Aerodynamic Aids - What a drag, What’s your drag? Options

[chris914]

Have you made changes to your 914 body or are you thinking of it?

Here are a number of computer models comparing different body modifications to the 914 and the effects that they have on the cars aerodynamic drag.

http://www.cassidy-online.com/porsche914/aerodynamic_aids

[chris914]

I will most likely be sponsoring another student group project spring 2008.

FloWorks software is more complete but also takes more to setup.
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/c...osfloworks.html

VisualFoil software is a good basic package
http://www.hanleyinnovations.com/racecarpack.html

Most wind tunnels don’t offer high enough speeds to simulate real word speeds. It’s all about the Reynolds numbers. We have a water tunnel that gives you better Reynolds numbers but still not real world speeds. 100 mph in the tunnel does not equal 100 mph in the real word.

That is why we had the students doing as much testing as they could using our wind tunnel, water tunnel, dye visualization water tunnel, G-Tech meter, and yarn testing to show that the computer analysis would work for the given applications.

The last year’s group looked at as many 914 variations that they could find then came up with several designs of their own. Because there has always been so little information in the 914 community in regards to the overall aerodynamic characteristic of the 914 they have been mostly looking at its drag coefficients. Last years Student Presentation Poster shows what they found. http://www.cassidy-online.com/porsche914/a...aids/index.html

I’m going to have next years group look at the downward effects of the aerodynamics of the 914 and how it performs on larger tracks. Who out there would be willing to have the students come take measurements of their large rear wings in SoCal? I know there is a few out there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) The goal would to be 1st to model what is out there then try to design improvement that would be more efficient. I want them to look at how much downward force do you need to keep the 914 stable at high speeds in a straight and how much force do you need to keep the 914 stuck to the ground when cornering.

[grantsfo]

I will most likely be sponsoring another student group project spring 2008.

FloWorks software is more complete but also takes more to setup.
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/c...osfloworks.html

VisualFoil software is a good basic package
http://www.hanleyinnovations.com/racecarpack.html

Most wind tunnels don’t offer high enough speeds to simulate real word speeds. It’s all about the Reynolds numbers. We have a water tunnel that gives you better Reynolds numbers but still not real world speeds. 100 mph in the tunnel does not equal 100 mph in the real word.

That is why we had the students doing as much testing as they could using our wind tunnel, water tunnel, dye visualization water tunnel, G-Tech meter, and yarn testing to show that the computer analysis would work for the given applications.

The last year’s group looked at as many 914 variations that they could find then came up with several designs of their own. Because there has always been so little information in the 914 community in regards to the overall aerodynamic characteristic of the 914 they have been mostly looking at its drag coefficients. Last years Student Presentation Poster shows what they found. http://www.cassidy-online.com/porsche914/a...aids/index.html

I’m going to have next years group look at the downward effects of the aerodynamics of the 914 and how it performs on larger tracks. Who out there would be willing to have the students come take measurements of their large rear wings in SoCal? I know there is a few out there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) The goal would to be 1st to model what is out there then try to design improvement that would be more efficient. I want them to look at how much downward force do you need to keep the 914 stable at high speeds in a straight and how much force do you need to keep the 914 stuck to the ground when cornering.

Curious did you model any down force calculations for rear mounted wings at 50 MPH?

Also interested if you would want to give somone challenge of seeing what works best for a 914 without a winshield (ginter screen). I'm thinking of mounting a wing on top of my targar bar as I'm not confident a reat mounted wing will be as beneficial as a wing mounted mid ship.

[chris914]

Curious did you model any down force calculations for rear mounted wings at 50 MPH?

Also interested if you would want to give somone challenge of seeing what works best for a 914 without a winshield (ginter screen). I'm thinking of mounting a wing on top of my targar bar as I'm not confident a reat mounted wing will be as beneficial as a wing mounted mid ship.

Not at 50mph. But they did a few big wings.

I added a new bigger picture showing all of the different comparisons.

http://www.cassidy-online.com/porsche914/a...aids/index.html