c]

You are noting the IMO proverbial "Peacock Syndrome" or maybe more commonly known as "hey look/listen to me" active mindset, often an exclusive male proclivity, with little direct relationship to general intelligence in most cases.

[Piotrsko]

Vortex generators were originally engineered to disturb the airflow over portions of an aircraft wing so as to make it controllable during stall scenerios. In a stall condition, they do reduce drag somewhat, but at stall the airfoil is generally at max drag configuration. Spoilers do kinda the same thing and any drag change would be the result of serendipitous airflow improvements. With todays supercomputers, maybe not serendipitous any more. The back in the day useage case for spoilers was planting the tires more firmly onto the ground to corner faster which unsurprising made elapsed times faster. Didn't do much at drag strips for better ET's, but they didn't head for the fence as bad.

[aerohead]

Steve provides conditions, caveats, context for all he reports. This is as 'clean' a reporting as we're likely to get.