Wheel Spinners / Floaters for better aero

[nimblemotors]

I've been working on the wheel covers for the Indy One,
and wanted to bring up an idea I have had for covering the wheel wells,
by using essentially 'wheel spinners'. These are wheel covers that have bearings and so spin asynchronous to the wheel.

When the don't spin at all, it looks like the car is 'floating', as the wheels appear to not be spinning at all. So while that is a neat trick, why not use it for a wheel well covering instead?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxe01UGb9G0

[Cd]

I think we spoke about that before on E.M.
Good idea - go for it !

It seems to me that it would be cheaper to simply do a good gap fill around the front wheel and install some smooth hub caps.
I would think the air would skip right over the wheel with minimal turbulence.

Darin ( MetroMPG ) found that a smooth wheel cover and gap fillers worked well enough on his Firefly ( Metro ) to not even consider front wheel skirts/pants/covers/ etc.

I must admit though that I would love to see what you come up with.

[whatmaycome14]

A-B-A it and see if there is an improvement!

[oldtamiyaphile]

I've seen plastic wheel covers on the taxis here that work in a similar way, except they're weighted at the bottom to remain stationary. They carry advertising on them.

[freebeard]

To what point? If the 'hubcap' is symmetrical the cross-section it presents to the air is constant. The only thing that would change is skin friction and while that wouldn't change at 3 and 9 o'clock, the friction generated at 12 and 6 o;clock would trade off.

As soon as you go to an asymmmetric profile, best practice would be to wrap it around the back of the tire into a cycle fender. Would this be on an open [front] wheel, or an enclosed [rear] wheelwell?

[2000mc]

If you're doing a tadpole, why not just set the front wheels to be covered by the widest point of the body?

[nimblemotors]

Symmetrical hubcaps are symmetrical because they aren't spinners.
I would think there is potential gain from not having the hubcaps spin with the tires even if symmetrical. Whether worth the trouble/expense maybe not.
It does open up some possibilities that might not have been thought of,
if nothing else might have some interesting asthetics.

The wheels are covered by the body in the Indy One.

It is the gap that I'm thinking about. There can be more than one wheel tire size, so the gap can't be made real tight.

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

The wheels are covered by the body in the Indy One.

It is the gap that I'm thinking about. There can be more than one wheel tire size, so the gap can't be made real tight.

When you say the wheels are covered by the body, do you mean enclosed - can only see the bottom of the tires/wheels, or like a typical production car's body covers them - not an open wheel vehicle?

[freebeard]

Your brave new future was depicted in Bladerunner.

And presaged by Preston Tucker's Carioca sports car proposal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#Speculation_and_controversy_surroun ding_the_Tucker_Corporation

Edit: Here's an Alex Tremulus design for Tucker I hadn't seen before:


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/315322411380308968/

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

Symmetrical hubcaps are symmetrical because they aren't spinners.
I would think there is potential gain from not having the hubcaps spin with the tires even if symmetrical. Whether worth the trouble/expense maybe not.
It does open up some possibilities that might not have been thought of,
if nothing else might have some interesting asthetics.

The wheels are covered by the body in the Indy One.

It is the gap that I'm thinking about. There can be more than one wheel tire size, so the gap can't be made real tight.

You might do a mock-up and attach it to one of the wheels and then run it through the entire range of wheel flop to see if there's interference anywhere.
If you like what you see,then it's a sure thing.
Basjoos ran the equation backwards for AEROCIVIC,with skirts which respected the front wheels full range of motion.