Drop your cooling drag to near zero... with no reduction in cooling!

[Hersbird]

My 2012 Touareg TDI sort of does this with the 2 intercoolers. They aren't quite at a 45degree angle but they are angled, and they don't discharge down and in front of the tires, but just straight out the wheel wells into the front tires. The radiator and transmission cooler are just traditional I think. The published Cd numbers are not particularly great, .35, but they are not terrible either.

[ennored]

A similar setup was used on British Touring Cars back in the 90's. The radiators were mounted low. Air came in the lower opening, through the radiators, and was ducted out the sides, just ahead of the front tires.

Front the front it looked like the tires were exposed, sort of unfinished. Found an image (well almost, thanks photobucket) of just the splitter. You can see the ducts, and the slots where twin radiators go. From a 3/4 front you can see the inlet and outlet.

Downforce was a the driving factor though. But I bet it was good for drag too.

(C8 Corvette has radiators in the front corners too. The outlet air flows directly into the wheel wells though, not really directed in any direction.)

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by ennored

A similar setup was used on British Touring Cars back in the 90's. The radiators were mounted low. Air came in the lower opening, through the radiators, and was ducted out the sides, just ahead of the front tires.

Front the front it looked like the tires were exposed, sort of unfinished. Found an image (well almost, thanks photobucket) of just the splitter. You can see the ducts, and the slots where twin radiators go. From a 3/4 front you can see the inlet and outlet.

Downforce was a the driving factor though. But I bet it was good for drag too.

(C8 Corvette has radiators in the front corners too. The outlet air flows directly into the wheel wells though, not really directed in any direction.)

Looking at those pictures made me remember how fun the TOCA video game was. That made me look up what happened to the series and saw that they have a pretty new version out, so I just ordered a used copy of Grid Autosport 2014 off ebay.

[Vman455]

For anyone interested in a deeper dive on this, here's a paper from one of the aerodynamicists who developed the cooling system on the 2005 911 that also discusses the 1997 cooling system, what changes were made, and why. It should be a free download with no registration.

[JulianEdgar]

Originally Posted by Vman455

For anyone interested in a deeper dive on this, here's a paper from one of the aerodynamicists who developed the cooling system on the 2005 911 that also discusses the 1997 cooling system, what changes were made, and why. It should be a free download with no registration.

Yes, lots and lots in that paper. I have another video coming up based on the paper's content on ducted radiator drag.