I am putting on some front air dams on my coupe. I mocked them up. What do you guys think? Note: I am working on the nose upside down so the pictures look funny since I flipped them.
They will be one on either side and will be black. They bolt on to a lip that I created on the backside of the nose. The bottom will be a little thicker than shown and they will be done in fiberglass.
That is exactly what I was thinking, in flexible fenderlip skirting off an SUV. I got to looking around on aerodynamic websites for more info, and wound up on the Bonneville LSR website, and from there, I wound up on this website: Browser Warning
Among the dozens of other websites devoted to aerodynamics, especially on racing cars, I saw a distinctive trend. The air dam needs to drop straight down from the front of the car directly, not under the nose. That way it affects the most air by diverting it up and to the sides, instead of dealing with it already trapped underneath. That is much more like what we've seen on racing sedans and coupes on track courses, a blunt nose that drops to the track surface, with a splitter to help. About the only clearance from the road is what the suspension needs to work.
I'll likely still do what you're doing for the street. If I want to LSR a coupe, it's going to have a lot of other outrageous stuff on it, much less an 850hp blown injected motor. Not so much fun on the street banging an air dam off parking bumpers.
Having driven my wife's van with an extremely low rubber "scraper" under the nose, the flexible rubber has earned some respect. It's survived parking bumpers, etc., where the stiff fiberglass or resin add ons I see on street machines get cracked and damaged. I know I will drive a Coupe the same way, so rubber is a compromise I'm willing to live with for longevity.
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Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car and oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car.
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you.
Seems to me there was a thread a while ago from Mike Redmond about air dams that he fabricated for his coupe. Mike you out there? Matter of fact he kindly sent me a cardboard template. I secured some thick rubber, actually for free when the guy heard what it was for. Had to promise to give him a ride when it was done. Anyways I cut them out, had to use a jigsaw as the rubber was too tough for a knife, and when I get the car back from it's final visit at the body shop I'll add these along with other projects planned for after registration. The rubber seems flexible enough so pavement rashes shouldn' hurt it.
I agree with putting the air dam at the leading edge, but boy, does that detract form the beauty and style of the hood.
According to my son, this car is "sex" on 4 wheels. I'd hate to mess that up. Wow, forgot i'm almost 64.
I guess for a track only, you could put a panel that drops straight down form the radiator opening and "dam-up" the air with a short splitter attached.
I know with my hood fully opened there isn't much space between the hood and the ground =not much of a splitter. But, for a track only car, what the heck. Don't flip the hood but just pin it down?
I may incorporate something like Oxide. Nice design. Maybe if it continued about 1-2 inches below the bottom and somewhat behind the hoods leading edge it just might work fine. I've actually faced up a 1/4 round splitter that would do just that. Pics later.
Jeff
Mike Redmond also sent me a template. I've not used it yet but I like what I see here.
Specifcally what material are you folks considering? And how would you fabricate the splitter?
Mine will be made from fiberglass. It is no lower than the nose, so if I scrape the dams, I will be scraping the nose. I will be blogging the process of making it. You can check out Factory Five Daytona Coupe Custom Build - myCoupe every once and a while.
Agreed, making an air dam that falls off the front straight down would be a big change in the styling. It's something that racing track cars suffer, and then the splitter hanging out there on little adjustable links adds to the mechanical look.
Not something I would do for the street. More likely, a tray under the nose back to the front of the engine would be more productive at typical road speeds. Good point about the eyebrows being no lower than the nose, it could be moot. But like the van, moot happens.
I want to thank Mike Redmond for giving me idea to make air dams.
After seeing this picture, I felt that the car looked better with them on than without.
He was also kind enough to send his template to me and others. I used his as a starting point and then modified it a little.
I am not afraid of hitting them on a curb or anything else, because they are so inline with the wheels, that I would be also dinging the rims. And the bottoms are inline with the bottom of the nose, so I would be damaging that also.
YES - this "before" and "after" comparison is useful to visualize what it will/can look like. Nice! Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by oxide
I want to thank Mike Redmond for giving me idea to make air dams.
After seeing this picture, I felt that the car looked better with them on than without.
He was also kind enough to send his template to me and others. I used his as a starting point and then modified it a little.
I am not afraid of hitting them on a curb or anything else, because they are so inline with the wheels, that I would be also dinging the rims. And the bottoms are inline with the bottom of the nose, so I would be damaging that also.
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I have a flexible air dam that is made from conveyor belt material I use when at the track. It keeps a lot of air from going under the coupe and creates a low pressure zone under the car.
Do you really need one? A front air dam generally creates down force. The trade off for down force is drag, which (of course) slows you down. I thought the design of the Coupe body was to create that near perfect trade off. Does the Coupe shape create lift at speed? I don't have a coupe, so I don't know.
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Dart 427W, Momar 8 Stack EFI, 600'ish hp, TKO, 3.55 TruTrac, Red with Ghost Flames. More fun than should legally be allowed. http://home.comcast.net/~bobcowan035/site/
I have a flexible air dam that is made from conveyor belt material I use when at the track. It keeps a lot of air from going under the coupe and creates a low pressure zone under the car.
Do you really need one? A front air dam generally creates down force. The trade off for down force is drag, which (of course) slows you down. I thought the design of the Coupe body was to create that near perfect trade off. Does the Coupe shape create lift at speed? I don't have a coupe, so I don't know.
Bob,
To me, the area where I installed the air dams looks naked.
Plus, they have learned a lot more about aerodynamics since the coupe was designed, but I was just going for looks.
Yes, that is my car with the Enkei Racing wheels on it. That was my prototype airdam made from plastic garden edging. Once I refined it, I cut it out of conveyor belt material
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