New Member - Corvette owner/Aerodynamics Enthusiast

[supersupereight]

Hello

New to the forum and very interested in whats going on here. I know I seem out of place here, but believe me Vette owners want to improve their gas milage also.. We certainly enjoy aerodynamics and a low CD..

So Im asking you all to accept me to your kingdom and allow me to benefit from your experience.

My 2000 coupe benefits from a 6 sp manaul transmission that allows me to get 24-27 mpg on the highway. Not bad for a big V8 engine built over a decade ago.

I have decided to embark on a sustained effort to improve my MPG..

Mods that are already working are fixed aero non pop up headlights to inprove air flow and reduce weight. I am also actively replacing interior and exterior parts with carbon fiber parts versions to reduce weight. My goal is to shed as much weight as possible.



The next mods in the works are a carbon fiber rear wing and vortex generators to improve airflow over the rear and reduce the eddy affect .


A carbon fiber front splitter and canards placed in such a way to smooth airflow from the front are being incorporated.
The car has been lowered to improve the Cd

I guess Im lucky..The Corvette already has a very slippery shape.
The underside is flat and air moves underneath without any turbulace..

Any ideas or suggestion beyond selling her are appreciated!!

Happy motoring!!

Thanks
marty

[Frank Lee]

Welcome aboard!

I think we pretty much like Vettes here so that's no worry.

I'm fairly certain that your wing proposal is going to hurt more than help.

And vortex generators... there might be some proponents and support for that idea, but IMHO they won't help, especially with your car's rear profile.

[Christ]

The Corvette's rear profile already has a nice streamlined shape, I think... Adding the spoiler is likely going to disrupt that clean exit profile, like Frank says.

I wouldn't do it.

[mcrews]

When I got married in dec of 1986, my SCCA SoloII racing buddie drove down from dallas to san antonio in his new vette ( 86 or 87 but the new -at that time - body). He had been racing a stock 79 mazda rx7 (very bad mpg 14-16 but very quick!!) So he tells me at the reception that he got 26mpg in his new vette....I couldn't believe it!
But I guess there are 2 overdrive gears in the 6 speed??

Anyway welcome.....

[supersupereight]

Originally Posted by mcrews

When I got married in dec of 1986, my SCCA SoloII racing buddie drove down from dallas to san antonio in his new vette ( 86 or 87 but the new -at that time - body). He had been racing a stock 79 mazda rx7 (very bad mpg 14-16 but very quick!!) So he tells me at the reception that he got 26mpg in his new vette....I couldn't believe it!
But I guess there are 2 overdrive gears in the 6 speed??

Anyway welcome.....

Thanks for the welcome..!

Top speed is achived in 5th gear at redline. 6th gear is strictly an overdrive gear for fuel economy. It works great! I also skip shift 1-3-5 or 1-3-4-6 often which helps.

Yea your buddy drove you down in a C4..Cd was probably.34
My C5 has a Cd of .29
When you say New Vette..Do you mean C6?? with the lowest Cd of all corvettes at .28

I hear GM might produce a diesel Vette..lifted from one of there remaining truck divisions.

[Christ]

I'm trying to score an IROC Camaro from a friend that's basically an unreported total loss, so I can swap in a 6.5TD and a 5/6speed at some point. She's not budging on it so far, but I'm gonna keep working on her.

[supersupereight]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Welcome aboard!

I think we pretty much like Vettes here so that's no worry.

I'm fairly certain that your wing proposal is going to hurt more than help.

And vortex generators... there might be some proponents and support for that idea, but IMHO they won't help, especially with your car's rear profile.

Thanks Frank

The wing and vortex gen are in a direct response to me confirming the accumulation of dirt on the 4 rear light wells on the back bumper of the Vette. This tells me that airflow off the back is producing the eddy effect as it rolls past the rear deck and bumper..and not rolling off cleanly.
I took great care to choose a wing that was very light weight, adjustable angle and very flat to produce minimal drag.. The vortex Gen will be place properly to create and airfoil affect and have the high pressure airflow stay closer to the rear glass and increase the affectiveness of that wing

[IMG][/IMG]

I plan on doing some real world testing to determine the overall affects. And plan on taking video at high speeds to confirm my findings

Thank you for your input

Marty

[supersupereight]

Originally Posted by Christ

I'm trying to score an IROC Camaro from a friend that's basically an unreported total loss, so I can swap in a 6.5TD and a 5/6speed at some point. She's not budging on it so far, but I'm gonna keep working on her.

Great Idea!
And who could say no to Christ anyway!!

[Frank Lee]

What you have there is an image of a vortex generator test of some sort. It does not mean the wing is helping the drag coefficient!

Naturally there is dirt on the flat rear surface. As in your image above, the blue area is all turbulence. As you can see the presence of vgs and/or wing do not affect the turbulent zone on the rear i.e. none of that rear surface is or will have attached flow.

Check out the mods and tips up top on the header bar.

[mcrews]

Originally Posted by Christ

I'm trying to score an IROC Camaro from a friend that's basically an unreported total loss, so I can swap in a 6.5TD and a 5/6speed at some point. She's not budging on it so far, but I'm gonna keep working on her.

Wow!
what kinda torgue would that thing have!!!
you could probably regear it and get amazing mileage?