Ferrari's underbody work

[E30Nova]

Actually it should still help out. There was someone on a muscle car forum that did this to an early 70's Firebird or Trans-am (not sure exactly) and he said it made the car quieter on the freeway and he got better mpg. I was planning on doing it to the Nova, but out of aluminum just because it's cheaper. Maybe eventually I'd find a place to make it out of ABS.

Matt

[///M42 sport]

I was thinking this could increase efficiency rather than to go fast.

[xwill112x]

i think most people just slam their car and put a s50 with a 2.93diff in it if they wanna go fast.

[SamE30e]

Did they even bother trying to do this on the DTM M3's?

Or was did bmw engineers even think it was a waste of time.

[///M42 sport]

I'm bringing this thread back from the dead. Seems like if you do a underbody panel, you increase the mpg by reducing drag?

I found a interesting site here where they use coroplast, a plastic carboard for underbody panels.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/volvo-850-coroplast-wonder-4093.html

[Low Level E30]

Well you guys have shot me out of the water.
And yes I was thinking of high speed stablity.
i'll be back

We'll be waiting with bated breath :?

[kylebes1]

[Jordan]

FYI.

Enough preimpregnated 1/4inch CF paneling to cover the entire underside of your e30 would far exceed your e30's market value.

[kylebes1]

Well I was thinking mostly about using the panels where the front air dam ends and the front of the front cross member, I think that the later e30s came with a panel there from the factory I guess I could get one of those, and then another from the front of the rear-sub frame to a rear difusser.

[kylebes1]

Well you guys have shot me out of the water.
And yes I was thinking of high speed stablity.
i'll be back

[Nitrox]

Re: Ferrari's underbody work

The air under the car travels at a relatively higher speed than that of the air flowing over the car. This makes the pressure under the car realtively less than that of the top side. this causes the car to "suck" to the road.

unless im mistaken youve got that backwards
an airplanes wings are curved on top to slow the wind going over them so they can produce an upward suction force.
so if you really wanted to you should put dimpled panels like the new lexus (or whatever it is) to slow the air down and creat a low pressure area under your car.

Correct, an aerofoil generally has a larger surface area on the top side to generate additional lift over a flat wing. Since the average car has a similar side profile (flat bottom/curved top) they tend to get 'light' at high speeds. Thus we get into wings (top side) and venturis (underneath) to create downforce.

This is all neat stuff but really next to useless on a street car. Firstly if you are driving at these speeds on public highways you really should be in jail (and lucky to be alive). Secondly, if you are on the track at those speeds you would be really wasting your time modifying an e30 platform.

A lowered stance, a low front airdam, and possibly some lower side skirts would really help keeping air out from under the car and thus generate some downforce. Unfortunately be prepared to lose the bodywork on speedbumps and driveways...

However, unless you have access to a wind tunnel you really dont know what results you're actually going to get.

[NC325iC]

Re: Ferrari's underbody work

The air under the car travels at a relatively higher speed than that of the air flowing over the car. This makes the pressure under the car realtively less than that of the top side. this causes the car to "suck" to the road.

unless im mistaken youve got that backwards
an airplanes wings are curved on top to slow the wind going over them so they can produce an upward suction force.
so if you really wanted to you should put dimpled panels like the new lexus (or whatever it is) to slow the air down and creat a low pressure area under your car.

and im pretty sure in most of the super cars at least the S7 air is channled (i cant spell anything) from under the car upward creating down force

correct me if im wrong

[MattM20]

you could probably gain a nice amount of downforce with a flat underbody, but like others said, the potential of such an idea would go to waste because of the e30's shape. besides, the modena and enzo's aerodynamic efficiency doesnt just come from their underbody design, which isnt completely flat from front to rear. it took hours of wind-tunnel testing to perfect the aerodynamic balance

[nando]

1000+

even cars with lots of horsepower top out around 170, and those are usually 500+hp cars. I think stu said he hit 155, which is moving in our cars!

I don't think it would be a good idea even if you could.

[808BMW]

I would imagine that high speeds 130+ would need to be traveled before such underbody aero would do much

Isn't the whole point of this to achieve stability at those upper speeds?

Also, shot in the dark: How much HP does it take to get a stockish (body wise) e30 to 200 mph?