Front skirts in production

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

From the pic, it seems like the front fenders are wide enough to allow the front wheels to space to turn... so they sacrificed frontal area for the ability to completely cover the wheels.

I think those are mostly for looks. I read somewhere that adding a 'bulge' just to get a better shape is not worth while. The increase in FA outweighs the reduction of Cd. Maybe adding a bulge and covering the front wheels breaks even?

Re verticle hinge: if the wheels turn left then the rear opens on the right side and the front on the left, am I correct? Something like the suicide doors in the Panhard Dyna Z?



Could this cause a parachute effect on one side when turning above a certain speed?

[cfg83]

Nevyn -

Originally Posted by Nevyn

uhh....there's a word for that. It's called "Primary."

Ha ha, I know egg-zactly what happened. I was thinking "first, second(ary), third", so my stoopeed brain evicted primary as an option.

CarloSW2

[andylaurence]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Great find! Last picture seems to indicate that the front wheel skirts are mounted to the non-rotating portion of the wheel hub... would be interesting to get some detailed information about the mounting mechanism.

Seems like that could be mimicked on a car using a mounting system similar to the Lotus / Locost 7 front fenders, like so:



Unlike the Lotus 7 fender, it wouldnt be necessary to provide coverage over the top of the tire, only along the face of the wheel... so it could be made for "relatively" easy removal for access to the wheel & tire itself.

Westfield's iRACER car does exactly this. I saw it at Goodwood last week and the wheel covers are unsprung weight but made of very lightweight plastic. It also has flexible bodywork!

[davidgrey50]

Do these around-the-tire skirts reduce drag by A: partly blocking the wheel-well opening or B: reducing the drag of the wheel/tire or C: both?

[NachtRitter]

Piwoslaw...

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Re verticle hinge: if the wheels turn left then the rear opens on the right side and the front on the left, am I correct? Something like the suicide doors in the Panhard Dyna Z?

Could this cause a parachute effect on one side when turning above a certain speed?

Ya, kinda like that... The idea is that at high speeds you're not going to be turning all that much anyway... and the cover should have a little bit of a lip to avoid "catching the wind" at speed.

Carlos...

Originally Posted by cfg83

This reminds me of the capads, aka a weighted floating cover, except they are extending the "cap" outside the diameter of the wheel :

Pretty cool... somewhat ironic that the wheel bearings allow the wheel to turn, and then another set of bearings are needed to keep the cover from turning... Too bad it isn't easier to mount something like that on the spindle from the outside of the wheel.

David...

Originally Posted by davidgrey50

Do these around-the-tire skirts reduce drag by A: partly blocking the wheel-well opening or B: reducing the drag of the wheel/tire or C: both?

The goal is to allow air to flow past the entire body of the car with minimal disturbance. The covers essentially allow smooth air flow across an area that is typically very turbulent. Sooo... I guess that would be option "C"?

[bike4miles]

Looks like the front skirts may be mounted directly to an axle sleeve that extends through the center of the wheel. The skirts look too large and heavy to be attached from the inside only to me.

[SvdM]

@ bike4miles - perhaps you are right, but it could just be that they're fibreglass and they're professionally made, thus I assume actually quite light. If you just attach that skirt at the front, back and top, it should be quite sturdy, especially if in plan your front, back and top mounts form a triangle shape too where connected on the suspension.

This should be more than sturdy enough for a lightweight fibreglass / plastic part.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by XJguy

Many of the Delahayes have front wheel skirts, but I have not been able to find anything showing how they function.

I think that the wheels are inset far enough that at full lock,the tire runs just short of bumping into the skirt.
Porsche's 60K10 was like this,and the 356 Panamerican racer.Nash Aeroflyte also I think.Metropolitan?
Sounds like we need to dedicate a thread to skirts,past and present.

[davidgrey50]

This got me wondering why a fully-enclosed front fender like the Delahaye wouldn't be a a reasonable proposition for an ecomod. Properly shaped, the small increase in frontal area would (should?) be more than offset by the large reduction in drag. Overall vehicle width shouldn't be an issue - if the full-size dually pickups fit in a lane, so should bulbous front fenders. It would also eliminate all those complex mounting and articulation problems.

Negative-offset front wheels would help, as long as one doesn't try to emulate Messrs. Vettel and Button.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by davidgrey50

This got me wondering why a fully-enclosed front fender like the Delahaye wouldn't be a a reasonable proposition for an ecomod. Properly shaped, the small increase in frontal area would (should?) be more than offset by the large reduction in drag. Overall vehicle width shouldn't be an issue - if the full-size dually pickups fit in a lane, so should bulbous front fenders. It would also eliminate all those complex mounting and articulation problems.

Negative-offset front wheels would help, as long as one doesn't try to emulate Messrs. Vettel and Button.

I like the simplicity of the bulbous fender/skirt.The added frontal area would eat into the gains and parking alongside a curb could spell destruction if you forgot they were down there.
Simple curb-finders might help as a 'reminder.'