interesting air dam configuation on new insight

[lunarhighway]

interesting air dam configuation on new insight



after the weird blocks that appeared on the concept the production version of the new honda insight has some interesting wheel dam configuration



appart from "normal dams" it also has airmans at the beginning of the bumper.
these appear on other vehicles as well but i always thought them to be a less than optimal solution.

the fact they both appear on a vehicle that might be seen a s a benchmark of state of the art aero should mean they work.

the front dams remind me most of the dams on the calibra wich had these lower dams in front of the wheels

[Hasbro]

A full frontal shot would be helpful to see how the fore and aft dams? work in relation to each other.

[lunarhighway]

yea it sure would, but this blowup was taken from the first officially released picture of the production version and made brighter to see the dams...fortunately the detail wasn't lost in the shadows...most pictures are still of the concept, and very few promotion shots actucally show a full frontal these days.

cars also have become more 3 dimentional (70's cars with their boxy looks could be pretty accurately depicted in 3 views, but todays cars oftel look odd when reduced to 3 dimentions)

it appears as if the front dams follow the curve of the bumper and the rear dams are faceing forward.

what i find interesting is that the front dams end quite a bit before the wheel arch, so i'm trying to imagine what sort of flow would occur around this configuration and what the intention is.

[Funny]

They appear, to me at least, to be vertical, but tip inward towards the center of the car, funneling the air underneath it. That would be a way to increase velocity under the vehicle and create better traction at highway speed. Just my SWAG (Scientifically Wild @$$ed Guess).

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by lunarhighway

what i find interesting is that the front dams end quite a bit before the wheel arch, so i'm trying to imagine what sort of flow would occur around this configuration and what the intention is.

Maybe be front dams are shorter to allow any sideways moving air to escape, instead of being trapped under the car between the front and back dams? The sideways moving air may be bouncing off of the back dams.

[PaleMelanesian]

Looks to me like the main goal is to divert air away from the wheels. The airflow under the center of the car is unimpeded.

[lunarhighway]

its not an entirely new setup... most aerodynamic cars today have bumpers or dams wich divert the air sideways and around the tires. even my car wich was first lanched in 1988 had something similar (the undertray is not original)


the honda version seems a simplified version of the prototype, which makes me wonder why they didn't stuck to that... i mean the dams can't be that much worse than a full fairing which wouldn't reduce ground clearence...

i'd honestly had expected something more sophisticated in that area... but perhaps its not as simple as it looks... it would be alsome to see this setup in a windtunnel and see where the air goes

[dichotomous]

it could also be that honda isnt designing this car for high speed driving and the airdam was shown to be less effective at lower speeds so they just went with something a little less, that plastic saved over 1 million cars is a lot of plastic, could equal better ass-covering with the cooling or safety or something. honda is good at bean counting and thats what wins in the end with them, so its most likely a financial desicion

[aerohead]

My guess is that Honda wants to get as much air around the sides as it can since it's the easiest path to the rear--------------.Looking at concept cars with completely smooth undersides,carmakers still lower and rake the vehicles at higher speeds to limit undercar flow.--------------- Without an "active" front airdam (reads complication,cost,reliability issues) the little dams are a way to passively tune airflow as best they can while respecting ground clearance,curbs,parking-lot barriers,etc..