NASCAR aero tech.
 

I'll preface this by saying yes, their goals are a bit different than ours. They need downforce, but drag reduction is valuable.

These folks have 2 things most of us dont, wind tunnels and money.

Today a car almost failed inspection due to some "modifications" to his bumper.
The judges were running their hands where the bumper curves to meet the fender.

They applied some very thick decals on the break. I'm guessing these work like vortex generators to make the air bend and not seperate from the fender?

They seem to have passed with "OH, thats just our sponsors decal" :angel:

What they wont do for a few thousands per lap !

nose
 

The whole nose,wrapping well back into the fenders is all in a positive pressure regime and flow separation is impossible there,so under these circumstances I don't think that anything like a VG could do them any good.
If the decals covered and cleaned up a gap in the bodywork that might be a plus.
And once in 'traffic' the car will not perform anything like in practice do to the 'dirty ' air all around it.
If they are leading,then cooling system drag and spoiler angles are probably the critical factors,balancing road-holding and cooling between free'd up horsepower.

There goes my theory :)

theory
 

Yogi Berra said" you can see a lot just by looking." And for the $2,000/hour the NASCAR teams are spending on their cars in the wind tunnel,we can't overlook any small thing they're willing to do for that split-second advantage.
So your attention to detail is the kind of thing teams pay big money for.Certainly not a liability!

...just be sure to inform those NASCAR boys that it's called "Basjoo'ing" when they seal-up seams and joints with those Sponsor Decals (ha,ha)!

Noticed these wheels in a car I had the opportunity to run a few laps in.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1...4/IMAG0065.jpg

No, I don't have MPG#s to post. Too busy doing 150 in a circle to plug in the Scangage.

They already started pulsing and gliding a while back. If this keeps up the NASCAR-people are going to start joining the forum soon.

Hey? Weren't the NASCAR guys the original inventors of "drafting"? lol]
Just kidding but that's where I saw it the first time on TV NASCAR races.
If they save fuel and use it to slingshot themselves it has a purpose!
I wonder is there are any stock car racers on here.

I tried finding what was so "aero" about the NASCAR aero rims at one time. I came up with nothing. Seems like they would make a good amount of turbulence.

I think that NASCAR tries to spec a lot of items to reduce the game playing. I "think" I read somewhere that the wheels were spec and tightly controlled. There have been times when one team has taken tires and wheels from an entirely different team when tires were short for some reason.

Much of the body contour is also spec. requiring that they shape pass a template test. There are still a few areas where there are slight openings for innovation. Driving skill, pit strategies, and luck are the huge variables.