does aerodynamics work?

[fidalgoman]

What kind of aero you call effective depends greatly on the speed range. Since drag starts to really rear its ugly head around 50MPH (for sake of arguement) we are talking about the speed range between 50 to 80 MPH. In this speed range we are talking about low speed aero. We can forget about anything high speed. It's all about smooth transitions at these speeds. the optimum shape will look similar to a fish or bird body. Smooth continuous lines starting with a rounded entry and ending in a point (or truncated one). Turning air or creating turbulence takes energy. The more we can avoid sharp turns, eliminate rough spots, speed ups, or slow downs along the surface the more we reduce drag. There are subtle tricks given the space limitations but just about any car can be improved upon. And improvement equals higher MPG.

[MadisonMPG]

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?


lol

[bikeracer]

Originally Posted by MadisonMPG

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?


lol

what?

[dwtaylorpdx]

One of the race cars I assist in keeping on track is a Sports 2000 Its a power limited 2.0 liter Ford Pinto motor. Inside the rules it makes almost 200 HP. It uses a standard distributor ignition, a 36 Webber 2 barrel carb, and a Hewland 5 spd sequential shift transmission. Car weighs in at just over 1200 lbs. The car averages 135 mph on track, In order to run a 20 Minute race we put in 4 gallons of 104 octane racing fuel. The biggest thing we play with is aero, leave a small fin adjustment off and the car can lose seconds per lap which means with the restricted engines you lose.
Part of prepping ofr each race is carefully taping over all the body gaps, dzuz fasteners and making sure all the baffles in the structure of the car are correctly adjusted. We also have a mechanism for adjusting the air flow through the radiator, it makes almost a second per lap difference if we have to open it up a inch on a hotter day.
The funny thing about this class is the drivers play a lot of the same tricks that you guys who try to hyper mile do. Don't use brakes, time the speed of entry to coast through the turns, draft other cars.

Its pretty impressive to me that a car moving 135 can get 20 MPG

Dave

[Cd]

Does aerodynamics work ?
Of course not. It's all a hoax, and so is gravity.

[orange4boy]

I'm a pilot, so I can speak from authority when I say that it's all skyhooks, cables and counterweights. Theatre in the sky, if you will. Pilots and crew are the actors, Clouds are the curtains. Crashes occur if the cables break.

It was a real pain to get the cables strung out to the moon that time, I can tell you.

But you didn't hear it from me...shhhhhh