Ferrari's underbody work

[elemental]

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

[Charlie]

You'd get more of a benefit out of a huge aluminum wing on the back than on an underbody venturi system. The fact that the car is a brick would pretty much negate any possible benefit from reducing the undercar turbulence. It's not exactly the undercar turbulence that gives the car aerodynamic issues.

-Charlie

[kylebes1]

Well they smooth the underbody to acheive the great aero. I just figured that the underside of the car is alomost half the surface area and every inch would make a difference.
See a rear wing or a spoiler cause drag to create downforce. the smooth underbody creates downforce, or at least cancels lift, for free, with no drag added, in fact this would reduce drag.

[Avus_325is]

I'm no engineer, but isn't the underside of the car only smooth on extremely aerodynamic cars because of the lift due to airfoil effect (airplane wing). This is no problem on an e30, so spend your money elsewhere.

[kylebes1]

that is true about the front being like a truck. I was also thinking that if you were to creat vents at the rear most part of the hood to allow air to flow freely through the grills and up to the windshield, than that would help the front some would it not?
I am the type where I want my cat to look completely original, or at least factory. Well I was thinking about removing the seal that is at the top of the engine bay that seals the hood and creating the vent I was talking about there. I do not like the idea of hood vents, so this would allow the air to move and no one would ever see that modification.

[nando]

that would help if the E30 overall wasn't shaped like a barn door.. you're going to lose that undercar turbulence, which is fine, but you'll still have a front end that's shaped like a truck. :)

[kylebes1]

IF I can find a place to purcahse carbon fiber panels I would like to design an smooth underbody for my car. I could mock it up with cardboard, then aluminum. and finally CF to make sure that it will work. Aluminum would weigh too much.

[e30Matt]

:roll: You're going to do what?

[kylebes1]

The Ferrari Enzo is, in my opinion, an awesomely enginered and awesome looking car. Most "super-cars" have to have large amounts of downforce, as they should, to keep stable at high speeds. Well the Enzo as well as it's stablemate the Modena has taken the necessity of a huge rear wing and thrown it to the wind. These two cars, along with many other makes, use smooth underbody panels to control the flow of air underneath the car. Instead of having a rear wing the intire car acts as a wing.

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.

Now I have seen front spliters and such but I have yet to see a fully implemented underbody panel system.

Now the idea is simple, the underside of the car should be flat. but to reduce lift the panels must continue on a rising sloop form the front to the back of the car. At point B the hieght off the ground must be higher than point A which is closer to the front of the car.

Well does anyone want to attempt this? I certainly do, but I need to know where to buy carbon fiber in panels about 1/4 inch thick.