My turbo-delsol- aero mods

[jedi_sol]

or use the sheets and build some nice solar panels.

[thatguitarguy]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Remember this guy?

I don't know why he vanished after doing this but my suspicion is it didn't help fe at all or maybe even hurt it.

Or maybe he's still in jail after putting that thing on the road.
"We don't take kindly ta yer type 'round here"

[thatguitarguy]

Originally Posted by pgfpro

OK guys I need your help. I'm thinking of shorting the rear tail by two feet.


Like this



Thought and opinions please???

Well I think the shorter version looks better, as far as that goes. And in a real world situation, it would be safer to drive. As short as the wheelbase is on the Del Sol, if you add that much behind the pivot point, you're going to have to be really careful of not swinging it into other vehicles, and not knocking old ladies off the sidewalk.

I just love watching other people's experiments! I'm still wondering about the template material? Is it paper? Something more substantial? Is it durable enough for mock up road/tuft testing?

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by thatguitarguy

Well I think the shorter version looks better, as far as that goes. And in a real world situation, it would be safer to drive. As short as the wheelbase is on the Del Sol, if you add that much behind the pivot point, you're going to have to be really careful of not swinging it into other vehicles, and not knocking old ladies off the sidewalk.

I just love watching other people's experiments! I'm still wondering about the template material? Is it paper? Something more substantial? Is it durable enough for mock up road/tuft testing?

I sent the pics to a friend that's one of those aeronautical engineers, so I'm going to see what he thinks.

The template material is made of made of thick paper. I think its used for scrape booking. But to answer your question no it wouldn't survive a tuft test.

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by Cd

Looks familiar
Can't wait to see how this comes along !

OK I just finished talking to my aero nerd friend.LOL

Cd's model is what I'm going to copy. I'm going to shorten it up by about two feet to get the length more symmetric and to scale of what "Cd's" pic shows.

This will give me a starting point and then I will tuft test it.

I'm happy again

[Cd]

Oh cool !
Glad that could be of use.

You are just mocking up pieces now aren't you ?
The reason that I ask, is that I see that even in your sketches, you have a lot of flat sides and sharp angles.
I'm assuming that you are going to smooth those edges right ?

I'm sure that you know this, but the angles that you have now will result in two huge vortexes ( corkscrews ) of air at the rear of your car.



The rear of the tail should have rounded edges ( similar to my first illustration ) versus being a boxy shape. The red lines in the picture above show the path that air will take in your current configuration. The black lines are what we are after.
It is basically just a tapering of the shape that proceeds it.

[Cd]

By the way, the angles on the picture that I did are a little off on the 'ideal' underside angle ( pretty sloppy too), but I was trying to see how short I could make the tail, yet have it look esthetically pleasing.
If you have your car lowered, you may not get that much air under there anyways.

The angles on the sides ( the top view ) should be the 'ideal' angle though.

( I did an overlay of the teardrop template. )

Interestingly enough, the sides of you car already start to taper at just the right angle !
All you have to do is just add to that.

[Cd]

So are you the guy I spoke with about grafting an MX-3 hatch onto the car ?

You would have to do some fiberglass buildup / cutting in some areas, but it looks like it might just fit right in.

Not only would it look professional, but it would be functional as a hatch.

( Note the almost identical angle of the hatch near the C pillar on the two cars )

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by Cd

Oh cool !
Glad that could be of use.

You are just mocking up pieces now aren't you ?
The reason that I ask, is that I see that even in your sketches, you have a lot of flat sides and sharp angles.
I'm assuming that you are going to smooth those edges right ?

I'm sure that you know this, but the angles that you have now will result in two huge vortexes ( corkscrews ) of air at the rear of your car.



The rear of the tail should have rounded edges ( similar to my first illustration ) versus being a boxy shape. The red lines in the picture above show the path that air will take in your current configuration. The black lines are what we are after.
It is basically just a tapering of the shape that proceeds it.

Thanks again for your input!!!

Yeah the pics I have posted are very square to the actual layout. In fact I test fitted a side panel and the way it attaches the whole back will be a cone shape like your black lines of your sketch.

Thanks on the advice of the back panel I will have to come up with a smoother shape instead of the one on my drawing.

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by Cd

So are you the guy I spoke with about grafting an MX-3 hatch onto the car ?

You would have to do some fiberglass buildup / cutting in some areas, but it looks like it might just fit right in.

Not only would it look professional, but it would be functional as a hatch.

( Note the almost identical angle of the hatch near the C pillar on the two cars )

Yes that was me I borrowed a hatch off a MX-3 and its way off.

I could make it work but there wouldn't be much left of the original hatch after I got done with it. LOL